Eeek, Apt tried to remove lots of packages!

I saw the update icon flash "6 updates" so I just clicked through to install and suddenly I noticed that it was removing a lot of packages mostly from the base system. So I did a``` sudo killall -9 dpkg

sudo dpkg --configure -a

which I did and it cleaned up what it was doing.. However, / was set to have UID 0 and 999 permissions along with other folders and weird changes. I have absolutely no idea what could cause this problem!
I tried reinstalling the programs that were removed prior to killall-ing but that doesn't seem to help :(

I'm currently posting from a live cd since I can't use my installed desktop. Root is the only user that can login since I can't execute any programs with any other user including the shell...


Sooo, any ideas? I'd like to leave reinstalling ubuntu as my "if all else fails" option..
Thanks!

(standard disclamer posted here)---Really at this stage, unless you want to fix a broken system--I would reinstall Jaunty...Is this your only install (please don't say yes)???

Alpha2 is due this coming week & I would wait to do a clean install. My system is tri-boot--currently 2 installs of Jaunty (1 a week back from the other--sync'd once a week--at a "stable time") & 1 Intrepid install for fall-back in case of problems like the one you just had......I know it's more maintain work, but it will "save your a**" when a alpha blows-up on you.

I have redone permissions in broken systems before & in the long-run just reinstalled anyway--my 2 pence worth......

Hmm...I suppose I should reinstall. I just like playing with unstable software so it is my only installation :P Ah well, I need it to be stable for my coursework so I guess I'll install Intrepid over this and then upgrade later.

Thanks for your input.

No problem!!! Really, I would at least dual-boot for fall-back--makes life MUCH easier---are you setting a seperate /home for your installs?

Yeah but won't there be problems if I don't wipe the home partition on reinstall? Oh and I can't dual boot. My dad insists on using Windows so I can only really have one linux distro installed.

No--do not format your /home & that way you save your personal stuff....during install note where the partition for your /home is (this "assumes" you have a separate partition for /home) & do not format it---just tell the installer where it is. If you didn't create a separate partition for /home---make sure you do it next install---I keep a separate /home for all 3 of my installs & sync them as needed.

Reason I have had several harddrives die on me over the years & I REALLY hate loosing my personal stuff--by spreading the info over 3 drives I feel much safer--I also backup to DVD every couple of months just to be on the safe side.

Why don't you get a cheap drive & pop it in to the unit? Really makes life easier also!!!!

The only limit to how many systems you can have installed is hard drive space. I often have 3, 4 or 5 systems to choose from at boot time. This AMD64 has 3 - Jaunty (that I'm in now), Intrepid and Hardy normal 64bit Ubuntu. The P4 has a lot more and is my main safe machine. This has Intrepid, Hardy, Hardy Ubuntu-Studio and Interpid Ubuntu-Studio and Windoze XP - all available at start-up. The P3 with just a 10GB hard drive has two versions of Ubuntu. My laptop has Jaunty, Intrepid and XP.

As for /home, I like to have this on a separate partition. I also have a separate /home partition from the main one for testing so that the test system has far less chance of deleting my personal files.

To return to the point in hand - if you have hard drive space you can have Windows and two Ubuntu systems installed plus home and swap partitions.

durand: you can have two, three or more systems. Dualbooting is not a limitation, you can tripleboot too :P. And that is no limitation either :D.

Yes I know about hard drive space but my point was that I don't use more than one linux distro simply because I would have to install all my programs on all of them to actually make them usable to me and I don't have enough space for 3 x 50GB linuxes. Plus I am too lazy to maintain more than one.

Oh and I reinstalled. Clean system but now I have a lot of work to do getting it back to perfection.