nvidia driver breaks ubuntu irreversibly (uninstalling the package doesn't fix it)

[Teo]

Fresh install of Ubuntu 13.04
- sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
- reboot

=> the whole system becomes completely unusable. When you boot, there's no Unity launcher nor Unity's top bar. Only an empty desktop. Windows don't have borders nor title bars (apparently compiz crashes at startup).

And the worst thing is that uninstalling nvidia-current (or nvidia-304), won't revert the situation.

The only way I got Unity running again was by purging nvidia* (sudo apt-get purge nvidia*) AND manually deleting /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

So
1 - either nvidia driver is broken, or sudo apt-get nvidia-current doesn't install it properly
2 - sudo apt-get remove should completely reverse the installation and it doesn't.

If you have the unlucky idea to try and install nvidia-current you may end up with an unusable and apparently unrecoverable system, which can be pretty hard to figure out how to fix.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: nvidia-current (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-31.46-generic 3.8.13.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Oct 14 01:42:19 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers-304
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jasem Mutlaq (mutlaqja)]

I faced the same issue, i.e. no unity. I was about to resolve the issue by installing linux headers and source and reinstalling the nvidia-current package again, and it was to compile successfully. But even after that unity didn't show up, so I followed the instructions here (http://askubuntu.com/questions/285779/after-upgrading-to-13-04-unity-interface-is-not-showing) and unity is working fine now. Still this is a major bug and must be resolved!

[Roberto Luiz Debarba (roberto-debarba)]

This bug affects me.
I am using Ubuntu 14.04, Kernel 3.13.0-45-generic.

[Tankypon (tankypon)]

This bug affects me too.
Using Ubuntu 14.10 and Kernel 3.19