Terminal does not start; how to fix it?

Question

When I try to start the Terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal), it does not start. I get a "Starting Terminal" entry in the taskbar. After a few seconds, it goes away. No terminal appears. (Other applications launch correctly.)

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04, and connecting via Remote Desktop. (On the client, I'm using Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection for Mac; on the server, sesman.)

I've checked the following log files, but no messages appear: debug, messages, sesman.log, syslog, and user.log.

ps ax | grep -i term does not list the terminal -- not even when the taskbar shows "Starting Terminal". (I can still get a command line by sssh'ing in.)

What should I do? I'm at a loss about how to diagnose and fix the problem.

Update

Thanks for all the good suggestions. When I launch gnome-terminal from xterm, I get the error below. I'm not sure what to do about the error, though.

gnome-terminal: /build/buildd/cairo-1.10.2/src/cairo-image-surface.c:1320: _pixel_to_solid: Assertion `!"reached"' failed.

As for other terminals, I get the same error message when I run Byobu Terminal. And guake didn't install properly from the Software Centre (fixing guake seems beyond the scope of this question). However, xterm runs OK.

Also, I checked my .bashrc file, and it seems fine.

What should I do now? I'd rather not use xterm as my primary terminal.

Update 2

Forgot to check the Google before posting...

This is apparently a known issue. The solution is to turn on a desktop background.

Answer 1

Try starting the terminal manually, e.g. from xterm and see what the output is.

Press Alt+F2 and then enter "xterm" to get an xterm.

There, simply type "gnome-terminal" to try to start the terminal.

Answer 2

See if there is anything bad in your .bashrc file. That could make the terminal not work. It's a script that runs everytime you launch the terminal, and there is usually a seperate one that gets run when you log in with ssh.