Question

2

When Cinnamon is installed, Unity desktop "smears" (doesn't refresh) and shows no wallpaper

rated 0 times [ 2] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 2267 / 2 Years ago, thu, april 14, 2022, 5:26:38

Since a couple of days now, my unity desktop background smears everything, just like what old Windows versions were famous for:

smeared desktop

Of course, I tried rebooting a couple of times. Also, I switched graphics driver and I tried to change wallpaper and theme, but none of them solved the problem.

What could be causing that problem, and where can I search on for its source?

Infomation update

I'm using Ubuntu 13.04 (not updated to 13.10 yet).

The following commands were all run from cinnamon (on the same Ubuntu installation).

sudo lsb_release -a:

No LSB modules are available.

Distributor ID: Ubuntu

Description:    Ubuntu 13.04

Release:    13.04

Codename:   raring

sudo uname -a:

Linux cedric-MacBookPro 3.8.0-32-generic #47-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 1 22:35:23 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

sudo dpkg -l | grep xserver-xorg-video:

ii  xserver-xorg-video-all                    1:7.7+1ubuntu4                         amd64        X.Org X server -- output driver metapackage

ii  xserver-xorg-video-ati                    1:7.1.0-0ubuntu2                       amd64        X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper

ii  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus                 1:1.5.2-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Cirrus display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-fbdev                  1:0.4.3-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- fbdev display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel                  2:2.21.6-0ubuntu4.3                    amd64        X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-mach64                 6.9.3-0ubuntu1                         amd64        X.Org X server -- ATI Mach64 display driver

ii  xservhttps://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1244237er-xorg-video-mga                    1:1.6.2-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- MGA display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-modesetting            0.7.0-0ubuntu2                         amd64        X.Org X server -- Generic modesetting driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-neomagic               1:1.2.7-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Neomagic display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau                1:1.0.7-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-openchrome             1:0.3.1-0ubuntu1.13.04.1               amd64        X.Org X server -- VIA display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-qxl                    0.1.0-0ubuntu3                         amd64        X.Org X server -- QXL display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-r128                   6.9.1-0ubuntu1                         amd64        X.Org X server -- ATI r128 display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-radeon                 1:7.1.0-0ubuntu2                       amd64        X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI Radeon display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-s3                     1:0.6.5-0ubuntu3                       amd64        X.Org X server -- legacy S3 display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-savage                 1:2.3.6-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Savage display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion          1:1.7.7-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- SiliconMotion display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-sis                    1:0.10.7-0ubuntu1                      amd64        X.Org X server -- SiS display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-sisusb                 1:0.9.6-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- SiS USB display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-tdfx                   1:1.4.5-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- tdfx display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-trident                1:1.3.6-0ubuntu2                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Trident display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-vesa                   1:2.3.2-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- VESA display driver

ii  xserver-xorg-video-vmware                 1:12.0.2+git.e5ac80d8-0ubuntu1         amd64        X.Org X server -- VMware display driver

sudo lspci | grep VGA:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216M [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2)

Update 2

This bug might be related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1244237

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answered 2 Years ago istmasted · Accepted Answer

By now, I've had the same issue on two different machines. On the first one, it solved itself with a distribution upgrade. On the other one, I followed comment #10's tip in this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1244237

sudo apt-get purge cinnamon

This command uninstalls Cinnamon (Mint's desktop environment), including Nemo, and deletes all configuration.

Apparently, this problem was related to Cinnamon/Nemo, or the fact that probably two different desktop environments/file managers (Unity/Nautilus and Cinnamon/Nemo) tried to manage destop backgrounds, but I don't know any details.

Update

This article features a version of Nemo for Unity without Cinnamon.