4

I have searched and installed a lot of icon sets, but after a while I was surprised to see how big these packages were and decided to return to the basic set "Lubuntu Box". But I have tried to delete all the big packages that I considered useless from usr/share/icons and from ~/.icons. And something went wrong: a lot of applications are without icon now, like the network tray icon, DeaDBeef, and many others

enter image description here

enter image description here

I have reinstalled lubuntu-artwork-12-10 without result. For some reason "malys-uniblu" is the icon set that still covers a lot of apps that other icon sets do not.

Some of the icons that I have now installed: enter image description here

trying to install elementary and gnome back, i got error

enter image description here

More details on error report:

(Reading database ... 347458 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace elementary-icon-theme 2.7.1-0ubuntu6 (using .../elementary-icon-theme_2.7.1-0ubuntu6_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement elementary-icon-theme ...
gtk-update-icon-cache-3.0: The generated cache was invalid.
WARNING: icon cache generation failed for /usr/share/icons/elementary
Selecting previously unselected package human-icon-theme.
Unpacking human-icon-theme (from .../human-icon-theme_0.36_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package breathe-icon-theme.
Unpacking breathe-icon-theme (from .../breathe-icon-theme_0.51.2_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package gnome-colors-common.
Unpacking gnome-colors-common (from .../gnome-colors-common_5.5.1-1ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package gnome-brave-icon-theme.
Unpacking gnome-brave-icon-theme (from .../gnome-brave-icon-theme_5.5.1-1ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Preparing to replace lubuntu-elementary-icon-theme 0.34 (using .../lubuntu-elementary-icon-theme_0.34_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement lubuntu-elementary-icon-theme ...
Setting up elementary-icon-theme (2.7.1-0ubuntu6) ...
gtk-update-icon-cache-3.0: The generated cache was invalid.
WARNING: icon cache generation failed for /usr/share/icons/elementary
Setting up human-icon-theme (0.36) ...
Setting up breathe-icon-theme (0.51.2) ...
Setting up gnome-colors-common (5.5.1-1ubuntu1) ...
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/debian-swirl.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/gnome-foot.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/ubuntu-logo.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: /etc/alternatives/start-here.svg is dangling; it will be updated with best choice
update-alternatives: using /usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/scalable/places/gnome-colors.svg to provide /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/start-here.svg (start-here.svg) in auto mode
update-alternatives: error: error creating symbolic link `/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/start-here.svg.dpkg-tmp': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing gnome-colors-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-brave-icon-theme:
 gnome-brave-icon-theme depends on gnome-colors-common; however:
  Package gnome-colors-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing gnome-brave-icon-theme (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up lubuntu-elementary-icon-theme (0.34) ...
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              Errors were encountered while processing:
 gnome-colors-common
 gnome-brave-icon-theme
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
Setting up gnome-colors-common (5.5.1-1ubuntu1) ...
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/debian-swirl.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/gnome-foot.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/ubuntu-logo.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: /etc/alternatives/start-here.svg is dangling; it will be updated with best choice
update-alternatives: using /usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/scalable/places/gnome-colors.svg to provide /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/start-here.svg (start-here.svg) in auto mode
update-alternatives: error: error creating symbolic link `/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/start-here.svg.dpkg-tmp': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing gnome-colors-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-brave-icon-theme:
 gnome-brave-icon-theme depends on gnome-colors-common; however:
  Package gnome-colors-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing gnome-brave-icon-theme (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gnome-colors-common
 gnome-brave-icon-theme

Edit after answer advising Clean your cache, then use apt-get install -f and then install Hi Color first : how to clear cache is not clear to me but i did some stuff found on askubuntu here; apt-get install -f gives a lot of errors posted below; but especially: how to install hi colors? i mean they are already installed; removing it first involves removing a huge number off apps; just reinstalling in synaptic gives the errors posted above.

# apt-get install -f 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up gnome-colors-common (5.5.1-1ubuntu1) ...
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/debian-swirl.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/gnome-foot.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/ubuntu-logo.svg (part of link group start-here.svg) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: /etc/alternatives/start-here.svg is dangling; it will be updated with best choice
update-alternatives: using /usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/scalable/places/gnome-colors.svg to provide /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/start-here.svg (start-here.svg) in auto mode
update-alternatives: error: error creating symbolic link `/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places/start-here.svg.dpkg-tmp': No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing gnome-colors-common (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnome-brave-icon-theme:
 gnome-brave-icon-theme depends on gnome-colors-common; however:
  Package gnome-colors-common is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing gnome-brave-icon-theme (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                            Errors were encountered while processing:
 gnome-colors-common
 gnome-brave-icon-theme
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Could I restore my icons?

2
  • was there a happy ending to this story?
    – user25656
    Jun 18, 2013 at 14:54
  • @vasa1 - yes. the accepted answer was edited by me and reflects the steps to solve this. the question is way too long, for it contains different stages of the effort to solve this, as the initial answer didn't work in fact. but it was the necessary base for the rest: using the live cd to restore it all
    – user47206
    Jun 18, 2013 at 21:17

1 Answer 1

3

The Lubuntu icon theme doesn't come with all icons ever made, it inherits elementary, which inherits gnome, which inherits hi-color icons, to make up for the ones it doesn't have.

If you deleted those folders you'll be missing icons.

HiColor for example is a must, this is because it provides a "base" for all icons as you can read from the description of the package hicolor-icon-theme. The Gnome icon theme (gnome-icon-theme) depends on this package, and most GTK icon sets inherit icons from both.

Now this sounds crazy but, might as well just remove all the icons that you have either installed by APT or manually installed. Clean your cache, then use apt-get install -f and then install Hi Color first.


Edit after testing:

If the above doesn't work due to errors mentioned in the edited question, boot from a live cd or usb and copy the folder usr/share/icons (of the cd/usb system). Save it on the desktop folder of your main hdd installation. Then boot normally and replace the folder usr/share/icons (of your main installation) with the folder icons that now should be on your desktop. Then, try reinstalling hicolor-icon-theme, gnome-icon-theme, and elementary-icon-theme in Synaptic Manager (and also other stuff that seemes related to icons and artwork in Lubuntu, just to be sure): that should now work without previous errors. But still the missing icons would not appear, in the sense that they are not applied for the programs in usr/share/applications (and therefore in menus) until these programs are themselves reinstalled.

Reinstalling the program from deb seems to be enough, but this may depend on the program. In Synaptic, at least for some programs, complete removal and re-installation is needed. The situation may vary from case to case: for example, reinstalling DeaDBeef from deb solved it, Brasero was fixed by complete removal and reinstallation, VLC by full reinstallation but only after removing completely and reinstalling vlc-data, etc.

2
  • 2
    @vasa1 Which in turn inherits gnome, which in turn inherits hicolor. Jan 25, 2013 at 2:08
  • @vasa1; i'll stay with a step-by-step reinstallation of each app for now. let's delete comments
    – user47206
    Jan 27, 2013 at 22:27

You must log in to answer this question.