I guess I did something stupid

I was running a quite nice ZorinOs ultimate on an older MacBook Air 11”, until I got bored :expressionless: waiting for the newest 20.04 LTS Ubuntu so I went to do the do-release-upgrade after enabling it on the config file …

Somehow after some really funny graphic error, where it kinda came only back into terminal mode, I got it to update everything and it came back alive.

Weird to see that the zorin splash screen comes up, after some error messages and then I seem to have landed in an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS world.

Any idea on how to get back without reinstalling (saving home user)?

Might it be smarter to live until ZorinOS 16 is out?

Thanks for any idea - although I think that even @Aravisian won’t be able to find a way…

I did a similar process two years ago. I decided to do a fresh install of zorin os as the least painful fix. I know that is not a solution that most people would choose. But I have done a lot of distro hopping in the past and I am comfortable erasing my OS and data. I have backups and use cloud storage for most stuff. The problem with this solution is that you lose all of your customizations that you made to zorin os and possibly your data files on the local drive. This is possible if your /home folder is on the same partition as the OS, the default option for installing of Zorin, Ubuntu and Elementary OS (the OS I have installed). Btw it is not a stupid thing. It is a good opportunity to gain more knowledge about OS installs and configuration. I learned a lot from doing a similar thing.

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Well said, Andreak.
And sadly, no… You cannot roll this one back without a re-installation. Not only did you replace all your packages, you replaced all your sources to ubuntu, in the process. The Zorin repos were disabled since there is not an available Zorin Focal repo (automated part of the do-release-upgrade process). This means that security fixes and updates for Zorin Apps will no longer be available.

The reason you still see the Zorin Logo on boot is that is the Plymouth theme. Your GDM3 may have turned funny colors with a new logo, though.

You mentioned a graphics error- is that a passing thing or still present?
If that error is a passing thing, I would suggest just waiting for the Zorin 16 release. If it is present - we probably want to troubleshoot that for obvious reasons.
As Andreak said- it is a learning experience :D, but not a destructively painful one and it can come with some benefits, too.
And of course, I have done this one. LOL. Several times, even…
I think it is clear that you went into it fully prepared that it was s risky move. You may need to remember to search any troubleshooting as Ubuntu 20.04 from now on, instead of 18.04. Most of your packages should still work just fine.

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Thanks to both of you and yes I went there knowing that this might break my legs in the process.

The graphics problems went away and I have only some deprecated packages that are now being ignored.
I will rename this one to Zombified - just for fun and wait for the Zorin16 to give it a shot and fix the entire system.

Lets see if I can pull this off :slight_smile: and until now everzthing is working fine.

The only thing bothering me to death is the Bluetooth pain with my Bose QuietComfort II… but that will be dealt with later.

Thanks again to both of you and - it was a long time ago, but I am back a the terminal again AND happy about it.

Have a nice evening