1

I've just dual booted Ubuntu 20.04 alongside Windows as of yesterday. On booting into Ubuntu this afternoon the desktop appears to be completely broken. Firefox will run, and the Dash search functionality works too, but nothing else will run, nor are any icons showing, however when I scroll my mouse over the apps in the app-bar the title of the app will show.

I've tried opening the terminal in multiple ways, the spinning wheel cursor shows for a couple of seconds but it won't run, so I can't do anything to restart the desktop. In Windows I would open the task manager and restart Explorer.exe to achieve the same thing.

I've done plenty of Googling, but couldn't find anything, so hence I'm asking here.

I would provide a screenshot but have no way to do so. The desktop background is blue. The username and "Trash" text is showing in the top left where those icons would be. The time/date is showing in the top bar, along with "Activities" and the currently running app name next to it. Nothing shows in the far right-hand side of the panel, but I can click where the Power/Connections/Settings is and the dropdown will show but with text only, no icons.

I don't want to reinstall Linux, but if that's the only option then I will.

I followed these instructions since they were the most relevant that I could find.

Here's a photo:

enter image description here

karel
  • 114,770
LangerNZ
  • 111
  • 4
  • If you have smart phone like an iphone or android phone, can you take picture and post an image. Based on the description it is difficult to help you. – Mahendra Gunawardena Mar 13 '21 at 01:52
  • @user535733 Here are the instructions I followed: https://itsfoss.com/install-ubuntu-1404-dual-boot-mode-windows-8-81-uefi/ Although I'm using Win 10, so slightly different, but close enough for me. – LangerNZ Mar 13 '21 at 02:47
  • Added Imgur link to photo of desktop, I can take more photos if needed – LangerNZ Mar 13 '21 at 03:08
  • Can you load settings? If yes, then create a new user (give that one also root permissions) and try logging in there. If it works there, then you know the problem is only with the configuration of your current account. – vanadium Mar 13 '21 at 16:11
  • If indeed you confirm it is a user account setting, then you can try this https://askubuntu.com/questions/43584/how-to-reset-main-user-account to wipe all config data and reset your own account to default. You can then move all data easily back. – vanadium Mar 13 '21 at 16:16

3 Answers3

1

This is just a suggestion for a try out:

Boot from an Ubuntu Install ISO.

If successful, chroot into the partition where Ubuntu is installed (Check internet for guides for your type of installation).

Remove ubuntu-desktop package from terminal and re-install the package.

Please note that, this may not be possible in chroot, but worth a try.

Even if removing that package is possible, you should be able to reach a terminal.

If it is just installed yesterday, if nothing else helps, re-installing doesn't seem to be a big inconvenience unless you worked on the installed system for many hours.

Quagmire
  • 15
0

Depending on how long ago you first installed Ubuntu, and what packages you upgraded, you may have in your grub previous kernels available for booting (Advanced options for Ubuntu -> Some older kernel).

Or, you can try booting from grub into recovery mode to see what information you can gather, using dmesg, e.g.

sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio
  • 14,674
  • 11
  • 44
  • 97
  • I have two kernels in the Advanced options for Ubuntu menu. I tried booting into each one, neither worked. Then went into recovery mode and tried remounting root and then everything else, which didn't change anything. – LangerNZ Mar 13 '21 at 08:00
0

I had the same issue, too. Suddenly all my icons on the desktop were gone. After a long search I found that for me the reason was a change in the file: ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Schreibtisch"
#XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Vorlagen"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Öffentlich"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Dokumente"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Musik"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Bilder"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

where in the line #XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/" the word Schreibtisch (Desktop in German) was missing.

Hope that this will help someone.

Helmut Dr. Fender
  • 11