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I just upgraded to 11.04 and I'm having some trouble with the window manager.

When I log in there are no window borders around anything. Also when I log in it is running some theme that looks like it was designed in the 90's. But as soon as I bring up the "appearance" settings it flicks straight to the correct display theme: "ambience" without me changing anything!! Still no window borders tho, and at this point the icons on the desktop haven't changed to conform with "ambience" they still look like something out of windows 95 :|

Compiz is running, gtk-window-manager isn't, I can run it manually where I DO get borders, however the problem with the themes still remains. When I put a command to run gtk-window-manager in "startup" again it runs borders on startup, but the theme does the exact same thing.

I am using on board intel graphics, I know they have a bad reputation with Linux :\

VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82G965 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

Also tried creating a new user account for test purposes and there was no problems with the theme in the new user account. Still no borders tho. THE PROBLEM WITH BORDERS WAS FIXED IN EDIT 3

Re-installing unity doesn't fix anything.

Edit:

Problem half solved using the ham-handed approach of re-installing natty. I have window borders permanently now thank god! But when I log in at first my theme is still like windows 95, despite the fact I have it set to 'ambience', it stays like this until I go into 'appearance' where it automatically changes to the correct theme without me actually doing anything! everything reverts back to 'ambience' apart from icons on the desktop which still look ancient.

Here's the link to a screenshot of the problem:

Problem with theme

N.N.
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Grant
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  • Suggest create a new user account via "Users and Groups" - login with that new account. Do you have the same issue? – fossfreedom Apr 30 '11 at 22:29
  • Just tried what you suggested, nothing wrong with the theme in the new account, still no window borders though. :\ – Grant Apr 30 '11 at 22:47
  • What graphics card are you using? In a terminal type "lspci | grep VGA". In addition - please edit your Question with your findings so that the extra information is more clearly visible. – fossfreedom Apr 30 '11 at 22:50
  • VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82G965 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02), i know they have a bad repuation with linux :\ – Grant Apr 30 '11 at 22:53
  • The lack of window borders could be the theme. Do you have window titles? – RolandiXor Apr 30 '11 at 23:28
  • yes but they appear in the top menu bar, there are no titles on the windows themself's. also if i maximise the window i can close it as the icons appear in the top bar, it's just unmaximised windows that don't have a border. – Grant May 01 '11 at 00:10

1 Answers1

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From what I've read, Compiz has difficulties supporting the 82G965 chipset. My suggestion would be to login using the Ubuntu Classic Session (bottom of the screen on the logon box) and once logged in, install Unity-2D from the software-centre. Logout, and login, but this time with the Unity-2D session.

fossfreedom
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  • couldn't find the software centre under the ubuntu-classic session, its not in the same place as it was in 10.10. did go into the synaptic-package-manager tho and re-installed unity, this didn't do anything. – Grant May 01 '11 at 00:08
  • In synaptic search for "unity" - you should see "unity-2d" 4th search result down. – fossfreedom May 01 '11 at 08:50
  • Thanks found it. I installed in and logged into a unity-2d session, got borders yeah, the theme is still misbehaving tho. This time the top bar seems to be fine but the icons for everything else are in that windows 95 style theme. – Grant May 01 '11 at 14:21
  • This sounds bizarre - is this the same observation for the newly created user as well? – fossfreedom May 01 '11 at 14:30
  • Also check-out this question - maybe the answers there will help: http://askubuntu.com/questions/21305/desktop-forgets-theme – fossfreedom May 01 '11 at 15:21
  • Sorry I was wrong, I deleted my previous comment, there are NO PROBLEMS with a newly created user account, only my main account. My test account has the theme applied perfectly. – Grant May 01 '11 at 19:38
  • ok - try my answer here on the screwy account: http://askubuntu.com/questions/38918/missing-panel-after-installing-unity-2d/38944#38944 – fossfreedom May 01 '11 at 19:43
  • Just tried it, unity reset without problems however no change in the icons, my desktop still looks like the right hand image in the question. – Grant May 01 '11 at 20:13
  • Ok, last try - then I'm out of ideas. You said that your new account is OK. Obviously, the theme on the duff account is the issue. These details are held in one of the hidden folders in your home folder. Try the rename of the hidden folders here in this answer - if it doesnt work, create yourself a new administrator/user account and delete this duff account. http://askubuntu.com/questions/38518/natty-broke-my-graphics/38580#38580 – fossfreedom May 01 '11 at 20:35
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    since it was just the theme that was wrong after i re-installed natty, i did a search on this problem by itself and found that "killall nautilus" worked, so i added this command to startup. no idea why it works, would be interesting to find out, however at least its sorted for the time being. thanks for your help. :) – Grant May 03 '11 at 14:55