Tried to install libglib2.0-0:i386 (wine dependency), and it removed most of the apps and OS

Question

I was trying to install winehq-stable and it gave me an error that it needed some dependencies. The first one I tried to install (libglib2.0-0:i386) removed most of my stuff (well over 100 packages - everything from Skype to x-windows I think)

Now when I do an apt-get upgrade it lists a ton of packages that "are no longer needed"

Most of the system is no longer available (e.g. Applications menu, top bar with date/time, right top icons (network, logout, messages, etc.) and the bottom toolbar also looks totally different.

I haven't rebooted it yet because I'm not sure what will happen if I do. Is there any way to recover?

Answer 1

Thanks All. I tried the suggested fix, but it didn't work. I did find something that seemed to fix what had happened. I used these commands to create a file with all of the packages that had been deleted. Then I ran the file to reinstall them.

echo '#!/bin/bash' > restore
echo sudo apt-get install `grep Remove /var/log/apt/history.log | tail -1 | sed -e 's|Remove: ||g' -e 's|([^)]*)||g' -e 's|:[^ ]* ||g' -e 's|,||g'` >> restore
chmod +x restore 
./restore

I got it here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/738984/how-to-undo-apt-get-autoremove

Answer 2

First of all, try to login with live CD and backup your data in an external drive. Just in case, if this method didn’t work, you can still have your data and reinstall everything!

At the login screen, press CTRL+ALT+F1 to switch to tty1.

Now, type the following commands one by one,

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt clean

sudo apt update --fix-missing

sudo apt install -f

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt upgrade

sudo apt dist-upgrade

Finally, reboot the system using,

sudo reboot

Above instructions are grabbed from here, https://www.ostechnix.com/how-to-fix-broken-ubuntu-os-without-reinstalling-it.