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5

This question already has an answer here:

After upgrading to 14.04 and after the final reboot, I logged in the admin account but unity won't start, I have only the 14.04 background.

No shortcuts work. I can login and use the guest and other accounts on the machine.

I think I might have opted to keep one of the settings that I was asked to select during the upgrade to 14.04.

What other info can I provide?

My chipset is Intel GM45 mobile.

Why does unity on the other accounts (guest, etc) login and work normally?

I have only been using ubuntu since 13.04, so im not that familiar with it. My setup is dual boot with windows 7 on a laptop. Can someone help?

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marked as duplicate by Luis Alvarado♦ Jun 5 '14 at 13:04

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
    
bbullis's answer worked for me from below link [askubuntu.com/questions/449845/… [1]: askubuntu.com/questions/449845/… – user288228 Jun 4 '14 at 3:38
up vote 12 down vote

I had a similar problem, I solved it by switching in terminal (CTRL+ALT+F1) then removing the configuration file ~/.config/dconf/user like this :

(! this action will remove your gnome 3 settings !)

sudo service lightdm stop
rm ~/.config/dconf/user
sudo service lightdm start
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1  
that was the only tip that worked for me. Thanks. – Leandro Jun 10 '14 at 19:17
    
After all attempts at reinstalling/resetting Unity, this is what finally got me going. – Tanner Watson Oct 17 '15 at 16:07
    
Make sure you back up ~/.config/dconf/user in case this isn't the actual solution or you will have to reorganize your desktop and whatnot. Minor annoyance, but you can avoid it. – DuckPuncher Apr 7 '16 at 16:17
up vote 7 down vote

I had the same problem. The only way I could solve it was this:

Press

ctrl + alt + F1

to access a terminal. You have to log in with your user. Then run

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

and finally

unity-tweak-tool --reset-unity

If you get errors try running it again. You should then be back at the welcome screen. Log in and unity should be there, albeit without any custom settings you may have had.

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this worked for me. after running for a while, it was saying "can't detect monitor name" and nothing happened for ~15min. based on iotop and top seemed like there's no activity, so I rebooted the machine. everything works fine now. thanks! – Gediminas Feb 9 '15 at 15:33
    
Great solution! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. – friedi Oct 7 '16 at 20:55
up vote 5 down vote

I sometimes had a similar issue in Saucy and Raring. I was able to fix that with re-enabling the Unity plugin in Comppiz Config Settings Manager. Using CTRL-ALT-T you should be able to open a terminal. There you can install the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then you can start it using 

ccsm

where you should be able to find a plugin named Unity. Click the checkbox to enable it and Dash with the sidebar should reappear.

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[OP] No this didnt work. No shortcuts work. a. CTRL+ALT+T is not working (only CTRL+ALT+F1 works) – 272932 Apr 24 '14 at 7:59
    
I am also having the similar problem – RSG Apr 28 '14 at 19:03
    
This solution worked for me as well. As it happens I have Gnome-shell (Gnome 3) installed alongside Unity. In case you cannot run a terminal when you log into unity you can switch into a tty (Ctrl+Alt+F2) and then issue: DISPLAY=:0 gnome-terminal Once in the terminal type the commands given by @user273077 – Damian Nadales Jun 18 '14 at 8:59

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