missing menu bar and tool bar

Can you open a terminal for us please (CTRL+ALT+T) and reply with the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a

Also is it possible that your husband upgraded to version 12.04 from an earlier version using the update manager. Depending on which version of Ubuntu you were running the desktop may have changed significantly.

Yesterday, I upgraded to 12.04:

paul@paul-laptop:~$ lsb_release-a; uname -a
lsb_release-a: command not found
Linux paul-laptop 3.2.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 7 16:16:45 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
paul@paul-laptop:~$

lsb_release -a
is not the same as
 lsb_release-a

Note the mising space in your command.

paul@paul-laptop:~$ lsb_release -a; uname -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux paul-laptop 3.2.0-31-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 7 16:16:45 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
paul@paul-laptop:~$

Take a look at the manual. The interface has changed a lot between 10.04 and 12.04. The new desktop is called Unity and does not have a menu bar at the top any more but has been replaced by the dash, a set of icons down the left hand side that can some times dissapear but should reappear if you move your mouse over to them.

The manual can be found here

http://ubuntu-manual.org/

Assumig all is working correctly then you may decide you prefer the new interface, many do but personally I'm not one of them. If you want the old desktop back then try the following, Its not identical to the old desktop but you can install classic mode.

To do this open a terminal by pressing CTRL+ALT+T and enter the following command

sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

Reboot the before you enter your password click on the icon and select "Gnome Clissic", enter your password and you will have a desktop similar to the one in 10.04

If you like the look of the new desktop but find it a little slow then there is also Unity2D. You can select it in the same way as you select "Gnome Classic" except there is nothing to install.

If it's not working as described in the manual however, then there is a problem ask again and we try to help further

ok, so i typed in what you told me to, hit yes i wanted to continue. it did its thing, then i restarted my computer. absolutely nothing was on my screen. nothing on the desktop. i am freaking out now. we had some stuff saved. please help!

OK,

Tell me at what point this goes wrong

You restart your computer and It comes to the login screen.

Next to where you enter your password there is a logo click on this and select "Gnome Classic"

Now enter your password and press enter

At the top of the screen there is a menu with the Ubuntu logo, "Applications" and "Places"

Select "Places" and "Home Folder"

You can now see your files.

Obviously this isn't happening or you wouldn't be asking questions. Knowing exactly where this goes wrong should give us a clue where to look next.

alright, i was able to restart and select gnome classic. but there was no menu on top. everything is back on my desktop, but i still don't have a menu bar or launch menu

OK,

Do you have everything backed up?

If not now would be a good time to do a backup. Your system is not doing what it should do and I'm not sure what the next step is. I'll look into this or maybe someone else can suggest something but just in case we need do a clean reinstall to fix it, now would be a good time to do a backup.

If your backups are in good condition you can ignore the rest of this post otherwise

If you can open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) then we can do a backup.

Do you have an external USB hard drive. If not get one.

In a terminal or the run menu (Alt-F2) enter:

gksu nautilus

this opens the file manager as root Select view hidden files

Copy the "/etc" directory and all users home directories to the drive.

We will then be able to restore your data if we have to reinstall the OS