Cursor is an X and panel isn't working correctly

Question

So currently my desktop looks like this:

If I use Ctrl + Alt + F2 then login and use startx things seem to work perfectly fine but obviously I don't want to have to do this everytime.

If I have lightdm running and then I use start-x in a differenty tty then the startx session works fine. However if lightdm isn't running then the startx session will look the same as the screenshots posted.

Sorry about the lack of information. Not sure what to describe this problem as but thanks for any help!

Answer 1

In File Manager go to:

~/.cache/sessions/. 

A couple of xfce4* files are there, delete them, reboot.

Answer 2

You might reinstall your desktop manager.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall gdm ubuntu-desktop lightdm unity

You shouldn't use startx, login in lightdm, or if it doesn't work, then install gdm:

sudo apt-get install lightdm- gdm

Answer 3

So, it looks like a video driver issue. But before we troubleshoot that have you attempted to reinstall unity?

Reinstall unity
Just to make sure no processes are running we should do the following: ALT+PrtSc+E. Now go towards the CTR+ALT+F2 you used and try the following:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop && sudo apt-get install unity

If this did not resolve the issue, then it really feels like a video driver issue.

Troubleshoot video driver:
To see the current driver that is used:
lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'in use' (for full info remove the grep)

In my case: Kernel driver in use: i915.

Reinstall the video driver, you should first sudo apt-get purge the current used driver.

To install video driver intel based:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-video-intel libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
unity --reset

If this resolved it, try to get the correct driver for lets say your nvidea card?

Also handy to know the output off:
glxinfo | grep -i vendor (mesa-utils is needed for glxinfo)

Answer 4

I think, graphics drivers are missing

Surely, it will help you. Try this: http://www.binarytides.com/install-nvidia-drivers-ubuntu-14-04/

Answer 5

I had the same problem with lightdm, I tried to reinstall but the error stayed.

I fixed the problem by installing slim that is a desktop independent, lighweight display manager.

sudo apt-get install slim 

Then follow these steps:

1. Press Enter when the configuring slim appears:

   

2. Select slim with arrow keys and press Enter:

   

Reboot and see the result.