After running an update on Monday, on a Kubuntu 12.04 box, I've lost the option to select KDE in the login screen (there was a message that read approximately "option kde* has been removed"). Only "Default" and "Failsafe" remained. Using "Default" resulted in a black screen with only the KDE-style mouse cursor visible, using "Failsafe" brought me back to the login screen.
In the meantime, I've installed unity (and gdm
along with it). I then attempted
sudo dpkg --reconfigure kdm
but that only brought back the KDE login screen (with additional GNOME/Unity session options). It looks like either some KDE package got uninstalled, or some configuration has been corrupted. Regarding the former:
$ dpkg --get-selections | grep kde
apport-kde install
apturl-kde install
firefox-kde-support install
gdebi-kde install
jockey-kde install
kde-baseapps-bin install
kde-baseapps-data install
kde-config-gtk install
kde-config-touchpad install
kde-runtime install
kde-runtime-data install
kde-style-oxygen install
kde-wallpapers-default install
kde-window-manager install
kde-window-manager-common install
kde-workspace-bin deinstall
kde-workspace-data install
kde-workspace-kgreet-plugins install
kde-zeroconf install
kdebase-bin install
kdebase-runtime install
kdebase-runtime-data deinstall
kdebase-workspace-bin deinstall
kdebase-workspace-data deinstall
kdegames-card-data install
kdegraphics-libs-data install
kdegraphics-mobipocket install
kdegraphics-strigi-analyzer install
kdegraphics-strigi-plugins install
kdegraphics-thumbnailers install
kdelibs-bin install
kdelibs5-data install
kdelibs5-plugins install
kdemultimedia-kio-plugins install
kdenetwork-filesharing install
kdepasswd install
kdepim-groupware deinstall
kdepim-kresources install
kdepim-runtime install
kdepim-strigi-plugins install
kdepimlibs-kio-plugins install
kdesudo install
kdewallpapers install
language-pack-kde-en install
language-pack-kde-en-base install
language-selector-kde install
libakonadi-kde4 install
libdebconf-kde0 install
libkde3support4 install
libkdeclarative5 install
libkdecorations4 install
libkdecore5 install
libkdegames5 deinstall
libkdegames5a install
libkdepim4 install
libkdepimdbusinterfaces4 install
libkdesu5 install
libkdeui5 install
libkdewebkit5 install
libreoffice-kde install
polkit-kde-1 install
python-kde4 install
software-properties-kde install
system-config-printer-kde install
update-manager-kde install
usb-creator-kde install
xsettings-kde install
I think some packages may be missing, but I'm not sure, and I don't want to experiment in fear of losing my KDE-specific configuration and/or making things worse.
In that vein: How can I restore the KDE option on login without losing my configuration?