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After a recent software update (possible to kernel 3.13.0-49), Ubuntu Trusty no longer displaying Launcher & top status bar properly on a very old Dell using 32 bit Ubuntu Trusty. I used to use xorg-edgers ppa on it but I took it off about a year ago while back when it was no longer needed as Trusty did the display properly (or it might have been as it no longer worked properly). I've tried putting the ppa back again & upgrading but still the same. Also, the mouse cursor moves but clicking it on an icon's area does not work. Unfortunately I used Ubuntu Tweak to remove old Linux stuff. Any ideas?

John Rose
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  • try to simply reinstall it sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop unity then re-login. – JoKeR Apr 22 '15 at 13:49
  • The reinstall worked OK. I noticed that the packages have a date 20150315 as part of their 'name'. But still no good on the Launcher or the mouse. – John Rose Apr 22 '15 at 14:10
  • what you mean by no good I won't understand you should at least attach a screenshot or something like that. – JoKeR Apr 22 '15 at 14:27
  • By 'no good' I meant that the Launcher stayed the same i.e. I can see the places for the icons but they do not contain pictures but contain out-of-focus white & grey sort of images. I can't take a screenshot of the Ubuntu screen showing the messed-up Launcher as the Dash doesn't work: after clicking on the Dash (corrupted) icon it displays for input but won't accept it and returns to the login screen. I have no printer attached to the PC so PrtScreen does nothing. Even if I could take a screenshot how would I attach it to this comment? – John Rose Apr 22 '15 at 14:58
  • printer has nothing to do with PrintScreen button you just take a screenshot and upload it to any file server like e.g. http://imgur.com/ and post a link to it here – JoKeR Apr 22 '15 at 19:39
  • there can be a lot of different issues first that come to mind is the command I told you try to run it but before that run sudo apt-get remove --purge ubuntu-desktop unity and intstall it back, secondly you might think on reinstalling your video drivers and again with purge option before, that's usually what causes graphical weirdness. – JoKeR Apr 22 '15 at 19:51
  • I've done sudo apt-get remove --purge ubuntu-desktop unity & similar for xserver-xorg-video-nouveau, nvidia-304, nvidia-304-updates, nvidia-331, nvidia-331-updates (found by using apt-cache showpkg nvidia) & done sudo apt-get install for the above. Makes no difference to Unity display etc... – John Rose Apr 23 '15 at 08:08
  • (which I then tried before and after sudo apt-get update & sudo apt-get upgrade). I am not able to take a screenshot in Unity because when I click what I think is the Dash icon, it displays the Search window (is it named HUD?) but does not allow me to enter text (e.g. Screenshot). The only screen that I can get to is the Unix login prompt (i.e. not Ubuntu's Terminal and with large characters) by using Ctrl & F2. From there I'm not able to take a screenshot of the Ubuntu Desktop. PS I've used sudo apt-get check and there were no broken dependencies. – John Rose Apr 23 '15 at 08:08
  • why are you going to Dash(Hud) to take a screenshot? I don't understand that why just not press PrintScreen button? – JoKeR Apr 23 '15 at 09:58
  • I'd recommend you simply to download and burn the latest LTS image 14.04.2 from ubuntu.com and run it from live cd to check if it works fine. – JoKeR Apr 23 '15 at 10:01
  • When I boot up from 14.04.2 on usb stick, it gets as far as screen asking whether to run or install: when I select run, the screen display messes up. This happens with both 32 & 64 bit Ubuntu. So it looks like the graphics card has gone. PC is 13 years old: it was running so slowly that it's not worth replacing the graphics card. So I'll scrap it. Thanks anyway. – John Rose Apr 23 '15 at 11:40

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I suspect the problem could be a quirk in your video card.

I have a older Dell (approximately 9 years old) that I bought used, and on which I have run Ubuntu exclusively for quite a few years. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 I found the Unity Dash was unusable. (When I clicked the Dash button, the screen would flicker but none of the Dash overlay would appear on the screen, so there was no way to select any icon in the Dash at all.) Back in 12.04 you could login using Unity 2D, which avoided the bug in the video card's firmware. By the time 14.04 was released, Unity 2D was gone, so I knew I wouldn't be able to upgrade my machine if I wanted to use "stock" Ubuntu.

SO I copied Ubuntu 14.04 to a USB stick and carried the machine to a local computer repair shop and asked them for a cheap generic video card (using a different chipset, just to be sure). The folks at the shop installed their video card and I booted from the USB stick to test it. I rejected a bad one, but ultimately got a working card that works fine, and the replacement cost me very little.

Another even cheaper option (if your Dell system works this way) might be to try the Intel video built into the motherboard. On my system, I have to remove a plastic cap blocking the video port and also activate the onboard video in the BIOS.

Nowadays the limited RAM in my old machine (4 GB maximum) has begun to become more of an issue with modern RAM-hungry applications, and there's not as easy a workaround... except that your local computer shop might sell you a four- or five-year-old machine with a more modern upgradeable motherboard and processor.

Tommy Trussell
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