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Possible Duplicate:
Unity doesn't load, no Launcher, no Dash appears

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p66/limsijing/Screenshotat2011-10-19173747.png

I've reinstalled Ubuntu probably over 15 times now because of this and another problem(I'll talk about this later). I'm new to Ubuntu and a week ago I just wanted to try the OS out. I installed it as a dual-boot alongside Windows 7. When I started it up for the first time I was enticed to play with it. I install my video card drivers and then fine that I can install a newer version. (I have an ATI Radeon HD 4670) I research and find tutorials on how to do all the things.

Sometimes when I'm doing certain things, like apt-get update or downloading new stuff with either software center or Synaptic, the unity interface just disappears, this includes the system tray at the top. So I can't do anything but restart. I press restart and it takes me to the login screen. Then from there I have to press restart again to finally restart. When Ubuntu starts up again, I log in and the boot sound plays. Then the system tray is back, but not fully, like what you can see from the screenshot.

Now I've said that this has happened many times and I've reinstalled Ubuntu all this time. But the most recent occurrence happened just a little while before I'm typing this. I'm tired of having to reinstall over and over again. Sometimes I even set up everything all well and have my programs and it happens. What just happened is I was installing Restricted Codecs stuff on Synaptic. I waited patiently for the files to download (slow because I'm from Malaysia but the Malaysia server doesn't have all files and I have to use Main Server). Finally it says it's installing the files, so I continue browsing on Mozilla while waiting for it to be done. Then a window pops up asking me whether I agree to the terms to install something; can't remember which. The moment I clicked on the agree box, I got kicked out of the system and back into the login screen. I login and say "Not again!" Sometimes going to certain settings in Compiz also causes this..

The other problem I speak of is starting in an unsupported monitor mode. I know this is because of faulty driver installation so I won't ask about this.

So please, any help is appreciated! I really like Ubuntu but I can't keep installing it like this over and over again!.

Thanks in advance.

Community
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James
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1 Answers1

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Looks like the Compiz Unity plugin is accidentally deselected. Press Ctrl + Alt + T and type unity --replace and you would have your Unity back. Alternatively, if you have CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) installed in your computer, you can type ccsm in Terminal and run the program. There, under the desktop heading, you can select 'Ubuntu Unity plugin' and your Unity would be back to normal.

jokerdino
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  • Thank you for the super prompt answer! I set it back in Compiz, but I got a lot of warnings doing so. I continued pressing the most left option and now everything's back! Hopefully those warnings don't cause problems later. Any idea as to why it got deselected btw? – James Oct 19 '11 at 10:08
  • @James I don't really know the questions so I am just speculating. When you install some software, it creates conflicts between Compiz and Unity. Since Unity is a plugin of Compiz, it gets disabled to prevent these conflicts. So, when you reenable the Unity plugin, you would be prompted to resolve all those conflicts before you can continue to use Unity. And, resolving these conflicts haven't caused any problem to me so far. If your Unity plugin gets disabled again, just follow these steps. :) – jokerdino Oct 19 '11 at 10:15
  • Ahhh okay! Thank you for taking the time to answer a newbie's question! Finally I can use Ubuntu (: – James Oct 19 '11 at 10:34