ubuntu-16.04 window manage stopped working.

[Josef Wolf]

On Mon, Nov 04, 2019 at 10:11:50PM +0000, Colin Law wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Nov 2019 at 12:32, Josef Wolf <jw at raven.inka.de> wrote:
> >
> > Hmmm... Usually, I am somewhat reluctant to dist-upgrade
> 
> apt-get dist-upgrade (which is (approx?) the same as apt full-upgrade)
> does not upgrade you to the next ubuntu version, it just makes sure
> everything is fully upgraded.

OK. Good to know. The term is a bit misleading, though ;-)

But dist-upgrade could not fix the problem, either. I had to manually

  dpkg --force-overwrite /var/cache/.....
  apt -f install

to get it working again.

Now I am able to at least use KDE.

> I suggest making a new user (which you can easily do via the command
> line) and try logging into the UI using that user.  I also make a
> 'test' user when I install a system, it can be useful to determine
> whether it is something about the user's profile that is the problem
> or something more fundamental wrong with the system.

I tried with a user which I created while the system was installed and a
user freshly created with useradd. Bith won't be able to log into the
compiz/unity desktop. Same symptoms.

> Having said that though I am not clear whether the problem you see is
> before or after logging on.

When logging on, the login screen (where you type the password)
disappears. Only the wallpaper remain. Then, desktop-icons appear. Nothing
elese happens. When I right-click onto the desktop, a context menu appears,
where I can start a terminal. The terminal window appears in the upper left
corner of the screen. There are no decorations to resize/move/close this
window.

> Have you got auto-logon enabled?

I always disable auto-login.

-- 
Josef Wolf
jw at raven.inka.de