Unity not launching on startup

[seeyouza]

I recently recovered Unity after purging the Gnome3 PPA and running a dist upgrade again back to Unity.

My problem now is that when I boot into Unity, all I get is the desktop, background and a cursor. I can click on and launch any apps that happen to be on the desktop, but I can't see the unity launch bar, or the action menu, or the top panel - which leads me to believe Unity isn't actually launching. The theory is further supported by the fact that if I launch Unity manually in a terminal ("unity") - it launches, after a brief loading period, and works perfectly.

How can I make this happen automatically again?

[mac67]

Hi,

I had the same problem when upgrading to 11.04. When you are asked for username and password, choose first "Classic" or "unity 2d". The first option gives you Gnome, the second gives Unity for older PC's (older, nowadays, means "older than 2 years" or even less) and should work well. If not, you have to install unity 2d first.

[seeyouza]

My problem isn't that Unity 3d doesn't work.. if I launch it manually, it runs perfectly. The problem is that it doesn't launch by itself after logging in, and I have no idea why?

[Krytarik]

Please see this troubleshooting guide, specifically the part about CCSM and enabling the "Ubuntu Unity Plugin":
http://ubuntu4beginners.blogspot.com/2011/04/missing-top-and-side-panels-in-unity.html

Greetings.