Don't panic if something breaks!

In Ubuntu, you could screw up things if some of the startup files are mangled. I accidently wrote something wrong in the /etc/environment file. (Unlike other Linux implementations, Ubuntu keeps the enviroment settings in the /etc/environment file) This can be a bit of a bother for some utilities that require some settings that are normally kept in the .bash_profile file of the user (That is what I've come to know so far but I guess I need to investigate this further)

Anyway, to cut a long story short; I ended up fouling /etc/enviroment. When I restarted the computer, it gave a scary warning "Your session hardly lasted 10 seconds" and someting more about possibly running out of hard-disk space (which obviously was wrong because it was practically a squeaky clean computer)

After hyperventilating for a while, I managed to calm myself down. Fortunately, I have developed this habit from quite some years... of remembering the last few things exactly. So that just in case something like this happens, you know how to retrace. I know many others who go about doing things in a daze and then cannot undo what they have done. Basically you need to keep a log of activities. Whether you do that in your head or otherwise is your choice.

So I realized that it must be to do with the stuff I wrote in the /etc/enviroment file. It struck me that the Ubuntu 8.1 is actually a live disk. I placed it in the drive and booted from it as if nothing had happened. I could get into the system. I opened up a terminal window. Then I gave a "sudo" command to give myself editing rights (which does not have a password ... because you loaded from the Live CD ... but you have to give the command nevertheless.) Now the hard-disk location had conceptually moved it was now under /media/disk1 or something like that ( In other other computers I can imagine it to be different). So I loaded /media/disk1/etc/environment into the nano editor and removed the offending lines that I had written earlier, and I saved the file.

Now when I rebooted everything was in order