Hmm. Not sure about actually getting the installation fixed right this 
second, but can you make an Ubuntu installation CD and then boot to the 
live Ubuntu and make sure you can access (and hopefully back up) all your 
data? You might want to get all your important stuff backed up before you 
try to fix anything. Worst case scenario, you then reinstall from scratch 
and restore all your data.

Quite likely backing up your homedir would be enough, and then restoring 
it to a fresh installation. All your settings/bookmarks/whatever should be 
in there. As worst case scenarios go, it's a pretty good one.

On Wed, 26 Sep 2012, Kat Toomajian wrote:

> 
> Hi everyone!
> 
> My name is Kat. :) I decided that tonight would be a good night to upgrade
> to Ubuntu 12.04. I have done upgrades solo before, and haven't had any
> issues. The upgrade went fine, right up until the part where I started
> getting a bunch of notifications that said the packets were already
> installed. I thought maybe that was normal, clicked ok, and went on with the
> process.
> 
> When I rebooted, I had no menu bars, no terminal, and no internet
> connection! Nooooooooo! I am in *way* over my head, and I really hope one of
> you fine folks can help me out! I make pretty awesome cookies...
> 
> Help me, Obi-Wan Tclug! You are my only hope!
> 
> Fingers crossed,
> Kat
> 
> (PS: Acer Aspire One, model # ZG5, 1.5 GB RAM. Nothing fancy.)
> 
> 
>


-Yaron

--