In recent weeks, my Ubuntu 16.04 has started to receive updates that do not seem to have ever required restarting the system, although the updates come almost every day. Prior to this, I remember that approximately one out of three-four updates did require a restart.
I am concerned about whether this is ok or there might be something wrong in the way the updates are handled by the system. In particular, I have noticed that the System Monitor indicates unreasonably high activity after some of the recent updates if I do not restart the system. How should one know after what update the system needs to be restarted if the update itself does not seem to tell this any more?
I am asking this question because, lately, the launcher and the other desktop features disappeared after a logout or reboot. The problem was solved only with major help from a more competent friend also familiar with it from his own prior experience by:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop
rm -rf ~/.compiz ~/.config/compiz-1
cd .cache
mv compizconfig-1 compizconfig-1-OLD
sudo reboot
I was then also readdressed to How to restore default Unity, where such a problem is discussed. I did not play with the system at all, I was only working as a user. I was not logging out for a long time, however, only suspending the computer, because logging out destroys the terminal window structure. (I could not find an option to preserve it otherwise.) Before the problem appeared, I had started to notice that the system was often too sluggish. The system monitor was also showing too much activity while I was not running any processes. Unless anything was wrong with the installation of the updates, my question is what may I myself have done wrong and how could I make sure similar problems will not arise in the future?
