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Thread: cannot launch terminal and much more

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Beans
    4

    cannot launch terminal and much more

    13.10. Screen black, no panel, no launcher, just cursor. keyring login came up and was able to enter password successfully but that is all. cannot access terminal with ctrl+alt+t. right click does not give access to settings. ctrl+alt+F1 does bring up tty but unable to comply with request for username (I have not been asked for it since installation long ago and I don't remember, hell, I don't well remember what I was exactly doing this morning to initiate these troubles...mucking around with Ubuntu Tweaks trying to lighten the panel changing opacity? Don't think I found the setting...

    Have broken Unity before, if that's what I've done here, but managed to get back by copying and pasting corrections into terminal but I am stuck. Help would be much appreciated.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    UK
    Beans
    17,059
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: cannot launch terminal and much more

    If u got a terminal reset unity and compiz.

    dconf reset -f /org/compiz/

    Then

    setsid unity

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Beans
    4

    Re: cannot launch terminal and much more

    thanks but

    "cannot access terminal with ctrl+alt+t", is there some other way?

    "ctrl+alt+F1 does bring up tty but unable to comply with request for username..." failure to know name is restricting access to tty

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    Mystletainn Kick!
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    13,596
    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Re: cannot launch terminal and much more

    Can you boot into recovery mode?

    If you can, open the root shell(or whatever it's called)
    and run
    Code:
    ls /home
    This should at least give you the username in that listing.
    then try the above commands to reset unity and compiz.
    Splat Double Splat Triple Splat
    Earn Your Keep
    Don't mind me, I'm only passing through.
    Once in a blue moon, I'm actually helpful
    .

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    52.5° N 6.4° E
    Beans
    6,806
    Distro
    Xubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

    Re: cannot launch terminal and much more

    In case you lost your password too, see http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword. This tells how to reach a recovery console or root shell too. With that you should be able to login to tty1.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Beans
    4

    Re: cannot launch terminal and much more

    retrieved username via instructions, thank you.

    dconf reset -f /org/compiz/ yields

    error: Error spawning command line 'dbus-launch --autolaunch=f5585e9d6560af91d536c9fe50c68573 --binary-syntac --close-stderr ': Child process exited with code

    Usage:
    dconf reset [-f] PATH

    Reset a key or dir. -f is required for dirs.

    Arguments:
    PATH Either a KEY or DIR
    KEY A key path (starting, but not ending with '/')
    DIR A directory path (starting and ending with '/')

    entered
    setsid unity
    anyway but still no panel, launcher, terminal via ctrl+alt+t.

    unity command in terminal yields

    WARNING: no DISPLAY variable set, setting it to :0

    GLib-WARNING **: GChildWatchSource: Exit status of a child process was requested but ECHILD was received by waitpid(). Most likely the process is ignoring SIGCHLD, or some other thread is invoking waitpid() with a nonpositive first argument; either behavior can break applications that use g_child_watch_add()/g_spawn_sync() either directly or indirectly.

    compiz (open gl) Error FBO is incomplete: GL:: FRAMEBUFFER_UNSUPPORTED (0x8cdd)



  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Beans
    7,256

    Re: cannot launch terminal and much more

    Usually you can only run the dconf compiz reset from inside the desktop session - you may be able to get it to attach to the running dbus instance from your virtual console by setting the DISPLAY environment variable appropriately e.g.

    Code:
    DISPLAY=:0 dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
    Code:
    DISPLAY=:0 setsid unity
    or just export the variable first

    Code:
    export DISPLAY=:0
    dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
    setsid unity
    In case the X server didn't start on display :0 (sometimes happens if you also run headless sessions) then you can check the output of ps e.g.

    Code:
    ps -ef | grep vt[7]

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Beans
    4

    Re: cannot launch terminal and much more

    Yes, that brought back panel and launcher. Wish I understood what transpired. Any simple explanation? Why cursor visible, why login keyring but nothing else? Why is it so easy to break unity and why not so easy to regain?

    More importantly... thank you all, especially deadflowr and steeldriver.

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