How to restore xserver?
Method : 1
One easy way to reinstall the X server is to:
Restart the PC with the live ubuntu disk. Choose safe graphics mode. Open a terminal cd to /etc/X11 cp xorg.conf to /media/usbdrive open gftp upload the xorg.conf file to a server restart PC without the live disk ctrl-alt-f1 login cd /etc/X11 sudo rm xorg.conf then wget www.yourserver/xorg.conf startx
You will be able to start X without a hitch because the live cd in safe graphics mode automatically determined your X settings.
Method : 2
If you just need working configuration, not the whole Xserver?
then,
backup your /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and do
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
Method : 3
If you really need to reinstall whole Xserver, try
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg
Enjoy!
it turns out there was some issue with my nvidia-current running the following command managed to get me back to non-accelerated gui, where I was then able to reinstall nvidia-current through the gui.
From the terminal:
sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*
Then reinstalled nvidia driver through Ubuntu setup.
This actually worked for me.
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
Some of my nvidia drivers were not up to date. I didn't know there were more than one nvidia driver to update.