Deleted Kernel and Video Drivers

I guess I should be taking extra care when I am doing multi-tasking. I was casually cleaning up the old kernel images of my Ubuntu install, and I realized that I had removed all the kernel. I still had my OS up and running, and in working condition and from my experience, it can go on theoretically for ever as long as there is power supply.

But, I was anxious to restore, and quickly serched for the Kernel MetaPackages. Quoting:

These metapackages install the latest linux kernel and modules through a series of dependencies. These make upgrading the kernel much easier, and safer, since they ensure that all required modules and headers are also installed.

• linux-generic: Always depends on the latest generic Linux kernel available.
• linux-headers-generic: This package always depends on the latest generic kernel headers available.
• linux-image-generic: This package always depends on the latest generic kernel image available.
• linux-restricted-modules-generic: This package always depends on the latest restricted modules available for generic kernels.

So I fired up Synaptic Package Manager and installed those packages. To ensure everything was working, I rebooted.

Next login, I was greeted with a command line.

Snooping around, I found out that my nVidia drivers had gotten uninstalled and it was not able to start the X session.

It took a bit more snooping around in the command line. Brought back some memories - I know, it sounds geeky.

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package nvidia-glx is a virtual package provided by:
nvidia-glx-96 96.43.09-0ubuntu1
nvidia-glx-180 180.11-0ubuntu1~intrepid1
nvidia-glx-177 177.82-0ubuntu0.1
nvidia-glx-71 71.86.04-0ubuntu10
nvidia-glx-173 173.14.12-1-0ubuntu4
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package nvidia-glx has no installation candidate

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-180 nvidia-kernel-common

That installed the video drivers. A startx would not start the X session. So another boot, and I was back to normal.

Fun times.