Ubuntu-desktop not loading

If I fully shut down my laptop, the next time I turn it on I get to and past the login screen, but then i get stuck at a purple screen. The mouse works, but the desktop never loads. The next time I turn it off and back off, it works as intended.

The solutions I come across are all about 16.04 and previous and Unity. What are some steps I can use to debug this?

Thanks.

Edit: This comment by u/nexx_springs seems to have done the trick:

"I was having the same problem after installing and removing KDE. I fixed it by reinstalling gnome and rebuilding gnome. sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop sudo update-grub sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3"

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So you were trying to customize your Ubuntu desktop but messed it up to end up with no Unity, no Launcher and no Dash? Don’t panic, there is a solution for this issue.

Fix no Unity, no Launcher, no Dash in Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04

At login time, use Ctrl+Alt+F1 to access the command line interface. You will have to use your username and password here. Once logged in, use the following commands:

Hope this fixes the issue with Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10.

Alternative 1:

If the above solution did not work for you, try removing everything from config using the command below. You can still open the terminal using the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T.

This will reset everything and your Ubuntu system will resemble to the looks of a fresh install. Installed applications will be untouched.

If even that did not work for you, there is another trick which I used in Ubuntu 12.10. But it still works for Ubuntu 17.10 GNOME.

Fix no Unity, no Launcher, no Dash in Ubuntu

I was installing Ubuntu on my friend’s laptop the other day when I encountered this strange scenario. After the fresh install when I boot into Ubuntu, there was no Unity, no side launcher, no dash, nothing. All it had was just the default wallpaper.

Clearly, something was broken. I tried the good old technique to reset Unity and Compiz in Ubuntu, did not work. After looking for hours in the forum, I came up with this awesome one-liner solution.

Use Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal. Now use the following command in the terminal:

And that is it. No need to do anything else. You will have Unity back again. Cheers :)

Source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/17381/unity-doesnt-load-no-launcher-no-dash-appears

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Always look in logs for trouble:

• $cat ~/.xsession-errors
• $cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Try manually start lightdm from command-line Ctrl + Alt + F1, log in and  

$ sudo lightdm

1. If entering a password into display manager like gdm or lightdm and desktop is not loaded, but you get redirected back to login screen, delete file .Xauthority in your home folder and try again.

   $ sudo rm ~/.Xauthority

   
   
2. Sometimes re-installing NVIDIA graphics card driver works, or upgrading to recent version.
3. If you get stuck on boot screen in text mode, edit /etc/X11/default-display-manager and change it's content lightdm to /usr/sbin/lightdm.

Trouble:

After a long time of neglect, I powered on my old desktop yesterday and decided to install Ubuntu 8.10 on it. I rarely use my old desktop which is why I decided to make it a test machine and run it dual boot with Windows XP and Ubuntu.

I installed ubuntu in dual boot using Wubi : See this tutorial on Install Ubuntu (Linux) Inside Windows Without Formatting Hard-Disk

I had done installation on my HP Pavallion laptop, it worked fine, but not my old desktop.

On my desktop after I enter user id and password at Ubuntu login screen, it will accept username and password, but it will not show the ubuntu desktop after login.

I searched for the reason for this problem on ubuntu forums and found an easy solution. I will share the same with you in this post.

Fix:

Before I tell you the fix lets talk why this problem occurred in the first place. In ubuntu 8.10 CD, there is a Software Problem in  Intel video driver for the older Intel 830 and 845 integrated video cards. My old desktop had Intel 845 card. Because of the graphics driver issue, the desktop was not loading.

The solution is fairly simple, disable these derivers and then restart the computer and ubuntu will load without any problems. It will update the drivers to latest drivers afterwards during online upgrade of Ubuntu.

Follow these simple steps to disable the Intel drivers which stop the Desktop to load properly :

1. After entering the username and password, the screen will go blank with the Mouse Cursor still working. In this condition, press these three keys on keyboard together : Ctrl + Alt + F1 . Pressing these three keys together will load the recovery console. It will ask your password, type the password and press enter.

2. On recovery console type the following commands one by one and press enter.

sudo apt-get remove compiz sudo apt-get remove compiz-core

exit

Sometimes after an upgrade, your system might not bring you to the desktop after logging in. If you try logging in and you just see a black screen, or Ubuntu brings you back to the login screen, you're experiencing a login loop. There are several causes for login loops:

• Configuration files in your home directory are not compatible with new versions of software
• The display/login manager is not working correctly
• The NVIDIA driver has been updated and is causing an issue
• The AMD radeon driver is being loaded and causing issues

Each cause has a different solution, and certain items (such as NVIDIA) might not be applicable to your system. In most cases, you can switch to a full-screen terminal (called a TTY) to log in and fix the issue.

Switch to a Terminal

At the login screen, press Ctrl+Alt+F5 to switch to a TTY. You'll be prompted to enter a login. At the login prompt, enter your username and press Enter. You'll then be prompted for your password. You will not see your password as you are typing it; just type it and press "Enter."

If you're not able to log in, the reason could be:

• Wrong username: your username may not be the same as your display name. It is often your first name all lowercase, first and last name all lowercase, or first initial and last name all lowercase.
• Wrong password: you're notified of this at the graphical login screen.
• Something else is blocking the login.

The easiest way to confirm your username is by booting into recovery mode, entering a chroot, and running ls in the /home directory, as outlined in the Password Reset article. If your username and password are both correct, then something else is blocking the login. This is a difficult issue to troubleshoot, and you might want to consider backing up your files from a live disk and Reinstalling Ubuntu or contacting Support for more assistance.

After logging in, you'll be presented with a prompt showing your username, hostname, and a tilde (~) representing your home directory.

Note that you can always return to the graphical login screen by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1, or by typing sudo systemctl restart gdm.

Move old configuration files out of the way

To determine whether configuration in your home directory is causing the issue, you can create a new user account for testing purposes:

sudo adduser test sudo systemctl reboot

If you're able to log in with the test user, the issue is somewhere in your regular user's home folder. Log into the full-screen terminal with your regular user again, and move some of the common configuration files out of the way:

mv ~/.config ~/.config.old mv ~/.local ~/.local.old mv ~/.cache ~/.cache.old mv ~/.nvidia-settings-rc ~/.nvidia-settings-rc.old mv ~/.nv ~/.nv.old sudo systemctl reboot

Move xorg.conf file out of the way

If display settings have been corrupted or modified incorrectly, it's good to remove the xorg.conf.

mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old

By default, X11 config files are instead stored here:

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d

xorg.conf files saved in /etc/X11 can cause displays issues on boot, and should be avoided wherever possible.

After moving those files and rebooting, try logging in again. (There may be files you need to move other than the common ones listed above.)

You can reinstall GNOME Display Manager (which handles the login screen), along with the desktop environment by running the below commands in :

sudo apt install --reinstall gdm3 ubuntu-desktop gnome-shell sudo systemctl reboot

After reinstalling those packages and rebooting, try logging in again.

Reinstall NVIDIA Driver

If your system is equipped with NVIDIA graphics, a recent update might be causing the login issues. (Usually, NVIDIA driver issues will prevent the login screen from loading at all; however, it's still worth reinstalling if you are unable to log in after the above steps.) Refer to the table below to determine if your system contains NVIDIA graphics:

To remove the NVIDIA driver, run the following:

sudo apt purge ~nnvidia sudo apt autoremove sudo apt clean

After the NVIDIA driver has been removed, add it back using the following commands:

sudo apt update sudo apt full-upgrade sudo apt install system76-driver-nvidia

After the installation has completed, type sudo systemctl reboot and try logging in again.

Blacklist Radeon Driver

If you are using an AMD graphics card, the radeon driver might be causing issues as it does not support newer versions of Ubuntu. The amdgpu driver that comes with the kernel does however. To blacklist the radeon driver and ensure amdgpu is loaded:

Open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf for editing and add blacklist radeon to the file. Then run:

sudo update-initramfs -c -k all sudo shutdown -r now

If these steps don't work

Contact Support! We have a few more things to try. There are a significant number of processes and files required for your graphical desktop environment to be loaded, and much fewer for the terminal login. As such, you can usually recover your desktop using the command line interface!