12.04 failed to load session “gnome-classic” and almost any other

[tenshimsm]

Ubuntu 12.04 failed to load session “gnome-classic”

I don't know why but all of a sudden started to show the following messages:

failed to load session "gnome-classic" When I try to open gnome classic from gnome3
failed to load session "ubuntu" When I try to open ubuntu
failed to load session "ubuntu-2d" When I try to open ubuntu-2d
failed to load session "gnome" When I try to open gnome classic

The only interface working is MATE

What should I do? What has happened? Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is giving only headaches

[Edit] It was working with all the interfaces. I don't know why it stopped. It's not in my computer.

[Edit] It was working with all the interfaces. I don't know why it stopped. It's not in my computer. The login screen, where you choose which interface to load, is working. So I think lightdm is working.

[Edit] Another strange behavior is that using KDE is incredibly faster than using MATE. That's weird! I also removed the session managers, gnome, unity, cinnamon and even the ubuntu-desktop with no success.


It was working with all the interfaces. I don't know why it stopped. It's not in my computer.

It didn't stop afer installing MATE, is not my machine but I've installed it and it was everything fine at least a week later.

The owner installed KDE, so MATE and KDE are working. Iǘe tried Cinnamon with no success too, the same problem. Come on people! Do I have to use the Windows sollution?! Format the darn thing?!

How to solve this WITHOUT formatting or clean install?

[Pistolpete2]

Have you tried looking into the log files for finding the source of the problem?

As your MATE interface is working you could try the following.
Try to login into a non-working interface (This won't work but hopefully this will create usefull logging messages).
Next login to MATE and checkout the contents of /var/log/messages

You can also post the contents of the file, I don't think it contains sensitive information.

[tenshimsm]

Have you tried looking into the log files for finding the source of the problem?

As your MATE interface is working you could try the following.
Try to login into a non-working interface (This won't work but hopefully this will create usefull logging messages).
Next login to MATE and checkout the contents of /var/log/messages

You can also post the contents of the file, I don't think it contains sensitive information.

I'll try it but ate least in my machine there is no messages file or folder in /var/log.

[Pistolpete2]

Oops, my bad, on Ubuntu /var/log/messages doesn't exist . That is logging file for red hat based linux OSes.

You should check the contents of the file /var/log/syslog

[mbuell]

Ubuntu 12.04 failed to load session “gnome-classic”

I don't know why but all of a sudden started to show the following messages:

failed to load session "gnome-classic" When I try to open gnome classic from gnome3
failed to load session "ubuntu" When I try to open ubuntu
failed to load session "ubuntu-2d" When I try to open ubuntu-2d
failed to load session "gnome" When I try to open gnome classic

The only interface working is MATE

What should I do? What has happened? Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is giving only headaches

[Edit] It was working with all the interfaces. I don't know why it stopped. It's not in my computer.

[Edit] It was working with all the interfaces. I don't know why it stopped. It's not in my computer. The login screen, where you choose which interface to load, is working. So I think lightdm is working.

[Edit] Another strange behavior is that using KDE is incredibly faster than using MATE. That's weird! I also removed the session managers, gnome, unity, cinnamon and even the ubuntu-desktop with no success.


It was working with all the interfaces. I don't know why it stopped. It's not in my computer.

It didn't stop afer installing MATE, is not my machine but I've installed it and it was everything fine at least a week later.

The owner installed KDE, so MATE and KDE are working. Iǘe tried Cinnamon with no success too, the same problem. Come on people! Do I have to use the Windows sollution?! Format the darn thing?!

How to solve this WITHOUT formatting or clean install?

1: Do I understand correctly, this did at one time boot to all the options you listed?
2: If the answer to #1 is yes, what changed? I think something must have changed.
3: Checking the log messages has already been suggested. You should do this. You can get KDE running - it has a log file viewer.
4: Running fsck on your disk might be a good idea.
5: It might be that while installing something, some dependencies have been broken. Reinstalling the desktops is fairly trivial in Linux. Just use Synaptic and select reinstall.

No answer I have is definitive. There is too little information here for me to say for sure it is one thing or another.