GDM not starting X after upgrades

[linuxgrrl]

hi,
I've upgraded through many versions of Ubuntu and am now at 12.10. I was using gnome classic before my upgrade.

* X will not start from GDM. When I enter my password, the screen goes blank for a second then returns to GDM screen.
X does start from a command line with startx

* clicking on the "foot" icon in GDM doesn't do anything ... i thought it was supposed to display options for gnome, unity, etc?

* when I do start gnome from startx, the taskbar (top bar) looks a little funny, and icons are crashing.

* some applications will start 'offscreen' - i can see them in the window manager, but they are off to the right.

is there a way to totally re-install X and gnome, so that they are set up "from scratch" with correct settings?
Thanks

[kansasnoob]

Are you sure you're on 12.10? That's more than a little scary because it reached end-of-life earlier this month:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

And you won't be able to upgrade because 13.04 was the first release to adapt the 9 month support schedule so it reached EOL in January :(

Probably time to consider a fresh install of either Precise or Trusty :redface:

[linuxgrrl]

Thanks. Did a fresh install of 14.04 LTS and GDM is better now. i actually really like Unity (that makes me a minority?) so i'm ready to leave Gnome Classic behind forever.

Lots of hard crashes so far on 14.04 but i will address those in another forum.