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I just removed some effects using ccsm, switched to the AMD proprietary driver, rebooted and after I log in, the unity panel is no longer there. If I hit the windows key or the alt key, nothing happens. I can hit ctrl+alt+t to get a terminal (and thus launch apps via commandline).

Does anyone know how I can fix this? What logs do I need to post here for help?

Edit #1:

As suggested by @cprofitt I just ran:

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/ && setsid unity

I'm seeing some compiz messages in the terminal now:

unity-panel-service: no process found
compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: core
compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: core
compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: ccp
compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: ccp
compizconfig - Info: Backend     : gsettings
compizconfig - Info: Integration : true
compizconfig - Info: Profile     : unity
compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: composite
compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: composite
compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: opengl
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).
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) - Info: Starting plugin: opengl
Compiz (opengl) - Fatal: glXQueryExtensionsString is NULL for screen 0
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: compiztoolbox
compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: compiztoolbox
compiz (core) - Error: Plugin 'opengl' not loaded.
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1
  • The 'duplicate' appears to be for an older version of Unity... though someone did add the current answer on May 4 2013 a good seven months after this question was answered.
    – cprofitt
    Feb 2, 2015 at 14:05

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
52

Try the following:

Type the following in to a terminal:

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/

then

setsid unity

If this is an issue with Unity settings that will reset your config to default.

I hope that helps.

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7
  • 1
    This helped me after I upgraded from 12.10 to 13.04 and everything was missing. Awesome!
    – itnet7
    Apr 26, 2013 at 22:28
  • 1
    @cprofitt, could you explain why setsid unity not just unity ? , your answer solved my problem but I don't understand the second part
    – Mohammad AbuShady
    Sep 2, 2013 at 16:56
  • don't forget the slash after compiz. That's REALLY important!
    – HongboZhu
    Oct 24, 2014 at 14:58
  • This did not work for me on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS installation that had only desktop icons visible. So I did the following manually: gsettings set org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/ active-plugins ['core', 'composite', 'opengl', 'regex', 'vpswitch', 'session', 'imgpng', 'snap', 'unitymtgrabhandles', 'unityshell'] (note, not all useful plugins included)
    – Timo Jyrinki
    Jun 30, 2015 at 8:38
  • Thanks @cpprofitt this solved my problem after trying for a day with various other solutions on the net.
    – Cactus
    Jul 17, 2016 at 9:33
11

I had this same issue this morning, and after hours of troubleshooting, I figured out what the problem was. The problem is with Compiz, but you can't just simply close Compiz and restart it, the problem will still be there. what I did is login and of course unity won't show up.

Just hit Ctrl + Alt + T to open a terminal and type ccsm to load the Compiz Config Settings Manager.

Now you need to look for the Ubuntu Unity Plugin, click it and you'll notice that it's not enabled, just enable it, and it'll bring some windows up with conflicts, just read them and click the options that you want and unity will be back!

For me, when I clicked enable and closed that window, it didn't work the first time but I did it a second time, and it worked!

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3
  • What if the user doesn't have the ccsm installed?
    – Braiam
    Sep 1, 2013 at 13:22
  • OMG!!! this works! Happened when removing broken nvidia-current... You just saved me from a reinstall.
    – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com
    Oct 19, 2013 at 13:37
  • From all these suggestions only this one helped me to recover from reinstalling the system after the power loss (power loss is deadly for btrfs partitions with ecryptfs)
    – Adam Ryczkowski
    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:56
6

So I ended up re-installing lightdm & ubuntu-desktop as per Can't install ATI proprietary drivers in 12.10

sudo apt-get purge fglrx lightdm && sudo apt-get install lightdm ubuntu-desktop

And then rebooted

From what I can tell the AMD driver is now installed.

brad@saro:~$ fglrxinfo 
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series 
OpenGL version string: 4.2.11903 Compatibility Profile Context

brad@saro:~$ fgl_glxgears 
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
1499 frames in 5.0 seconds = 299.800 FPS
1663 frames in 5.0 seconds = 332.600 FPS
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1
  • 1
    FWIW, I stupidly installed nvidia-current on a 13.04 VM, and it nuked the unity desktop. I tried purging the nvidia* packages to no avail. These commands finally helped me restore everything.
    – karlgrz
    Apr 2, 2013 at 20:53
4

I had a same problem: upgrade from 12.04 to 12.10 and then to 13.04. Unity was broken and only reseting unity

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
setsid unity

wasn't help. I tried to do what hafichuk explained above:

sudo apt-get purge fglrx lightdm && sudo apt-get install lightdm ubuntu-desktop

and then

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
setsid unity

and then it worked.

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3

I installed Ubuntu with the windows installer on a Compaq Presario 7000US (old Computer) that I have currently running WinXP. I came upon this problem and was very close to just giving up on Ubuntu because of this same issue.

When I tried sudo apt-get purge fglrx, it returned with a note saying the package was not removed because it was not installed so instead I did

sudo apt-get install fglrx

It downloaded the package and installed it. After it was done, the side bar (is that was its called ?) appeared.

It seems a bit slow but now it gives me more incentive to continue to work on this machine.

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0

I was trying almost all the suggestions posting in the forum.

My case was similar (No GUI post installation on VMware Workstation).

And the solution worked for me is.....

sudo lightdm
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