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Being a newcomer to Linux, I have managed to entirely brick my desktop after just 5 months. My OS is Ubuntu 18.04.1, running on an HP Compaq desktop. The problem was originally a login loop, described here, but I don't think I'll be able to find a solution for that now. Thankfully, I made a complete backup of my data and settings before my computer became unusable.

My system is currently this: a 250 GB SSD With Ubuntu installed on it and mounted at /. My /home folder is on a 500 GB HDD with all my data.

Now what I want to do, if possible, is re-install Ubuntu (I still have the DVD ISO) on my 250GB SSD, completely replacing the old copy. I would also like to do that without wiping my 500 GB drive if at all possible. I don't want to use my backup unless absolutely necessary.

I am familiar with the general installation process of Ubuntu, and know there are two ways to go about this. Either use the 'reinstall' option, or use 'custom install'.

Will either of these options accomplish what I want, and if so, which one is better?

Surely someone has run into this before and knows what works best.

Any help is appreciated.

Kaleb
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  • You can install using 'something else' which allows you to select your partitions and a check-box has 'format' or not. This will allow you to use your existing partitions (just be careful you don't have format selected). The installer takes note of your installed software, erases system directories (not user directories) and installs. At completion it installs your originally installed applications (if from Ubuntu repositories). If your problem is somewhere in $HOME (ie. a user config file), since it remains this may not be fixed. It should fix any system directory issues though. – guiverc Mar 05 '19 at 02:59
  • @guiverc Thanks for clarifying that for me. I have one other question. If the problem was somewhere in my $HOME folder, could that be solved by reinstalling somehow too? If so, is there a simple way to go about it? – Kaleb Mar 05 '19 at 03:09
  • If it's something in your $HOME (/home/$USER/) directory, such as a config error, the problem will most likely remain, as the old-software will have been replaced by new software - but the cause will have been untouched & effect the newly installed software in the same manner as the older installation was impacted. It's why release-upgrading fails to solve issues commonly (yet users still hope it will....) A re-install without format usually only improves system configs, databases (eg. apt) which have data stored in system directories.... – guiverc Mar 05 '19 at 03:14
  • If you can create a new user on your existing box, and it's free of the problem - a re-install (without format) will be unlikely to fix the issue, as the issue most likely is in your $HOME directory which will be untouched with something-else & no-format. – guiverc Mar 05 '19 at 03:14
  • Thanks for the tip. I created a new user and can successfully login now on that user. My original user is still stuck in a login loop. What is the next step now? Do I just copy over my home directory and delete the old account? – Kaleb Mar 05 '19 at 03:40
  • I would start copying the config files from the new user to the old user (I'm going this way primarily as it's what I've done in the past which doesn't mean its the best; but you already know that user's imperfect, so damage will be less is my theory). You have to change owner (chown) for the files of course. I do the cp from terminal, and have the user logged out when I do it then test, switching to gui just to test (a login). Files needed may be in ~/.config, ~/.local but hopefully you know what you did before the problem appeared (prior session before issues likely) to know what... – guiverc Mar 05 '19 at 03:51
  • @guiverc Unfortunately, I was never able to find out what exactly caused the problem, though I suspect it might have occurred when I use sudo nautilus once, and it gave me some errors. I know it would be asking a lot, but do you think you could post an answer to this question showing me how to copy the right files over? That would be a huge help to me, since I am very inexperienced with using the Linux command line. – Kaleb Mar 05 '19 at 04:01

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