I rebooted my 12.10 (Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-60-generic #91-Ubuntu SMP Wed Feb 19 03:55:18 UTC 2014 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux) which has been running fine for many months after a Thunderbird update and found the icons had suddenly changed and a few were missing on the login screen. After logging in the screen was blank, no background image, no launcher, no task bar.

I went into a shell and tried unity --reset and --reset-icons but that failed.
--reset produced:

WARNING: Unity currently default profile, so switching to metacity while resetting the values

Window manager warning: Failed to load theme "Ambiance": Line 195 character 94: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/metacity-1/trough_left.png'

unity-panel-service: no process found

Checking if settings need to be migrated ...no

Checking if internal files need to be migrated ...no

Backend     : gconf

Integration : true

Profile     : unity

Adding plugins

Initializing core options...done



compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x2800003



compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x2800007



compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x2e000b1



compiz (core) - Warn: failed to receive ConfigureNotify event on 0x2400005



Initializing composite options...done

Initializing opengl options...done

Initializing decor options...done

Initializing vpswitch options...done

Initializing snap options...done

Initializing mousepoll options...done

Initializing resize options...done

Initializing place options...done

Initializing move options...done

Initializing wall options...done

Initializing grid options...done

Initializing session options...done

Initializing gnomecompat options...done

Initializing animation options...done

Initializing fade options...done

Initializing unitymtgrabhandles options...done

Initializing workarounds options...done

Initializing scale options...done

compiz (expo) - Warn: failed to bind image to texture

Initializing expo options...done

Initializing ezoom options...done



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1516:46: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1521:55: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1525:58: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1529:55: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1533:64: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1537:67: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1595:73: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/assets/scrollbar_handle_vertical.png'



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1612:64: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/assets/scrollbar_handle.png'



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:769:55: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:773:55: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:777:67: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:781:64: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:785:64: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:789:76: Unrecognized image file format



(compiz:4230): GConf-CRITICAL **: gconf_client_add_dir: assertion `gconf_valid_key (dirname, NULL)' failed

WARN  2014-03-22 17:42:37 unity.favorites FavoriteStoreGSettings.cpp:139 Unable to load GDesktopAppInfo for 'ubiquity-gtkui.desktop'

ERROR 2014-03-22 17:42:37 nux.image GdkGraphics.cpp:68 Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/unity/5/dash_noise.png'

WARN  2014-03-22 17:42:37 nux.image GdkGraphics.cpp:80 No pixbuf loaded

Segmentation fault

I then reinstalled compiz, ubunutu-desktop, no change. I was able to get "gnome-panel" up so I had some GUI but several icons are missing but the services are running. The windows can not be resized and I am unable to save screen shots to anything, even though I can read/write via terminal.

When I launch firefox for example it generates a "sys_page_size=0" error and can not be resized properly. I have to connect with the CLI to wifi because there seems to be no indicator for network-manager.

I do see a lot of these:

Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:773:55: Unrecognized image file form

/var/log/syslog shows:

Mar 22 05:45:28 ubuntu kernel: [  376.763327] compiz[3062]: segfault at 0 ip 013

8d46f sp bfa59ea0 error 4 in libunityshell.so[11b8000+2ff000]

Mar 22 05:45:31 ubuntu kernel: [  379.209530] compiz[3161]: segfault at 0 ip 015

5d46f sp bffc9200 error 4 in libunityshell.so[1388000+2ff000]

Mar 22 05:46:11 ubuntu kernel: [  418.939940] compiz[3353]: segfault at 0 ip 04f

5346f sp bfee65b0 error 4 in libunityshell.so[4d7e000+2ff000]

Any ideas? I don't know what is going on here and my system is pretty hosed. I would like to find a fix for this rather than download a new image which will take days if I'm lucky. TIA.

EDIT #1:

I've been running kernel 3.2.0-60 for months and I've dropped back to 3.2.0-59 but no change in the situation.

One thing I discovered is that GTK can no longer read images (png, jpg, etc.). I can't open images that I know are valid and none of the desktop images seem to load:

(gnome-panel:2954): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1612:64: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/assets/scrollbar_handle.png'

This could be part of the problem with why icons, task bar, etc. are failing to show. Does anyone have an idea of what I could try to correct these problems?

For example if I try to view a known good JPG with eog from the cli I get this string of messages and EOG opens to a empty (black) image with an error "Unrecognized image file format". The command errors are:

(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1516:46: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1521:55: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1525:58: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1529:55: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1533:64: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1537:67: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1595:73: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/assets/scrollbar_handle_vertical.png'



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1612:64: Couldn't recognize the image file format for file '/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/assets/scrollbar_handle.png'



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:769:55: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:773:55: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:777:67: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:781:64: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:785:64: Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets-backdrop.css:789:76: Unrecognized image file format



** (eog:3842): CRITICAL **: failed to load icon 'lpi-help': Unrecognized image file format



(eog:3842): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_icon_theme_load_icon: assertion `error == NULL || *error == NULL' failed



** (eog:3842): CRITICAL **: failed to load icon 'lpi-translate': Unrecognized image file format

EDIT #2:

Mr. Lee was correct https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+3.0/+bug/1295220 was one of my problems because I had to use gfvs before there was a ubuntu ppa for it. This was causing part of my problem with images/icons missing. However I still need to drop to a terminal and run "gnome-panel" to bring up the taskbar (no launcher appears, unable to resize or move windows) and running gnome-panel produces this error:

*** BUG ***

In pixman_region32_init_rect: Invalid rectangle passed

Set a breakpoint on '_pixman_log_error' to debug

**strong text**

At least it is mostly functional once I run gnome-panel. However I'm not sure what is still wrong with Unity. Not being able to resize or move windows or have at the left side launcher bar means something is still really confused.

EDIT #3:

In the end Mr. Lee's solution via the bugfix and running "unity --reset" restored the desktop properly and now boots up properly without the help of gnome-panel.