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I installed the latest gnome3 from webupd8's ppas and somehow borked my system.

while doing a ppa-purge it somehow decided to remove the ubuntu-desktop meta package

now while i'm trying to get back to pure ubuntu, i try this: 

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

and get this:

ubuntu-desktop : Depends: eog but it is not going to be installed
              Depends: gnome-control-center but it is not going to be installed
              Depends: gnome-session but it is not going to be installed
              Depends: nautilus but it is not going to be installed
              Depends: nautilus-sendto but it is not going to be installed
              Depends: unity but it is not going to be installed
              Recommends: gnome-screensaver but it is not going to be installed
              Recommends: libgail-3-common but it is not going to be installed
              Recommends: nautilus-share but it is not going to be installed
              Recommends: totem but it is not going to be installed
              Recommends: totem-mozilla but it is not going to be installed
              Recommends: ubuntuone-client-gnome but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

trying to install any of these results in more held dependencies that will not install.

How do i "Unhold the broken packages" to get back to where nautilus can be installed?

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I have done that before. I messed with it for a couple of days, then finally backed up everything I needed to keep and did a fresh install. – Tim Feb 21 at 1:41
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... Oh noes.... – Thomas Feb 21 at 1:45
Either track each individual package and then in Synaptic downgrade them or just simply reinstall it. – Uri Herrera Feb 21 at 2:11
which is your os natty or oneric? – abcd Feb 21 at 2:25
as I recall WARNING: Attention! If you follow this toturial, you'll break your Unity session. There is no downgrading method for now. You've been warned! Did you see this anywhere before attempting. There is no going backward. BACKUP you data and do a fresh install – blueXrider Feb 21 at 3:34
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I was able to fix it up! Here are my steps:

  1. re-enable extra repos.
  2. ppa-purge those repos and make sure to delete ALL affected packages.
  3. apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
  4. apt-get install ubuntu-desktop gdm

And that should be it. Some of my apps were uninstalled, but all the config data was intact and everything is back to normal now!

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up vote 0 down vote

A fresh install would be more grace-full then downgrading gnome on your current install.

If you do chose to reinstall, 10.04-4 LTS was just released, might be a good choice.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/ubuntu-10-04-4-released/

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really? 10.04 LTS? Are you from the past? – Thomas Feb 28 at 3:27
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