After upgrade Unity session is broken

[ionash.]

After yesterdays upgrade, when I log in into default session (Unity), there was no Panel, no Launcher, no windows decorations. there was Yesterday's upgrade was related to Unity packadges, so after reboot I logged into Gnome Flashback session - works as expected. Reboot - and there is no Unity session in Unity Greeter. I logged again into Flashback and launch Synaptic. I saw, that Unity package wasn't even installed, so I installed it - Unity session shows up in Greeter, but thaths all, still no Panel, no Launcher, etc. In CCSM Unity plugin was uncheck. I was able to launch window decorations, but launching Unity plugin caused CCSC crash. In another try there was info, that launch of Unity plugin is in conflict with Window Decorations plugin, but somehow launching Unity plugin does nothing, but Compiz crash (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/1292393).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: unity 7.1.2+14.04.20140313-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-17.37-generic 3.13.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-17-generic i686
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,resize,gnomecompat,regex,imgpng,move,commands,mousepoll,vpswitch,animation,place,wall,unitymtgrabhandles,grid,wobbly,fade,expo,workarounds,session,scale,ezoom]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Fri Mar 14 08:26:59 2014
DistUpgraded: 2013-11-26 21:17:59,613 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS880 [Radeon HD 4200] [1002:9710] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device [1462:7576]
MachineType: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD MS-7576
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-17-generic root=UUID=23985ff5-112f-4dab-9da1-5c21397013fe ro splash quiet vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2013-11-26 (107 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 11/27/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: V3.9
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: 785G-E53 (MS-7576)
dmi.board.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrV3.9:bd11/27/2010:svnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:pnMS-7576:pvr1.0:rvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:rn785G-E53(MS-7576):rvr1.0:cvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:ct3:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: MS-7576
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140310-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Fri Mar 14 08:13:38 2014
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.devices:
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 6
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 7
 input Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0 KEYBOARD, id 8
 input Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0 KEYBOARD, id 9
 input Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0 KEYBOARD, id 10
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7
xserver.video_driver: radeon

[TORTI17 (ubuntu-tortisoft)]

I had this too.

I did an "apt-get install ubuntu-desktop" + delete /home/user/.config/dconf/user
restart + Desktop was back. All other things didn't help.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Stephen M. Webb (bregma)]

Looking at DpkgLog.txt file it looks like a whole slew of packages, including the all-important ubuntu-desktop metapackage, were removed on 2014-03-13 around 23h00. It's not clear why these packages were removed, but all the unity-2d packages were removed and compiz was not, which is a little odd considering the unity2d are dummy packages on which nothing should be depending.

I would recommend trying to fix your packages by explicitly installing the unity-desktop package and see if it fixes your current problems.

[ionash. (janusz-arch)]

"I would recommend trying to fix your packages by explicitly installing the unity-desktop package and see if it fixes your current problems."
You mean - ubuntu-desktop, right?
For me, this is (or, to be precise - was) not the best solution :), because installing ubuntu-desktop also causes installation of lots of packages, which I find pretty useless and unnecessary.
Like I wrote, I just installed unity package, and after resetig Unity (dconf reset -f /org/compiz/) everything was back to normal.

"[...] a whole slew of packages, including the all-important ubuntu-desktop metapackage, were removed on 2014-03-13 around 23h00."
Yes, it's true. But this wasn't effect of my action - it happened as a result of this particular upgrade.

[Laxmikant Gurnalkar (laxmikant-gurnalkar)]

It's a really critical bug. It has wasted my 6 hours to fix this bug. I had raised a query there on askubuntu.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/552581/unity-dash-as-well-as-terminal-is-not-coming

Reinstalling ubuntu-desktop worked for me. Solution by given by remyseroos (http://askubuntu.com/users/230093/remyseroos)

The current work-around is:

From a terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity
dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
This will reinstall unity and reset the config.

If that doesn't works then:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
rm -f /home/user/.config/dconf/user
but be aware that this solution will install all of the packages from ubuntu-desktop (including things like gedit, sound utility, archive managers etc.)

Thanks

[Vasilis-Thanos Anagnostopoulos (anagnwstopoulos)]

I believe that the bug appeared again. After updating my fathers computer i could not log in.

[asu (corcodel-marian)]

Take on look here : https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/1453522

[David Ronis (david-ronis)]

I seem to have a similar problem with flashback: It shows up when I try to install (or as part of the distribution upgrade) Here's a log of my attempts for fix it.

root@ronis-netbook:~# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... 50%
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 gnome-flashback : Depends: gnome-flashback-common (= 3.14.0-3ubuntu11) but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

root@ronis-netbook:~# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... 50%
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gnome-flashback-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gnome-flashback-common
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 27 not upgraded.
2014 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/19.9 kB of archives.
After this operation, 234 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 1973726 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gnome-flashback-common_3.14.0-3ubuntu11_all.deb ...
Unpacking gnome-flashback-common (3.14.0-3ubuntu11) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-flashback-common_3.14.0-3ubuntu11_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/etc/xdg/menus/gnome-flashback-applications.menu', which is also in package gnome-menus 3.10.1-0ubuntu5
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-flashback-common_3.14.0-3ubuntu11_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I found a similar problem which seemed bo be fixed by (re)installing compiz

root@ronis-netbook:~# apt-geKet install compiz
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... 50%
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 compiz : Depends: compiz-gnome but it is not going to be installed
 gnome-flashback : Depends: gnome-flashback-common (= 3.14.0-3ubuntu11) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

root@ronis-netbook:~# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... 50%
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  gnome-flashback-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gnome-flashback-common
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 27 not upgraded.
2014 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/19.9 kB of archives.
After this operation, 234 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 1973726 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gnome-flashback-common_3.14.0-3ubuntu11_all.deb ...
Unpacking gnome-flashback-common (3.14.0-3ubuntu11) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/gnome-flashback-common_3.14.0-3ubuntu11_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite...

[N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. We have tried to recreate this on the latest release of Ubuntu and cannot reproduce it. This bug is being marked as Invalid. If you believe the problem to still exist in the latest version of Ubuntu please comment on why that is the case and change the bug status to NEW.

Maybe a bad configuration ?

Try to restore original settings.

$ gconftool --shutdown
$ sudo killall -r -I gconf
$ sudo killall -r -I dconf
$ tar czf confbackup.tar.gz .compiz* .gconf* .config/dconf/ .config/compiz*

then

$ rm -rf .compiz* .gconf* .config/dconf/ .config/compiz*

and reboot.