My ubuntu opens up in terminal and I want to open it using the GUI

Asked by Manny Inwang

Every time I run my environment it takes me to the terminal
The version is 20.04.3 LTS

Also when I try to run apt update I get the failed to fetch errors.

I have tried starting lighdm but it tells me not found the same with gnome

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Manny Inwang (mbinwang) said :
#1

I also get errors such as
"Failed to fetch (URL> temporary failure resolving <url>"
"Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored or old ones used instead"

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said (last edit ):
#2

Is this a new installation, where the graphical user interface did never work, or has the GUI already worked in the past but has stopped working?

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Manny Inwang (mbinwang) said :
#3

Hello Manfred,

The GUI had worked in the past as early as yesterday. This morning opened up the VM and straight to the CLI

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#4

Try:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

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Manny Inwang (mbinwang) said (last edit ):
#5

I got the error package 'lightdm' is not installed and no information is available
Trying to install 'lightdm' gives the errors stated in entry 1.

It seems the machine cannot reach the endpoints which is weird

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#6

OK if you run:

dpkg -l | egrep 'dm|slim'

Should show you the display manager (gdm, kdm, lightdm, slim etc)

Then restart that. If nothing looks likely then run:

sudo apt install lightdm

Once setup then reboot

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Manny Inwang (mbinwang) said :
#7

I just tried the commands and got the following responses:
" no packages found matching egrep"
"no packages found matching dm|slim

Also when I run sudo apt install lightdm I get the errors:
"Failed to fetch (URL> temporary failure resolving <url>"

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I-Cat (i-cat) said :
#8

Sounds like you installed the server edition by mistake.
Try reinstalling with the correct edition.
Usally found at
https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

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Manny Inwang (mbinwang) said :
#9

It was working before and I don't know if it is an update that caused this.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#10

You mentioned "VM" in your comment #3

Is this a virtual system? If yes, what virtualization software are you using, and which operating systems are host and guest?

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Manny Inwang (mbinwang) said :
#11

I am using VM Workstation 15
The host operating system is windows 11 and the guest is Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS.

The guest OS was working well up till when I created the case. Does Ubuntu have a safe mode that it runs which leads to the terminal?

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#12

"Does Ubuntu have a safe mode that it runs which leads to the terminal?"

When you start an Ubuntu system, the in the first step the bootloader is started (for Ubuntu systems nowadays usually the grub2 boot loader). Depending on your configuration grub either directly boots into Ubuntu, or you see a menu first, and that menu offers "normal boot" and "advanced mode" which in turn offers different options, one of them being a terminal mode.

If you have configured you system to skip the grub menu, you can still call that menu by hitting the left shift key early during booting.

The case that you do not have network connection in Ubuntu may indicate an error in the configuration of the VM.

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