Unity not working in 14.04.01 LTS, blank desktop

Question

I installed Ubuntu 14.04.01 LTS as a dual boot installation (the other OS is Win XP with SP 3), but when I log in there is nothing on the desktop, just the background.

My computer: Intel D865PERL, Pentium 4 CPU (3 Ghz), 3 Gb RAM, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 500/600 graphics card. I have a harddrive with two partitions: one for the XP and one for Ubuntu and it's partitions.

At first there was just black screen but I fixed that by installing the Nvidia driver (version 173.14.36) via tty. To my disappointment that didn't help much, since now only the cursor and the background are visible after logging in. No launcher, no top menu bar, nothing. When I click the right mouse button I get the menu and I can create a new folder which is visible. I can access the tty by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1

I have reinstalled Ubuntu once, but it didn't help. I have also updated it.

What shoud I do? Should I install an older version of Ubuntu? I have no idea what is the cause of the problem. Since this doesn't seem to be a common problem could it be caused by my graphics card or by some other part of hardware?

This is my first time have been using Ubuntu or any linux OS.

I have been looking for help from different forums. I tried this but it didn't help:

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

And this:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo service lightdm stop
sudo service lightdm start

And this:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
export DISPLAY=:0
ccsm

After which I pressed Ctrl-Alt-F7 and enabled "Ubuntu Unity plugin" but it didn't help

And I have tried this:

sudo apt-get install –-reinstall ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install unity

And this:

export DISPLAY=:0.0
sudo dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
setsid unity

After "setsid unity" there is flood of text mostly about compiz core loading and starting plugins. After loading and starting unirtyshell plugin the last lines are:

 WARN [date&time] unity.screen UScreen.cpp:114 UScreen::GetMonitorName: Failed to get monitor name for monitor0
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'org.gnome.Shell' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 ERROR [date&time] unity.debug.interface DebugDBusInterface.cpp:216 Unable to loadf entry point in libxpathselect: libxpathselect.so.1.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
 ERROR [date&time] unityo (appinfo2) <unknown>:0 g_file_monitor_set_rate_limit: assertion 'G_IS_FILE_MONITOR (monitor) ' failed
 ERROR [date&time] unity.launcher.icon.trash TrashLauncherIcon.cpp:66 Could not create file monitor for trash uri: Operation not supported
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'com.can onical.Unity.Launcher' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'com.canonical.Unity.Dash' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'org.gnome.SessionManager.EndSessionDialog' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'com.canonical.Unity.Session yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 compiz (opengl) - error: FBO is incomplete: GL:FRAMEBUFFER UNSUPPORTED (0x8cdd)"
 Segmentation fault (core dumped)

But sometimes I get these slightly different warnings/errors with the same commands as above:

(process:2259): dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: Error spawning command line 'dbus launch --autolaunch=2c1ca3459751dc3dd92e131553fb7ce5[part missing]ary_syntax --close-stderr': Child process killed by signal 43 [this was repeatyed 

 WARN [date&time] unity.screen UScreen.cpp:114 UScreen::GetMonitorName: Failed to get monitor name for monitor0

(compiz:2259): dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: Error spawning command line 'dbus launch --autolaunch=2c1ca3459751dc3dd92e131553fb7ce5[part missing]ary_syntax --close-stderr': Child process killed by signal 43
    WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'org.gnome.Shell' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...

(compiz:2259): dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: Error spawning command line 'dbus launch --autolaunch=2c1ca3459751dc3dd92e131553fb7ce5[part missing]ary_syntax --close-stderr': Child process killed by signal 43

(compiz:2259): dconf-WARNING **: failed to commit changes to dconf: Error spawning command line 'dbus launch --autolaunch=2c1ca3459751dc3dd92e131553fb7ce5[part missing]ary_syntax --close-stderr': Child process killed by signal 43
 ERROR [date&time] unity.debug.interface DebugDBusInterface.cpp:216 Unable to loadf entry point in libxpathselect: libxpathselect.so.1.4: cannot ope[part missing]ed object file: No such link or directory
 ERROR [date&time] unityo (appinfo2) <unknown>:0 g_file_monitor_set_rate_limit: assertion 'G_IS_FILE_MONITOR (monitor) ' failed
 ERROR [date&time] unity.launcher.icon.trash TrashLauncherIcon.cpp:66 Could not create file monitor for trash uri: Operation not supported
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'com.can onical.Unity.Launcher' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'com.canonical.Unity.Dash' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'org.gnome.SessionManager.EndSessionDialog' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'com.canonical.Unity.Session yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 WARN [date&time] unity.glib.dbus.server GlibDBusServer.cpp:579 Can't register object 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver' yet as we don't have connection, waiting for it...
 compiz (opengl) - error: FBO is incomplete: GL:FRAMEBUFFER UNSUPPORTED (0x8cdd)"
 Segmentation fault (core dumped)

After that I tried this:

export DISPLAY=:0.0
unity --replace [or] unity --reset-icons

But I just get the same error/warning messages as with setsid unity

And this one:

unity --reset

I get ERROR: the reset option is now deprecated

And

rm -rf ~/.config/compiz-1/compizconfig/*

Does nothing

This is really annoying.

UPDATE 1: I tried the suggestion of Andrea and added nomodeset parameter in command line in GRUB. (I followed the instructions given by fossfreedom here)

Unfortunatetly it didn't work, I get exactly the same view as earlier. But I realised that this means that the card and/or driver is not working. I also noticed the resolution of the folder I ccreated is quite low, so I guess this also means the graphics card somehow is not working. So I guess the problem is with the card and/or driver?

UPDATE 2:

I installed 12.04.05 version. Now I can see the top bar and launcher on the left side of the screen, but Unity is frozen. I installed nvidia 173 drivers, but it just got worse. More details here.

Answer 1

Try another version of ubuntu, maybe 13 beacuse the version you are using needs 64 bit architecture and i don't think p4 is 64 bit. So try to install another version, it might help you.