error creating the child process for this terminal

[Siggy Brentrup]

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 14:09 +0300, sam R wrote:
> The problem started when upgraded my OS from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04.
> 
> 
> 
>  1- When I launch Terminal window I get this message and can't type
> anything.
> 
> “There was an error creating the child process for this terminal”
> 
> 
>  2- when I try to update any package through *Update Manager *I get this
> message
> 
> “Error failed to fork pty”
> 
> 
>  Now, since Ubuntu doesn't allow you to sign-in as root from the start-up
> GUI window, I'm having a problem modifying files to fix the* Terminal and
> Update Manager errors.*

Those two most probably are the same error, the 2nd message uses a
more technical wording.  Since you can't open a terminal, use
Ctrl-Alt-F1 to see a login prompt on the bare tty.  Login as normal
user and use
  sudo aptitude -i
to see if there are broken packages. man aptitude is a fine reading
to continue.

HTH
  Siggy
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