ubuntu-16.04 window manage stopped working.

[Liam Proven]

On Mon, 4 Nov 2019 at 11:25, Josef Wolf <jw at raven.inka.de> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> today, I rebooted this box after an uptime of about three weeks. After this
> reboot, the window manager stopped working.
>
> - No dash
> - no menu bar
> - the only thung I can do is to right-click onto the desktop and start
>   "Terminal" from the context menu.
> - no window decorations
> - windows are created in the upper left corner
> - no window switching via <Alt>-<TAB>
>
> I have never ever tweaked anything on my desktop. So I guess, it is
> Unity/Compiz what I am using.
>
> So how can I track down why it stopped working?
>
> How can I select a different desktop environment to get the system into a
> usable state?

Well, I am not sure, but here are my first thoughts:

* Unity needs working OpenGL. Something may have knocked that out.

Stuff to try:

* If you can get a terminal, then you can update, right? So do that:

sudo -s
apt update
apt dist-upgrade -y
apt clean
apt autoremove
apt purge
shutdown -r now

* If that does not help at all, try starting with the kernel parameter
``nomodeset'' in case there are kernel graphics driver problems.
Google for info, it's a little involved and there are better
explanations than I can improvise in an email.

-- 
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