Help please, I ma typing from backup computer but all my critical work and settings are on my main.
Todays dist-upgrade completely crashed my graphical environment.
I know that you lately hate KDE, but that is what it is, and also nvidia.
Before dist-upgrade system was working fine, but today I get weird messages about system halted because compressed data corrupted, so I decided for a dist-upgrade in testing.
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Update 1.
It was too much of a mess, so I decided to reformat my system disk and install stretch stable + backports.
No more testing or sid.
Now trying to get my computer bachk up, fortunately my data is on another disk in same computer.
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Sounds like something else failed, but as you noted, I refuse to treat kde as a production desktop any longer, it's fine as a toy, or maybe an ultra simple environment like a laptop, but they lost my trust.

However, the compression error suggests something else failed.

There's absolutely no need to reinstall gnu/linux just because your desktop failed. I don't hate nvidia, in fact, I consider them, along with intel on the free side, the best solution over a decade, by far, in the non free driver front.
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Several questions:
1. I had to reset password on this forum because I forgot it, I got a system pass in the email but now I need to change to something I can remember, I don't see a link to my account or my profile.
2. I already reformatted and reinstalled stretch, from netinst CD, I really need a stable working environment, and decided on KDE because I am used to it.
I will install package nvidia-driver, since stretch there is no longer need to mess with config files.
If that doesn't work, i will reformat again and install some other desktop, you prefer xfce, right?
I reformat because I don't want to clutter system with left overs from other desktops.
BTW, I am installing desktop environments from the netinst CD itself.
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I'm unclear why you believe that you have to reinstall to have a different desktop, you can have as many desktops as you want in your system, though I'd avoid having all of gnome and kde to avoid bloat.

Desktops are NOT the OS, they are just desktops.

Install xfce, install fluxbox, on login, you can pick one to start.

If you count simple window managers I probably have at least 10 desktops installed on my system, maybe more.

I always have at least 2, fluxbox for emergency recovery issues if a big desktop fails, and my main desktop, xfce in my case.

I think on my dev system I also have gnome and kde, though I never use it. Technically, if you use programs from gnome or kde, most it is installed anyway, though the less you have installed, the better your upgrades tend to go.
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I just thought that to have less bloat, it's better to have just one desktop, so as to have less libraries installed.
I might try to install xfce alongside KDe, since that is the one you prefer, right?
Now another question abut smxi, I accidentally installed virtual machine, which I don't need, I would like to uninstall but cannot find that package, what is name, please?
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smxi uses svmi to install vbox, which downloads the .deb installer directly from oracle.

To find any package:

[code]dpkg -l | grep -i virtualbox
ii virtualbox-5.1 5.1.10-112026~Debian~stretch i386 Oracle VM VirtualBox[/box]
In my case, that's the package name. This is basic debian/ubuntu system maintenance and apt use, nothing advanced new or complex here.
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copied from terminal, yields no results.
Anything wrong with my syntax?
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no, it means you don't have virtual box installed via apt, which means, you haven't installed it using svmi/smxi, or via apt directly.
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I installed it via smxi, now don't know how to uninstall.
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