Wingpanel changed from eOS to Ubuntu

Question

I was having an issue where my wingpanel had disappeared, and in trying to solve it I did the following:

killall wingpanel
sudo apt-get purge wingpanel
sudo apt-get install wingpanel

and

sudo apt-get purge indicator-synapse

and then rebooted my computer.

Now my wingpanel is back, but rather than having the eOS theme and layout it has the GNOME theme (pictured below). When I try wingpanel or killall wingpanel, the commands execute but nothing happens.

Another issue that arose is that plank does not open on startup, but it is able to startup from the terminal.

Any input on how to change my wingpanel back to the default eOS theme, and how to have plank open on startup is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

When you run commands in apt to add or remove software, it's critical that you pay attention to what is getting changed when it runs. I just checked apt purge wingpanel and it removes Pantheon among other things. Pantheon is the desktop environment of elementary OS. So, that's definitely a red flag.

You're going to need to (at the very least) reinstall Pantheon and the other removed software.

sudo apt install pantheon-shell* pantheon-xsession-settings* wingpanel* and then reboot.

You will likely need to select "Pantheon" at the login screen with the cog/gear icon as well.

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For future reference, do not apt purge and apt install packages to reinstall them. You can use apt install --reinstall wingpanel to achieve the proper results without stripping the package and its dependencies out.