Can't Run Unity After Recent Update Through Update Manager - OpenGL Broken? [closed]

Question

My Problem

I had a stable version of Ubuntu 12.10 running for the last week. I was even able to play games like Dungeon Defenders and XCom: Enemy Unknown through Steam without any problem.

It really seems like OpenGL is messed up for me after this update, but I don't know how to fix it.

Also, for some reason, it does not recognize my internal storage drive anymore, but it still reads my primary SSD and the drives I have attached via USB.

I am able to launch many programs successfully from the terminal, but cannot do anything that requires reasonable graphics such as play videos or launch the linux version of Steam (I cannot even attempt wine because of the Storage drive problem)

What I Did

This morning I ran the built in update manager (I hadn't received any update messages since the initial install). At first, it failed to run because archive.getdeb.net was down, as was dl.google.com/linux. I unchecked the items related to those sites and ran the update manager again. It found a bunch of stuff to install, including kernels, libraries, opengl, wine, etc. and installed them all, then asked me to reboot.

Unfortunately, I had a USB stick plugged in that had an Ubuntu install on it. That launched instead of my regular OS. I did not proceed through the install at all, pulled out the stick, and reset the machine. After the reset, it loads 1 desktop and PSensor, but fails to load Unity.

Note: I had played around a bit with compiz config to change colors, change window open/close/minimize animations, add more virtual desktops, and remove v-sync. This caused no problems for the previous 3 days. I did export the changes to my storage drive, so I'm not opposed to resetting them if that will make a difference, but I don't know how.

Steps I Have Taken

Launching unity through the terminal results in a "Another window manager is already running on screen: 0 error.

Using unity --replace provides the following errors:

X Error of failed request: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
     Major opcode of failed request: 155 (ATIFGLEXTENSION)
     Minor opcode of failed request: 66 ()
     Serial number of failed request: 23
     Current serial number in output stream: 23
Compiz (core) - Info: Unity is not supported by your hardware. Enabling software rendering instead (slow).
compiz (core) - Error: Plugin initScreen failed: opengl
compiz (core) - Error: Failed to start plugin: opengl
compiz (core) - Info: Unloading plugin: opengl
compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: decor
Compiz (opengl) - Fatal: glXQueryExtensionsString is NULL for screen 0
    ^^^this shows up all over the place

I tried resetting back to the xorg drivers for my video card but it still fails with a hardware not supported error.

My machine

(again, it rain fine before the update):

• MSI970A-G46 mobo
• AMD Phenom II x4 965 black edition cpu
• 16 GB DDR 3 RAM
• AMD HD 7770 video card
• 32 GB SSD primary drive for OS
• 500 GB internal drive for storage
• 750 GB external drive via USB for additional storage

Any ideas what I can do?

Answer 1

I have the exact same issue. I don't believe it to be anything to do with the USB stick.

I've found that since a big update that I did when I got back to my flat after the Christmas period, which included a kernel update, unity has disappeared.

It's not like I haven't had this before, AMD drivers have never played that nice with my system, but I was always able to fix it. This time no solution is working. I've purged fglrx, reinstalled the AMD driver (v12.11, beta 11), tried without any drivers, etc.

When all graphic drivers are removed I have unity, but very limited, jerky, graphics not rendering properly. With the latest AMD drivers installed I have no unity, have to launch everything through terminal that I get up with CTRL + ALT + T.

Right now I'm just happy to have found someone else with my problem, can't find anything else online.

If anyone has any new solution please help! My problem and errors seen are almost identical to OP.

Answer 2

good news. I fixed my issue (at least it appears to be sorted).

Try this link that I stumbled across:

http://askubuntu.com/a/218674/119550

Basically none of his post is what I haven't tried before, except the line:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Give it a shot, but I seem to be back on track having followed it.