I'm new to Ubuntu, and had some trouble installing desktop (installer kept freezing up). I was able to install using the Ubuntu Server installation package (64 bit), and added ubuntu-desktop
and the appropriate nvidia drivers for my GT240 video card afterwards using apt-get
. When the system boots, the Unity login prompt comes up and I can login, but the sidebar and other unity chrome doesn't appear (it's just the desktop background). If I right-click, I can get the appropriate context menu to appear for the desktop, but can't launch a terminal using Alt+T, or other means of triggering functionality. I can use Alt+Ctrl+F6 to drop to the command line, where I am prompted to login, and after running startx
I can get the entire Unity/X Window UX to come up, complete with toolbar and everything at my enhanced resolution, etc.
I should add that I've also already added compiz
, and enabled the Unity Plugin per these instructions.
That's why everything looks right after typing startx at the command line interface.
My questions are:
how can I figure out what is going on with the login that prevents the desktop from loading properly? I've already tried reinstalling the desktop, video drivers, etc. but it always seems to hang right after the login. I've read other posts similar to this problem but none of them seemed to mention being able to kickstart X from the command line and have everything come up fine.
how can I get it to load directly into the standard desktop mode properly without having to drop down under-the-hood and typing in
startx
every time I boot up?
When answering, please keep in mind I am totally new, and will likely need clear, step-by-step instructions to grok what I need to do.
nomodeset
option - use desktop dvd (press F6 or something when you are shown the initial menu). After installation, configure to use proprietary nvidia driver, to avoid high cpu compiz usage.