Can only log-in through shell/terminal after doing dist-upgrade on ubuntu 12.04, can only connect to internet using phone modem through bluetooth PAN

Question

I have 2 desktop environments installed, i'm using the x-swat version of nvidia drivers which also got upgraded after doing "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade". Now i can only log-in using the terminal. tried "sudo service lightdm restart", that command seemed to work but gets stuck at the "*checking battery state".

to make matters worse, i can only connect to the internet by tethering my laptop with/to my android phone (sony ericsson xperia arc lt15i) and i don't know what commands to use to do same using the terminal so any solution that would require a working internet connection just makes me think that it would probably be easier just to reinstall OS and just stick to the nouveau drivers.

I have been an ubuntu user for quite some time now (since 9.04) but I must admit that i am still a noob when it comes to terminal commands.

i miss the penguin, help me!

Answer 1

Just happened to me on 12.04: interrupted an upgrade, afterwards, all uses just get a repeated greeter screen. Ctrl-Alt-F1 allowed me to login to a virtual terminal. Found no X errors in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, but in my home directory, found a .xsession-errors file with an odd complaint about a missing = sign on line 362 of a .c file. Traced this down to a bad openssl.cnf file. The one in /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf was fine, but the link in /usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf was no longer a link but a binary file. Deleted the binary file, replaced the link, and things worked again.