This is certainly not NORMAL.

[atentik]

After several efforts to get my system back and running, I am able to boot but on the desktop, I have nothing. No option to select internet, not sidebar, no terminal at the top, no program file. Absolutely nothing. This is not normal.

Please see the attached picture.

[2F4U]

Am I right in guessing that this is an upgraded system? Have you already tried to create a new user and see if this user has the same problems?

[decoherence]

that looks like the gnome-shell background.

well, i guess try resetting your gnome stuff.

mv .gnome .gnome.BAK
mv .gnome2 .gnome2.BAK
mv .gconf .gconf.BAK
mv .gconfd .gconfd.BAK
mv .metacity .metacity.BAK

this might not work exactly right with GNOME3... you might need to rename a '.gnome3' folder as well, you might not have a '.metacity' folder.... i haven't got a machine to test on right now.

If you find things break even more, you can reverse the commands to restore things (ie 'mv .gnome2.BAK .gnome2') -- some people will direct you to run 'rm -rf' on these files instead of 'mv' but this will prevent you from restoring anything.

[collisionystm]

I had that. It was my video card driver. Apparently gnome-shells video card requirements are different than Unity.

[atentik]

Thanks everyone. collisionystm, how did you solve the problem. should I remove gnome-shell?

[collisionystm]

Thanks everyone. collisionystm, how did you solve the problem. should I remove gnome-shell?

I tried to update my video card drivers. Still failed.

I actually ended up using CrunchBang with xfce and it worked really well. I had all effects and it was so smooth..almost unbelievable.