Ubuntu – Blank desktop after installing Ubuntu 14.04 on Oracle virtual box

14.04

I have been trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my oracle virtualbox, after installation, it brings forth a blank desktop without any programs or applications on it. It will display "Guest Operating system" and ask for password. After typing in the password, it still shows blank desktop.

Also, I tried installing "Virtualbox additional disk image", but to no avail.

Please, what do I do to resolve these issues?
Thanks

Best Answer

I am a several years long user of VirtualBox and have noticed this issue with the latest version of Kubuntu (15.04) and the latest version of VirtualBox (4.3.28). I can install Kubuntu just fine on the virtual machine, and get into the desktop, but once I run updates I begin getting the blank screen after login.

I'm beginning to believe it is an issue with the latest Linux Kernel, since that is a part of the update package. Either the kernel is incompatible with VirtualBox, or something in Kubuntu.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 14.04 64bit locks up after login

Issue resolved.

To remedy my problem I did the following:

Boot into failsafe graphics mode and login with normal user (or boot to terminal instead)
purge nvidia and bumblebee if installed sudo apt-get purge nvidia* bumblebee*
install nvidia prime sudo apt-get install nvidia-prime
Reboot

This resolved my issues after a reboot. I was able to login with no issues and verify that both graphics cards are usable and that Nvidia proprietary driver version 331.38 is in use.

Ubuntu – Get back the original Ubuntu Desktop after removing Mate

Please try this command to fully remove the desktop

sudo apt-get remove --purge ubuntu-mate-core ubuntu-mate-desktop

If you have both GDM and lightDM installed please

sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm

Then set light dm to default (use the method you said you use before)

Based on mchids comment below this, you need to edit edit this file 50-unity-greeter.conf

Create a 50-unity-greeter.conf

sudo gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

The file this opens should be blank so add this to it

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter

Save it then

sudo chmod +x /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

Then reboot and see if this helps

TO FIX YOUR ICONS

An easy fix for your icons should be install unity tweaktool from software center (dont know package name for apt, maby someone will edit)

Go to icons and just choose different ones