Ubuntu – Launcher, menubar and window borders disappeared in Ubuntu 16.04

16.04openglunity

After upgrading to 16.04 from 15.10 it was running smoothly for about one week, then it started getting random crashes and freezes and now all the windows borders disappeared. I would include a screenshot but the keyboard shortcut for screenshots doesn't work.

Launcher is missing, and the global menu/ top bar is also missing. Right now my firefox window is maximized to the top and fills the screen like if I had pressed F11 to run it fullscreen. None of the keyboard shortcuts work.

Can't open a terminal using Ctrl + Alt + T. I finally managed to get a terminal open and ran unity –debug and this is the result. [opened the terminal using ctrl+space to open synapse, apparently that works and also copying in terminal and pasting firefox also works]

unity --debug
unity-panel-service stop/waiting
unity7 stop/waiting
unity-panel-service start/running, process 2515
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: core
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: core
[New Thread 0x7ffff3638700 (LWP 2588)]
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: ccp
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: ccp
[New Thread 0x7fffeb20e700 (LWP 2590)]
compizconfig - Info: Backend     : gsettings
compizconfig - Info: Integration : true
compizconfig - Info: Profile     : unity
[New Thread 0x7fffeaa0d700 (LWP 2591)]
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: composite
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: composite
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: regex
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: regex
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: commands
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: commands
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: resize
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: resize
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: place
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: place
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: move
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: move
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: snap
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: snap
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: session
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: session
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: imgpng
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: imgpng
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: compiztoolbox
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: compiztoolbox
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Error: Plugin 'opengl' not loaded.

/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: mousepoll
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: mousepoll
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: vpswitch
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: vpswitch
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: workarounds
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: workarounds
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Error: Plugin 'opengl' not loaded.

There is one error of opengl plugin not loading. Is that the problem?

Best Answer

I found the answer from this thread (https://askubuntu.com/a/717860/25131)

  1. Alt + F10 and then open terminal from the menu that appears
  2. then type ccsm in to the terminal.
  3. in there search for unity plugin and enable it.

It asks several questions because enabling it conflicts with another. After enabling it the Unity launcher and menu bar should appear.