Gnome Terminal – How to Fix Gnome Terminal Not Starting

16.04gnomegnome-terminalpython

I just tried to install python 3.6 on my Ubuntu 16.04 system, and now I can't run the terminal from the launcher or from Ctrl + Alt + T. I tried to run gnome-terminal from XTerm and got the following message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gnome-terminal", line 9, in <module>
    from gi.repository import GLib, Gio
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 42, in <module>
    from . import _gi
ImportError: cannot import name '_gi'
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 63, in apport_excepthook
    from apport.fileutils import likely_packaged, get_recent_crashes
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from apport.report import Report
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 30, in <module>
    import apport.fileutils
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/fileutils.py", line 23, in <module>
    from apport.packaging_impl import impl as packaging
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/packaging_impl.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt_pkg
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'apt_pkg'

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gnome-terminal", line 9, in <module>
    from gi.repository import GLib, Gio
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 42, in <module>
    from . import _gi
ImportError: cannot import name '_gi'

How can I fix this error?

It should also be noted that:

My gnome-terminal file is now a python script.
The gnome-terminal.real file will open the terminal as expected.
python3.5 gnome-terminal will open the terminal as expected.

Best Answer

Probably the symlink /usr/bin/python3 points to python3.6, which it should not. Fix it by running these commands:

sudo rm /usr/bin/python3
sudo ln -s python3.5 /usr/bin/python3

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PlayOnLinux – PlayOnLinux Won’t Start on Ubuntu 16.04

For anyone else who had this issue, here's your solution..

If you try to run playonlinux and recieve this error:

ImportError: No module named wxversion
failed tests 
Please install python before trying to run this program

Edit this file:

/usr/share/playonlinux/bash/find_python

And change the following from:

            next_python "python"
            next_python "python2.7"
            next_python "python2.6"
            next_python "python2"
            next_python "none"

to:

            next_python "/usr/bin/python" #<<This line was added
            next_python "python"
            next_python "python2.7"
            next_python "python2.6"
            next_python "python2"
            next_python "none"

And that's it!

Ubuntu – 18.04–GnomeTerminal won’t start

Before issuing above like commands always keep notes on what the release was prior ... so before issuing this

sudo rm /usr/bin/python3

you should make a note of what release is the default by issuing

python3 --version

which on ubuntu 18.10 shows

Python 3.6.7

now you need to investigate what a bog standard 18.04 was using and put it back ... without knowing that you can see what python releases your box has by issuing

which python
which python3

which could say things like

python3 is hashed (/usr/bin/python3)

so cd into that dir and view its siblings as per

cd /usr/bin/

ls -la | grep python

for me on 18.10 its showing

lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           26 Jul 23 08:39 dh_pypy -> ../share/dh-python/dh_pypy
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root         1056 Jun  7  2018 dh_python2
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           29 Jul 23 08:39 dh_python3 -> ../share/dh-python/dh_python3
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root            7 Sep 23 14:14 fail2ban-python -> python3
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           23 Oct  2 18:12 pdb2.7 -> ../lib/python2.7/pdb.py
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           23 Oct 22 07:32 pdb3.6 -> ../lib/python3.6/pdb.py
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           31 Oct 25 07:11 py3versions -> ../share/python3/py3versions.py
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root          378 Aug 28 16:17 pybabel-python2
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           26 Jul 23 08:39 pybuild -> ../share/dh-python/pybuild
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root            7 Jun  7  2018 python -> python2
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root            9 Jun  7  2018 python2 -> python2.7
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root      3690840 Oct  2 18:12 python2.7
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           33 Oct  2 18:12 python2.7-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python2.7-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           16 Jun  7  2018 python2-config -> python2.7-config
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root          154 Sep 20 05:50 python2-pbr
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root            9 Oct 25 07:11 python3 -> python3.6
-rwxr-xr-x  2 root root      4534680 Oct 22 07:32 python3.6
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           33 Oct 22 07:32 python3.6-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.6-config
-rwxr-xr-x  2 root root      4534680 Oct 22 07:32 python3.6m
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           34 Oct 22 07:32 python3.6m-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.6m-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           16 Oct 25 07:11 python3-config -> python3.6-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           10 Oct 25 07:11 python3m -> python3.6m
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           17 Oct 25 07:11 python3m-config -> python3.6m-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           14 Jun  7  2018 python-config -> python2-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           29 Jun  7  2018 pyversions -> ../share/python/pyversions.py
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root         2971 Oct  2 18:12 x86_64-linux-gnu-python2.7-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           33 Jun  7  2018 x86_64-linux-gnu-python2-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python2.7-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           34 Oct 22 07:32 x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.6-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.6m-config
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root         3283 Oct 22 07:32 x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.6m-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           33 Oct 25 07:11 x86_64-linux-gnu-python3-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.6-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           34 Oct 25 07:11 x86_64-linux-gnu-python3m-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python3.6m-config
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root           31 Jun  7  2018 x86_64-linux-gnu-python-config -> x86_64-linux-gnu-python2-config

for you you may see other python versions ...

Looks like 18.04 wants python3 to be 3.6.7 ... so issue

sudo update-alternatives --config python

and it should give you option to choose 3.6.7

Best Answer

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