Solved: update problems - missing panel/titlebars/etc

[canoeguide]

Some time ago I installed Oracle/Sun JRE by (I believe) following the instructions here: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1091

All was well.

Yesterday the update manager prompted me to install a bunch of things and I believe there were some java updates (either to Oracle or Openjdk/jre), which I let the update manager install.

Today I tried to run Minecraft (which of course is Java based) and after the login screen in MC, I was quickly logged out of Mint. Upon logging back in, the Cinnamon menu/taskbar were gone and other window effects/buttons were missing. I can however start a gnome session fine, but Cinnamon is messed up and in any environment, running Minecraft boots me to the session login screen.

How can I diagnose this problem and/or restore Cinnamon? Thanks in advance for any help?

[canoeguide]

I should add that 'which java' points to /usr/bin/java, which is linked to /etc/alternatives/java, which is linked to /opt/java/64/jre1.7.0_15/bin/java.

[canoeguide]

Ok, it seems Java may or may not be a red herring here from reading other desciptions of missing panels/title bars/etc. However I can report the following - I've tried gnome and several of the other options, and all work fine until I run Minecraft - then poof toolbar/panel/title bars etc are gone and cannot be brought back in whatever desktop env was running - even after a reboot.

[canoeguide]

Solved. Something in the updates must have borked ati vid drivers. Reinstalling drivers solved all issues.