I removed compiz and now I can't login to Ubuntu

Question

I installed compiz a while ago and at some point to decided to remove it. I did that through Ubuntu Software Center, rebooted the system and wasn't able to "login" since it said something like "Can't start Ubuntu session".

How do I repair the system or make it work somehow?

P.S. I have a bootable usb flash with Ubuntu 13.04. And I can to connect to the Internet through Wifi, but I need:

• Choose a network manually and enter the password

• (It might depends on some parameters, but anyway) Open any url address so that that wifi spot redirects me to its default page where I have to press a button like "Enter", after that it redirects me to its default page again and eventually I'll be able to use the Internet normally.

Will it help me?

Answer 1

You can fix your system though the bootable flash drive. Go ahead and start it up, then get online do that you can access the internet normally. Next, you'll need to press Ctrl+Alt+T together, then enter in these commands, followed by enter:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf
sudo chroot /mnt

At this point, the line you type at in the Terminal window will change. From here, you'll need to run this command to reinstall everything you need, followed by enter:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Once you're done, you can reboot your computer and boot it back into your installed Ubuntu. It should now let you log into your account.

Answer 2

I uninstalled compiz because it was eating 400+ GB of RAM. This resulted in the Ubuntu 14.04 login screen looping which led me to this posting. I ended up using ctrl-alt-F1 to get a terminal and running:

sudo apt-get install compiz
sudo apt-get install unity
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

I could now login and see my desktop but the Unity interface was missing (the taskbar on the left-side, the clock, etc). I needed to run ccsm but ctrl-alt-t didn't work and I ended up getting a terminal by opening a folder on my desktop and navigating to /usr/share/applications to run the terminal. In ccsm I re-enabled the Unity plugin and after rebooting things were working again.

To re-iterate, the problem is that Ubuntu needs Compiz to login and Unity to give you an interface. Unity is a plugin of Compiz and needs to be re-enabled. I used ccsm but there may be other ways such as using pico or some other text editor to edit Compiz configuration files directly.

Answer 3

Start your computer, and once you reach the login screen press ctrl+alt+f1, you will be greeted with a text login, login and then type sudo apt-get install compiz once that is done type logout, and then press ctrl+alt+f7 to return to the graphical login.