Task bar and launchpad disappeared

[Thomas Marrot]

I am using Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS and lightdm 1.18.3-0ubuntu1.1

After I enter my password in the login screen, both task bar and launchpad are missing.

I think this problem has started after the last security update.

Remark: The guest login is working fine.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: lightdm 1.18.3-0ubuntu1.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-112.135-generic 4.4.98
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-112-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Mar 4 12:12:23 2018
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: lightdm
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Thomas Marrot (thomas-marrot)]

I have tried the following without success:

- chown maroual:maroual .Xauthority (as it was owned by root)
- rm .Xauthority and then reboot
- I have verified that the umask and owner of /tmp and /home/maroual were correct
- sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
- sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop
- apt-get update then upgrade then autoremove then check
- inspected the following files and logs:
.xsession-errors
  /var/log/Xorg.0.log
  /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old
  /var/log/lightdm/seat0-greeter.log
  /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
  /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log
  journalctl -u lightdm
  systemctl status lightdm.service
  dmesg

sudo service lightdm restart just allows me restoring the login screen after a failed attempt

Thanks for your help

[Thomas Marrot (thomas-marrot)]

Just tried the following:
- sudo apt-get install --reinstall unity compiz lightdm unity-greeter upstart
- rm .ICEauthority .Xauthority
And then rebooted, but it did not help

[Thomas Marrot (thomas-marrot)]

I managed to solve my problem by renaming .config and .cache as explained here https://askubuntu.com/questions/831569/unity-is-broken-launcher-menu-bar-dash-disappeared-unity-reinstall-doesnt-w/831570

To sum up:

(1) I did a security update on March 2nd then did a reboot on March 3rd
(2) Both the launcher and menu bar disappeared in my main session
(3) .Xauthority was owned by root, I do not know since when and if it caused any issue
(4) .config and/or .cache were likely corrupted, I do not know if this was caused by the update

[dino99 (9d9)]

Closed per comment above (borked setting files)