Ubuntu

problem with Unity

Asked by Bram van Leeuwen

I have a system with Ubuntu 16.04 lts since its introduction in a dual boot system with Windows-10.
After the last update Ubuntu starts up without the dash and all the buttons to start applications. With the R-mouse click I can start a terminal and through that most of the programs.
Also I get a warning at start-up of a problem and I tried to copy that in this box, but Ctrl-C and V do not work now.
The first line looks like:
/usr/XX-86-64-linux-gnu/unity/compiz-config-profile-setter

and I forwarded this report to Canonical.

I have tried several times to start with an older version and I can work normally there, but the problem remains the same when I return to the normal start-up.

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Bram van Leeuwen
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Barry Gurnsey (barryg) said : 		#1

Same problem two weeks ago, tried every fix I could find and nothing worked. Somehow it fixed itself. Then last night during boot, a dialog box about an internal system error and no launcher or menu bar again. Tried all the same fixes including update, PPA from Pablo Miguel, numerous restarts and still no change. Logging in as guest appears normal. I'm at my wits end and open to suggestions.

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Bram van Leeuwen (bramdod) said : 		#2

Apparently we have the same problem.
For this I have no solution (yet).
At startup I can choose: advanced options for ubuntu and then recovery mode. In the next menu I choose the 1e option and ubuntu starts up. It is different from what it used to be but I can reach all programs and data, so I can work.
If I go back to the "normal" startup nothing is changed, but in the terminal I can start libreoffice by typing just that and a sort of explorer asks which document to open. That way I can see that documents made in the recovery mode appear also in the normal mode.
I hope this works for you as well.

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Barry Gurnsey (barryg) said : 		#3

Finally something that worked! ( remove the apostrophes)

Just clearing the cache with 'sudo -r~/.cache' isn't enough and neither is 'sudo apt-get install dconf-tools' and 'dconf reset -f /org/compiz/'

Unity reset doesn't - 'setsid unity' and 'unity --reset-icons'

However this did rebuild the launcher with the default icon set as well as the menu bar and window controls:

'rm -rf ~/.config'
'rm -rf ~/.local'
'sudo reboot'

Hope this helps.

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Bram van Leeuwen (bramdod) said : 		#4

Thanks a lot: it helped!
I had to do the commands you suggested 2-3 times and each time it got better!
I had to "repair" the sidebar a bit, but I think everything is back!

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Barry Gurnsey (barryg) said : 		#5

It also clears all the recent documents history and resets all the menu bar items back to default but appears to be a stable fix. Keeping this handy in case a future update breaks it again.