the backup is on an external drive. not a thumb drive…18tb hard drive
Then you can use the back up to restore your user but I do not know if you can do that while logged in ‘you’.
Have you used sudo before?
yes I have used sudo before to install programs
That is good. Let me think for a couple minutes.
take your time. you are doing great and I appreciate your assistance
We can do this a couple different ways.
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Create an additional user then reboot and log in as the new user. Use the new user account from the full ‘pretty’ desktop environment to restore your profile.
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Copy the files using sudo which I am not sure would work.
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Boot from the install USB to copy the back up files to your user from the external hard drive, provided you can use the usb and external hard drive at the same time.
about a week ago (maybe less), I made changes to .bashrc via a script to make a fancier terminal. could something in this .bashrc file be causing an issue? if so, can the backup copy replace the current .bashrc file (I believe I have the correct file names)?
Yes, that could very well be the issue. Does you backup include the hidden files, the dot files?
if a new user is created, would this user be able to access the files from m original profile and how would i create a new user? i also have the original install media, if that is a better option. i am to try anything.
how can i tell? there is .bashrc.bak .bash_history .bash_logout .bashrc (i see this will the ls command)
The new user couldn’t directly access your original user files without making some permission changes but the new user could use sudo to open the file manager and then make the changes.
i would have to check my backup file on the external drive to know for sure. i believe it does have the dot files, but, i am not 100% sure. i know i backed up the .ssh and .config folders, but, i did not check after i used it when i switched from zorin to pop a few weeks ago.
Do you have another computer to check you back up to see if the .bash files are saved?
yes i do. i am getting the drive now
I am using a windows machine and I do not see any .bash files in the backup (unless tt won’t show them). if that is the case, I have another machine with Ubuntu installed
I don’t do windows and I cannot remember if windows will show linux hidden files or not.
We can just create an new user (pretty easy to do) and go from there if you want.
I did not understand why people hated windows so much until i actually made the switch to Linux and now I totally understand. sure we can create a user. do you think changing to the backup .bashrc could help or not really?
Yes, it really could be the source of the problem. Were you able to reboot and log in after you made the changes to .bashrc?
Well actually, you show a .bashrc.bak in your home directory now. Use
ls -al .b*
to see the date of the .bashrc.bak . Is the date about when you made the changes?
the .bashrc.bak was made when the script ran so i know it is the one that was there before the change to the current .bashrc. i can make the necessary name changes and reboot to see if the problem is resolved. if not, we can can continue with creating the new user.
Yes, if you can change the current .bashrc to .bashrc.bad then change .bashrc.bak to .bashrc that may fix you up to reboot.
If it works and you get your profile back then one of the first things I would do us either use the GUI to create a new user or open a terminal and do it there.