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 ;)
Assuming you can access the terminal, have you considered downloading and switching to another desktop environment? Recently I had a very similar problem with compiz/unity and the only solution was switching to GNOME 3. If you don't really care that much about the GUI, maybe that's the way to go.
So you can access your account and you can log into other accounts without any problem. I'm just guessing but maybe it's worth a try.
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop
By the way, It can be a great moment to getting to know GNOME because the next LTS Ubuntu release will have it as default, from what I've heard.
Best Answer
Your
CCSM
configuration isn't sticking because you don't have ownership (permission
) of key configuration files and folders in your home directory. You can verify this with:To regain ownership of files in your home folder you can run this command:
That should be sufficient for loading the desktop successfully. The
CCSM
configuration you mention in your question would then stick between reboots.This issue is created by running certain GUI applications as
sudo
.Update:
The resolution was to rename the
~user
folder and create a clean one. Then copy the files from the old~user
folder.The steps need to be performed a different account). Create an account
B
. Login asB
. To perform the steps. TheB
needs to havesudo
access. This can be done with. ConsiderA
your account andB
thedifferent account to perform the commands
.From the terminal (of
B
login) run:Now login as
A
and copy or move your content from a folderA.str
in your fresh login.