Add to Wiki page update with instruction to fix ubuntu after installation fuse

[eua1024]

https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/FUSE

Warning: While libfuse2 is OK, do not install the fuse package as of 22.04 or you may break your system

If the fuse package did break your system, you can recover as follows:

1. Go to terminal:
   1.1. After starting Ubuntu, enter the console by pressing Alt+Ctrl+F1. Then log in with your user account.
   1.2. Or boot into the Recovery Mode (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode). Then chose network and root.
2. Execute the command sudo apt purge gdm3 && apt install gdm3 && reboot

[probonopd]

If anyone encounters this situation, please consider to file this as a bug with Ubuntu. Installing fuse should not break your system (but apparently it DOES).

Linked here from https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/FUSE. Thank you very much @eua1024.

[AdityaBiswas321]

Bless you, thanks

[anthonytangente3-collab]

Welcome

[who-else123]

i just reinstalled ubuntu desktop and it worked fine tbh

[dfenerski]

what a save, thanks!

[govindakolli]

I am not able to recover like before after following the above steps.
My Desktop, settings are not recovered as before. So can you suggest any other as I am using Ubuntu 22.04 and installed fuse and Cursor ai 2 days back

[ChahidMarghiche]

same for me. this happened as i installed cursor ai and then installed fuse to execute it. have you found any solution to recover as before ?

[Ararsa-Derese]

This worked for me:

Switch to a Virtual Console (TTY)

Since the GUI isn’t working, switch to a terminal interface:

• Press Ctrl + Alt + F2 (or F3–F6)
• Log in with your username and password

---

Remove fuse from your system

sudo apt remove --purge fuse

Restart the display manager:

sudo systemctl restart gdm    # or lightdm, sddm, etc.

Reconfigure or Reinstall the Display Manager

If the display manager itself is broken:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3   # or lightdm

Or reinstall it:

sudo apt install --reinstall gdm3   # or lightdm

---

Reboot

After making your changes:

sudo reboot

---

If not still not working try the following

Check for a Valid Session File

List files in /usr/share/xsessions/:

ls -l /usr/share/xsessions/

Expected output (for GNOME):

gnome.desktop
ubuntu.desktop

If this directory is empty or missing GNOME:

sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop gnome-session

Check GNOME Session Binary

Check that the GNOME session command exists:

which gnome-session

Expected output:

/usr/bin/gnome-session

If it's missing:

sudo apt install gnome-session

Force Default Session

Try setting GNOME explicitly as the default session:

echo "gnome-session" > ~/.xsession
chmod +x ~/.xsession

Then reboot.

sudo reboot

[eltopo1971]

I had this problem. Your solution appears to be more complicated than it needs to be. Basically installing the "fuse" package in Ubuntu causes "fuse3" to be uninstalled, and then also uninstalls the ubuntu-desktop metapackage. You're warned about this but if you're in the middle of doing something else -- like playing a game or watching an F1 race -- the user can just click through and start the process. All you need to do to regain your desktop is reinstall fuse3, restart, and reinstall ubuntu-desktop. In fact you may just reinstall ubuntu-desktop and it will probably reinstall fuse3, but I'm telling you what I did. I wrote up a blog post about it:

https://clevershark.com/2026/03/a-short-trip-through-dependencies-hell/

I think the bigger problem with appImage is that it looks for a specific file to see if the "fuse" functionality is available, instead of just asking the system whether fuse is available. I know this is what's happening because after I apt-pinned "fuse", if I try to install it, I get this message: "Note, selecting 'fuse3' instead of 'fuse'".

[eltopo1971]

I think that ultimately, for Ubuntu users, it's a better idea to use a tool to convert appImages to a deb package.

[probonopd]

Or just use AppImages that no longer require libfuse to be installed in the system. Like most modern ones.