Accidentally uninstalled everything?

[readre]

Hi,

I may have accidentally uninstalled everything on my Debian (dual boot, currently writing this from the Windows partition).

So this happened:
I really needed glibc version 2.15 for a specific program (and as you know, Debian stable only has up to 2.13), so I followed this guide (http://stackoverflow.com/a/19671443) to make it work. In other words, I:

- stopped the gui
- added sid to /etc/init.d/sources.list
- apt-get update
- and then this command: apt-get -t sid install libc6-amd64 libc6-dev libc6-dbg

It took a while, so I left my computer (and didn't see what it was doing). When I came back and it had finished, I removed the sid line from /etc/init.d/sources.list and rebooted.
It rebooted without the graphical user interface, in pure commandline mode. All my files seem to be intact, but I can't run any program, they're simply not installed. I *can* install programs, but most of the times I lack a number of other uninstalled dependencies. In short, it seems like everything has been uninstalled. I have no idea how this could have happened from the above update.

Is there any way to get back to how it was? And if not, how do I even go from here to reinstall everything?
Thanks!

[1of12]

I really needed glibc version 2.15 for a specific program (and as you know, Debian stable only has up to 2.13), so I followed this guide (http://stackoverflow.com/a/19671443) to make it work

Which is in fact a clusterfuck of terrible advice. You do not mess with your libc unless you want a broken system. At this stage your best bet is to reinstall and don't do this again. If you need a newer glibc then Debian wheezy is not for you.

Installing from the Debian sid repository would actually have installed glibc 2.19

At this point you could try setting your repositories to follow Debian jessie (the next stable release) and perform a dist-upgrade - if possible.

Or install something else more suitable.

[readre]

I really needed glibc version 2.15 for a specific program (and as you know, Debian stable only has up to 2.13), so I followed this guide (http://stackoverflow.com/a/19671443) to make it work

Which is in fact a clusterfuck of terrible advice.

I suspected as much

You do not mess with your libc unless you want a broken system. At this stage your best bet is to reinstall and don't do this again. If you need a newer glibc then Debian wheezy is not for you.

Installing from the Debian sid repository would actually have installed glibc 2.19

At this point you could try setting your repositories to follow Debian jessie (the next stable release) and perform a dist-upgrade - if possible.

Or install something else more suitable.

Okay, I will probably go for jessie then. Is it just a matter of
- changing wheezy to testing in /etc/apt/sources.list
- apt-get update
- apt-get dist-upgrade
?

[Ardouos]

Hi,

I may have accidentally uninstalled everything on my Debian (dual boot, currently writing this from the Windows partition).

I have to be blunt here. It probably was not intentional on your part but lacking knowledge before taking action is no excuse, especially with ignorance and no research done about it. If you browsed this forum, you would've seen plenty of sob stories on how upgrading glibc destroyed their valued systems.

So this happened:
I really needed glibc version 2.15 for a specific program (and as you know, Debian stable only has up to 2.13), so I followed this guide (http://stackoverflow.com/a/19671443) to make it work. In other words, I:

- stopped the gui
- added sid to /etc/init.d/sources.list
- apt-get update
- and then this command: apt-get -t sid install libc6-amd64 libc6-dev libc6-dbg

It took a while, so I left my computer (and didn't see what it was doing). When I came back and it had finished, I removed the sid line from /etc/init.d/sources.list and rebooted.
It rebooted without the graphical user interface, in pure commandline mode. All my files seem to be intact, but I can't run any program, they're simply not installed. I *can* install programs, but most of the times I lack a number of other uninstalled dependencies. In short, it seems like everything has been uninstalled.

Never trust these guides, they are written by imbeciles and obviously never understood how Debian works. Also NEVER change anything you do not fully understand.

I have no idea how this could have happened from the above update.

Because you did no research on the results that would follow. The number 1 rule of Linux (or all OS's even) is never touch or change anything when you do not know the consequences! Because this happens.

Your system is now in a state where it could be fixable. But it would take a lot of time and tedious work to get it back to the way it was (unless you backed up your entire root drive with clonezilla or dd). The quickest and easiest way of resolving this issue is to reinstall Debian and promise yourself and your system that you will never touch the sources.list again until you understand how it and Debian works.

If you want a more up to date glibc then I would recommend waiting for Debian testing to turn stable or use a different distribution like Ubuntu/ Mint/ openSUSE or Fedora.

Is there any way to get back to how it was?

See above

how do I even go from here to reinstall everything?
Thanks!

Install Debian like you have done before and overwrite the root partition with the installer, if you created a separate home partition you will not need to touch it.

[Ardouos]

I suspected as much

Please learn from this, you will being not yourself a favour but other people too.

You do not mess with your libc unless you want a broken system. At this stage your best bet is to reinstall and don't do this again. If you need a newer glibc then Debian wheezy is not for you.

Installing from the Debian sid repository would actually have installed glibc 2.19

At this point you could try setting your repositories to follow Debian jessie (the next stable release) and perform a dist-upgrade - if possible.

Or install something else more suitable.

I
Okay, I will probably go for jessie then. Is it just a matter of
- changing wheezy to testing in /etc/apt/sources.list
- apt-get update
- apt-get dist-upgrade
?

You could do that, but you will still have a half broken system/ uninstalled system. If you want to install testing, either:
Do minimal stable install then upgrade to jessie
or
Download the testing installers from Debians website.

[readre]

Hi,

I may have accidentally uninstalled everything on my Debian (dual boot, currently writing this from the Windows partition).

I have to be blunt here. It seems pretty intentional to me, especially with ignorance and no research done about it. If you browsed this forum, you would've seen plenty of sob stories on how upgrading glibc destroyed their valued systems.

So this happened:
I really needed glibc version 2.15 for a specific program (and as you know, Debian stable only has up to 2.13), so I followed this guide (http://stackoverflow.com/a/19671443) to make it work. In other words, I:

- stopped the gui
- added sid to /etc/init.d/sources.list
- apt-get update
- and then this command: apt-get -t sid install libc6-amd64 libc6-dev libc6-dbg

It took a while, so I left my computer (and didn't see what it was doing). When I came back and it had finished, I removed the sid line from /etc/init.d/sources.list and rebooted.
It rebooted without the graphical user interface, in pure commandline mode. All my files seem to be intact, but I can't run any program, they're simply not installed. I *can* install programs, but most of the times I lack a number of other uninstalled dependencies. In short, it seems like everything has been uninstalled.

Never trust these guides, they are written by imbeciles and obviously never understood how Debian works. Also NEVER change anything you do not fully understand.

I have no idea how this could have happened from the above update.

Because you did no research on the results that would follow. The number 1 rule of Linux (or all OS's even) is never touch or change anything when you do not know the consequences! Because this happens.

I think my punishment speaks for itself here! I guarantee it was not intentional, some people are just that stupid

Your system is now in a state where it could be fixable. But it would take a lot of time and tedious work to get it back to the way it was (unless you backed up your entire root drive with clonezilla or dd). The quickest and easiest way of resolving this issue is to reinstall Debian and promise yourself and your system that you will never touch the sources.list again until you understand how it and Debian works.

If you want a more up to date glibc then I would recommend waiting for Debian testing to turn stable or use a different distribution like Ubuntu/ Mint/ openSUSE or Fedora.

Is there any way to get back to how it was?

See above

how do I even go from here to reinstall everything?
Thanks!

Install Debian like you have done before and overwrite the root partition with the installer, if you created a separate home partition you will not need to touch it.

Okay. Feel free to refer to this thread if someone asks how to update glibc on Wheezy

[readre]

I suspected as much

Please learn from this, you will being not yourself a favour but other people too.

Yes, perhaps I can save some other poor soul at some point ...

You do not mess with your libc unless you want a broken system. At this stage your best bet is to reinstall and don't do this again. If you need a newer glibc then Debian wheezy is not for you.

Installing from the Debian sid repository would actually have installed glibc 2.19

At this point you could try setting your repositories to follow Debian jessie (the next stable release) and perform a dist-upgrade - if possible.

Or install something else more suitable.

I
Okay, I will probably go for jessie then. Is it just a matter of
- changing wheezy to testing in /etc/apt/sources.list
- apt-get update
- apt-get dist-upgrade
?

You could do that, but you will still have a half broken system/ uninstalled system. If you want to install testing, either:
Do minimal stable install then upgrade to jessie
or
Download the testing installers from Debians website.

Well, that's my only option (besides getting sid!) if I want to have glibc 2.15+ on Debian, right?

[stevepusser]

Well, that's my only option (besides getting sid!) if I want to have glibc 2.15+ on Debian, right?

Nope, see the backport below. Nobody has reported any damage to their system using it.

Which program needed the newer libc6? There are workarounds for some to work with Wheezy, notably Steam.

Also, a backported libc6 is safe to use, not an upstream one, several users here reported success with the one I did for the Wheezy-based MEPIS 12. See this thread:

http://forum.mepiscommunity.org/viewtop ... 88&t=37022

Steve (thinking of backporting Jessie's libc6 2.19)

Here's a guide to avoiding other common ways that users break Debian stable: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

[readre]

Well, that's my only option (besides getting sid!) if I want to have glibc 2.15+ on Debian, right?

Nope, see the backport below. Nobody has reported any damage to their system using it.

I'm a bit wary of taking advice from stranger on the internet, you understand ...
Just kidding, I'm going to think about whether I should install a completely new system or what.

Which program needed the newer libc6? There are workarounds for some to work with Wheezy, notably Steam.

Nothing exciting I'm afraid. It's an open source programming library. The best workaround would be to, well, use another one, but that's not really my decision at this point.

Also, a backported libc6 is safe to use, not an upstream one, several users here reported success with the one I did for the Wheezy-based MEPIS 12. See this thread:

http://forum.mepiscommunity.org/viewtop ... 88&t=37022

Steve (thinking of backporting Jessie's libc6 2.19)

Here's a guide to avoiding other common ways that users break Debian stable: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

Thanks for the link!

[stevepusser]

There's also the possibilty of backporting the library in question so it does work on Wheezy, as long as it does not depend on something like a newer GTK 3 or KDE than is available in Wheezy. If built against Wheezy's libc6, then it will work with Wheezy's libc6. That's the whole point of backporting. Is it in a Debian or Ubuntu repository someplace?

[dasein]

Feel free to refer to this thread if someone asks how to update glibc on Wheezy
[snip]
Yes, perhaps I can save some other poor soul at some point ...

The thing is that the poor souls (you, for instance) wouldn't bother to read it "if" it existed--because it does.

Not only are there dozens of existing threads on this exact topic, but there's even an existing thread (created by me) that collects all those cautionary examples into a single place. I've just added your story to the list of examples, for all the good it will do.

The problem is not lack of information. The problem is people who are too lazy or impatient to read.

[readre]

There's also the possibilty of backporting the library in question so it does work on Wheezy, as long as it does not depend on something like a newer GTK 3 or KDE than is available in Wheezy. If built against Wheezy's libc6, then it will work with Wheezy's libc6. That's the whole point of backporting. Is it in a Debian or Ubuntu repository someplace?

I don't know which part of it uses libc6, it just failed due to not being able to locate GLIBC version 2.15.
It is this one: https://packages.qa.debian.org/o/opencv.html
(I need 2.4.9, which it *does* say is for Debian testing)

[readre]

Feel free to refer to this thread if someone asks how to update glibc on Wheezy
[snip]
Yes, perhaps I can save some other poor soul at some point ...

The thing is that the poor souls (you, for instance) wouldn't bother to read it "if" it existed--because it does.

Not only are there dozens of existing threads on this exact topic, but there's even an existing thread (created by me) that collects all those cautionary examples into a single place. I've just added your story to the list of examples, for all the good it will do.

The problem is not lack of information. The problem is people who are too lazy or impatient to read.

No doubt, people will always try to find the fastest solution; especially if others report it to be working.

I was thinking more along the lines of "if I hear someone mention this in passing, I will dramatically yell 'nooooo' and tackle them to the ground".

Edit: I just looked through your thread and saw your link to mine:

"If only there were information warning people not to do this!!": viewtopic.php?f=10&t=120632

That's not really fair, is it? I've not complained about lacking information. I simply asked if I could do something about it and received good and informational answers. I admitted I was being stupid.

[stevepusser]

OK. I remember doing a successful test backport of openCV 2.4.9 to Wheezy, so it should not be difficult. When you rebuild from the source code, the Debian build system automatically checks for the minimum version of libc6 needed, so a backport would only require the Wheezy libc6. Do you need i386 or amd64 packages? Or you could try it yourself: https://wiki.debian.org/SimpleBackportCreation

Note: Some packages take a lot more tweaking to create a successful backport!

[readre]

OK. I remember doing a successful test backport of openCV 2.4.9 to Wheezy, so it should not be difficult. When you rebuild from the source code, the Debian build system automatically checks for the minimum version of libc6 needed, so a backport would only require the Wheezy libc6. Do you need i386 or amd64 packages? Or you could try it yourself: https://wiki.debian.org/SimpleBackportCreation

Note: Some packages take a lot more tweaking to create a successful backport!

Thanks, I'll read the page.
It might not be difficult to do for the people who frequent these forums, but as a person who just wiped their system, I'm currently not feeling too confident in my abilities.

Right now, I'll focus on getting my system up and running, I'll try to solve the original problem afterwards. Thanks again!