Ubuntu – No launcher and menu bar on ubuntu 16.04

Enter the following commands:- Ctrl+Alt+F1 login there with username and password

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING COMMAND WILL TERMINATE YOUR ACTIVE SESSION!

try:

sudo service lightdm restart

If restarting lightdm doesn't fix the problem, install aptitude and then install unity:

sudo apt-get install aptitude
sudo apt-get update && sudo aptitude -f install && sudo aptitude dist-upgrade
sudo aptitude install unity

Read the outputs carefully. If you do have broken dependencies, aptitude will give you the "solution" of NOT installing unity. Say no to this solution. Then it will give you another solution which will install broken dependencies. Say yes to this one. Once installation is complete, sudo service lightdm restart again. If you still have some issues, also reinstall ubuntu-desktop:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

followed by another sudo service lightdm restart.

(Credit to @DinGODzilla from this question)

I have stumbled upon the exact same issue! I upgraded from 14.04LTS to 16.04LTS about a month ago, and everything went very well. Recently, however, no dash or window border anymore!

I have tried, as suggested in several posts, to reset config:

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
setsid unity

I tried to reinstall unity and compiz,

sudo apt-get autoremove --purge ubuntu-desktop compiz* unity*
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop compiz unity

I have tried to remove config files from local user hidden dirs,

sudo service lightdm stop
rm ~/.config/dconf/user
rm -fr ~/.cache/compizconfig-1
rm -fr ~/.compiz
rm -fr ~/.Xauthority
rm -fr ~/.config/autostart
sudo service lightdm start

Similarly, I enabled the Unity plugin in CCSM but this is not permanent since, when re-opening CCSM, the Unity plugin appears unchecked, even when opened with admin. rights.

Sadly, all of these attempts failed in restoring dash and window borders. I guess this is an issue with compiz, the window manager, but I have no idea how to fix it. Any ideas welcome ;)