A Bizarre Problem

[melevan]

I have been using the latest version of Ubuntu and I did not have any drivers for my video card installed. I believed that this was causing the machine to crash while doing graphic intensive tasks like looking at pictures on Facebook. So I went to the Ubuntu software center and found the drivers.The drivers installed were for a GeForce 8500gs video card. There were two options and I installed the one labeled "current". I then restarted the computer to activate the drivers. This worked but gave me a slight problem. When the computer rebooted it changed the display. I did not know this until I had killed and restarted the computer about five times. The screen displays a portion of the center of the desktop but does not display any of the icons to open programs that are around the edge of the screen and I cannot move the mouse off the side of the screen to find them. This means I cannot click to open a terminal or the settings. Although, I am not completely helpless. I can right-click on the desktop background and create a new folder. From this folder I can access the file system and all other folders. I need to know how to open the settings and/or the terminal from the file system. (I'm thinking the solution for the settings and the terminal are the same.) I think once I can access the settings I will be able to fix the display but if that is not the case I would surely like to know. Thanks.

[ageofsteam]

Can you navigate to
/usr/bin

If so, going down to the file gnome-terminal and clicking on it should bring up the terminal...

(I don't think I can help you beyond that, but it should at least bring up the terminal- and possibly could be used to run some other things, too, since most of the software launch files are in /usr/bin/)

[Bashing-om]

melevanl Hi ! Welcome to the forum.

Keyboard short cut to open a terminal:
key combo ctl+alt+t

If you get stuck fixing your desktop, holler. We are here to assist.

hope this helps