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I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 16.04 that I set to log in automatically. When it loads up all I get is the desktop wall paper but not top panel or unity side bar. Previously I was using Ubuntu 16.04 Mate edition and everything worked great. I read this question Ubuntu 16.04 unity desktop environment doesn't load after fresh install but I could not get to a tty screen like the poster in that thread. When I did Ctrl+Alt+F1 all I would get is a blank screen. I've tried switching monitor inputs and going from my nvidia card to the onboard graphics but nothing seems to work. I'm just going to switch back to Mate for now but I would really want to check out what's new in Unity. Thanks for any and all help!

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  • You can right-click on the desktop, and choose Open Terminal. That's what I did. Then I've removed the compiz configurations and cache as pointed out by @Jonayard, below.
    – Atcold
    Nov 14, 2016 at 22:19
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    This should not be set as a duplicate. None of the other solutions worked for me under 16.04.
    – Jacques MALAPRADE
    Mar 9, 2018 at 9:42

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Fix compiz problem : 

sudo rm -fr ~/.cache/compizconfig-1
sudo rm -fr ~/.compiz

Then try this if your session not loading : 

sudo rm -fr ~/.Xauthority
sudo rm -fr ~/.config/autostart

Reinstall compiz 

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop unity compizconfig-settings-manager upstart

Finally clear the Unity Desktop :

sudo dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
setsid unity

This is how I fixed my problem hope it could be helpful to you.

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    Cool, I'll try that if I can manage to get a terminal window or drop into a TTY screen so far no luck though.
    – Hector
    Apr 27, 2016 at 17:11
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    I think this is exactly the correct workaround. I had the same problem, I tried to use the guest account to log in it seems to be fine. I compared everything between the guest account settings and the root account settings. There is no much difference on compiz settings but Xauthority and autostart are different
    – ZijunLost
    Aug 23, 2016 at 19:51
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    sexy answer bro. Solved my problem.
    – Kaushal28
    Aug 27, 2016 at 15:32
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    You sir are a scholar and a gentleman.
    – MikeJerome
    Sep 2, 2016 at 23:14
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    You're real gem!! Fixed problem in Ubuntu 16.04. Thank you very much. Mr. Rahman!
    – TheFoxLab
    Sep 16, 2016 at 6:24

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