Ubuntu – Cannot open settings on 18.04

18.04bug-reportingsystem-settings

So I am VERY new to linux (only been using a couple of days) and I'm struggling.

The system settings cannot open (the icon is present and it shows from the menu in the top corner but it just spins it's wheels for a moment when initiated and gives up before opening the window). I also can't shutdown, restart, or sleep. I've found a ton of walkthroughs on how to fix this by going into the system settings, but… Most of what I'm reading to fix accessing the systems settings is going completely over my head and I keep finding myself googling in circles. To make matters worse, the issue keeps corrupting my git repository every couple days.

Is there anyone who would be able to walk my through diagnosing the cause of these issues that can dumb it down back to newbie levels?

I'm on Ubuntu 18.04 (I think Bionic Beaver, sorry I didn't do the initial set up ). I also don't know my laptop's specs aside from it being an Asus. Since I can't access the system settings at the moment I'll need to look that up via the terminal, but I'm not sure how to find the info.

I've been trying to fix this for four days :(.

Best Answer

Try reinstalling gnome-control-center by opening a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type

sudo apt remove --purge gnome-control-center
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt install gnome-control-center