Unity doesn't load after installing NVIDIA drivers

Question

If I install any of the proprietary NVIDIA drivers (nvidia-*) from the repositories, Unity does not load after I log in. I just get a blank desktop background with no icons, panels or launchers.

If I uninstall the drivers again, the desktop does load properly, but then certain games don't work correctly.

Is there any way to resolve this? Thanks.

Answer 1

I had this happen to me on Ubuntu 14.10 x86_64 with kernel 3.16.0-28 after loading Nvidia 346 drivers. After login I would get the blank Ubuntu background wallpaper and nothing else, no way to do anything. There are many similar problems posted online over the past four years; most of the solutions did not work for me. Attempting to restart unity I got an error: compiz: plugin OpenGL not loaded.

Finally, this is what worked:

CTRL-ALT-F3 < ...to reach console, and then login. >
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install unity
sudo killall nvidia-persistenced
sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
 < see the error message, and get the process ### >
sudo kill -9 ###  
  < ... ### is from previous error; a process locking user "nvidia-persistenced" >
sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo apt-get install nvidia-prime
sudo reboot

 < ...wait... >
CTRL-ALT-F3 < ...to reach console, and then login. >
export DISPLAY=:0
sudo dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
gsettings reset org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/ active-plugins
  <...note space after 'core/' and before 'active-plugins'  >
sudo reboot

...and then it worked. Would love not to have to go through that again!

See also: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/1166765 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/1342339

Answer 2

1st option: Download drivers from http://nvidia.com/object/unix.html, not from repos. After installing restart computer.

2nd option: Restart computer after installing nvidia drivers from repos.