Downgrade instead of upgrade (Reddit instruction failed)

General Help
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1

I was trying to find a way to upgrade to zorin 16 from 15 without going through the hassle of reinstalling everything. So I looked around the interwebs and found this:

Im kinda noobish with Linux. I probably shouldn't have messed with it, but I was impatient and it seemed pretty easy.

I followed these steps, and instead of being upgraded to zorin 16, I have downgraded to... something

The os still functions technically, but it no longer resembles zorin. I think its a generic gnome desktop. Instead of a start menu, it just pulls up the desktop switcher with the search at the bar at the top. Zorin appearance does not work at all. It shows that its installed but nothing happens when I try to open it.

I tried repairing it by using the backup tool, but it said 'backup failed.'

Just wondering if anyone might be able to help me repair zorin to a correctly working state be it 15 or 16(preferrably 16).

2

Hi,

Welcome to the Zorin forum. We will try to do the best what we can to help you.
But I think that you need to do fresh clean install.

Also someone already followed same guide ( which are unofficial ) and only result is breaking your system.

3

As I was afraid, you are the another victim of this bogus upgrade instruction.

We have already tried to help another victim but the conclusion is that the only solution is clean install. Please read this thread carefully and save your personal data in safe place before reinstallation.

And if you ever have a chance, could you please go back to Reddit and warn the other forum members regarding this fake information? We are in no way associated with the Reddit forum.

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4

There is already information from one user :
The O.P.'s post Will Not Upgrade your System, it will only Break It.

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5

Ah good. Thanks for the info.

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6

Reddit is full of false information, be skeptic when reading anything there. There are people out there you wants to do much damage to newbies for the fun of it.

At current point you system is messed up, a Re-install is in order.

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7

This is the one of the reasons I refuse to have an account there.

8

I have posted a warning on Zorin OS Facebook page. But it take some days before it get trough.

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9

Thanks, Storm.
At least we do not have to repeat the help procedure another time. We just have to refer to the thread like this one.
I added (Reddit instruction failed) in each related thread to make it easy to find.

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10

You might try what I posted in the beginning of this thread here:

It's a shot in the dark, not a guaranteed solution.
I am sorry that you are going through this. Like people smashing mailboxes or egging houses, there will always be those that need to sow chaos in the world. Stay vigilant and stay safe.

11

I give up, I'm definitely about to cry, I haven't found anything to solve the problem I'm waiting for a solution from ZORIN, I have been able to read from the SEO that at the moment there has not been an upgrade from the store but that they are thinking about do it I hope it's soon.

12

I understand that you may have concerns about doing a Full Reinstallation.
But more often than not, it is far worse in our fears than it ever is in reality.

This forum is here for a reason and you can use it at will to get help each and every step of the way to ensure a reinstallation goes smooth as we can.

For starters:

On the affected machine, open a terminal and run:

sudo dpkg -l | awk '/^ii/ { print $2 }' >package-list

This will create a list of all packages installed. Now save the package-list that is created in your Home Directory to a spare USB stick.
Read through the package list and note any packages that need a Third Party Repository.
After you reinstall Zorin, on the new installation, plug in the usb stick and move the package-list to your new home folder.
Add any of those noted third party repositories from earlier.
Then, you can reinstall the packages with:

sudo xargs apt-get install -y < package-list

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13

Even there is a upgrade path, it will not fix your installation. Upgrade only works on the functioning installation not on the broken one.

14

Doing clean install is maximum 15 min work. Than you can easily setup your desktop, restore backup etc.
As @FrenchPress said, upgrade can not help you atm.

Clean install is solution. We can guide you trough this if you want

1 Like
15

Hello, after many days of worry, I managed to find a satisfactory solution I do not know if my solution will serve others but it worked out well for me, I did not return to Zorin's environment but I managed to activate the gnome, and well I feel like until it comes out The update version of zorin 16, at the moment I solved my concern and I did not have to lose anything or my system was ruined, thank you all for worrying and trying to solve my problem I thank you, and well my solution was simple, everything starts because I want to update the gnome 40 version but I did everything I could and it did not work for me but I installed a retouching application and touching everywhere I managed to leave my desktop very well. I hope my contribution works for someone and let me know. Thank you

1 Like