Update for UbuntuMATE 16.04.6 broke the GUI

[Bret Busby]

On 21/08/2019, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 21/08/2019, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 20 Aug 2019 at 22:27, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> A few hours ago, I performed a system update on one of my UbuntuMATE
>>> 16.04.6 systems, and it has broken the system.
>>>
>>> The panel in the GUI is broken, and the taskbar has been eliminated,
>>> by the update, rendering the GUI unusable.
>>>
>>> Is it possible to reverse the system update?
>>
>> What do you mean by 'system update'?
>>
>
> Running that "Software Updater" thing, and "Install now" for updates
>
>> What does this show
>> sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>>
>
>
> I will have to boot up the system.
>
> Now, the taskbar in UbuntuMATE 18.04, has also been destroyed.
>
> Because of the increasingly malicious behaviour of the version of
> Midori, that is for 18.04, I removed the launcher icon from the panel,
> and, doing that, broke the panel, and, after rebooting, several times,
> to get the panel back, open applications no longer show in the
> taskbar.
>
> The GUI is decomposing, in 16.04 and 18.04.
>
> So, in a few hours or so, I will try to reboot the broken 16.04 system.
>
> It appears safest, to avoid software updates
>

In booting up the 16.04.6 system that no longer has panels, and
switching to a console, upon logging in as me user, the system
displays (in the response to the login)

"
0 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.
"

sudo apt-get update
returns
"
Hit:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:2 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease [109kB]
Hit:3 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu InRelease
Get:4 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease [107kB]
Get:5 http://au.archiveubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64
Packages [1009kB]
Get:6 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [109kB]
Get:7 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main i386
Packages [849kB]
Fetched 2,184 kB in 3s (693kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
"

then, after typing in all of the response above, and preparing to run
the second command, I just realised that it is a double ampersand, and
so, the
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
should have been run as a single line, joint command.

Thence,
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
subsequently returned

"
Hit:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:2 http://au.archive.ubutu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:5 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information...Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 to not upgrade.
"


-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

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