Lost Panel after update (SOLVED)

[bushyiii]

I upgraded from 18.3 to 19, everything worked fine. then upgrade 19.1 and again everything seemed good. a new update on 19.1 left me a desktop without a panel, so without the panel I don't have a menu. Pretty lost right now.

I am on the same box as I write this post using a LM19 live on a USB.

Two additional questions:
I used Timeshift to make a backup while on LM19. Can it be restored without adding problems
Should this post be moved to a different forum?

[WharfRat]

I can't answer your additional questions, but for the panel if you're running mate see viewtopic.php?t=124839

[bushyiii]

I install Cinnamon. I will take a look at your link, maybe there's something there that can help.

[WharfRat]

Cinnamon might use the mate-panel so try which mate-panel

[smurphos]

On your panel less desktop can you open a run dialog with Alt-F2? Or a terminal window with Ctrl-Alt-T?

If so run the command cinnamon-settings panel to bring up the panel settings GUI and see if you can add new panel.

Alternatively in a terminal run the command gsettings reset-recursively org.cinnamon to reset the desktop layout to defaults. After hit Ctrl-Alt-Esc to restart cinnamon.

[bushyiii]

I cannot open a run dialog with Alt-F2 or open a terminal window with Ctrl-Alt-T
Here's some more observations:
I was able to open a browser by navigating through the file system as the file manager is always open on start up.
The icons to minimize, maximize and close the file manager window and the browser's are missing.
The icons to change the file managers view exist and work but they look very strange.
There's no Internet access, I am using ethernet so its strange the interface isn't working.
The cursur is a "X".
Only way to end a session is using the power button to exit.

I am pretty much dead in the water. I am working of off a live instance of LM19.1 So I may be able to do something if anyone has any ideas.

[WharfRat]

I cannot open a run dialog with Alt-F2 or open a terminal window with Ctrl-Alt-T
Here's some more observations:
I was able to open a browser by navigating through the file system as the file manager is always open on start up.
The icons to minimize, maximize and close the file manager window and the browser's are missing.
The cursur is a "X".

This is starting to sound like a graphics driver problem especially when minimize, maximize and close buttons are missing from an application window.

Mount your linux partition to /mnt and check if there's a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file there.

It will be /mnt//etc/X11 with your partition mounted to /mnt

[bushyiii]

Xorg.conf does not exist

[WharfRat]

Can we see inxi -Fzxp

[bushyiii]

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System:
  Host: mint Kernel: 4.15.0-20-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 7.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.0.8 Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa 
  base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF PC 
  v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1495 serial: <filter> UEFI: Hewlett-Packard 
  v: J01 v02.15 date: 11/10/2011 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-2600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54264 
  Speed: 1596 MHz min/max: 1600/3800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1596 2: 1596 
  3: 1596 4: 1596 5: 1596 6: 1596 7: 1596 8: 1596 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Caicos [Radeon HD 6450/7450/8450 / R5 230 OEM] 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: ati,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.15.0-20-generic LLVM 6.0.0) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 18.0.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  Device-2: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
  bus ID: 1-1.1.3:6 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-20-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
  driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: f040 bus ID: 00:19.0 
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 4.15 TiB used: 1.29 TiB (31.2%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sdb vendor: Hitachi model: HDT725040VLA360 size: 372.61 GiB 
  temp: 44 C 
  ID-2: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Seagate model: Backup+ Desk 
  size: 3.64 TiB 
  ID-3: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: A-Data model: USB Flash Drive 
  size: 28.91 GiB 
  ID-4: /dev/sdf type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: THNSNJ128GCSU 
  size: 119.24 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 7.81 GiB used: 277.9 MiB (3.5%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
  ID-2: /cdrom size: 1.84 GiB used: 1.84 GiB (100.0%) fs: iso9660 
  dev: /dev/sdd 
  ID-3: /media/mint/Hitachi_Deskstar size: 366.64 GiB 
  used: 313.72 GiB (85.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 
  ID-4: /media/mint/Seagate Backup Plus Drive size: 3.64 TiB 
  used: 993.01 GiB (26.7%) fs: ntfs dev: /dev/sdc2 
  ID-5: /mnt/toshiba size: 101.04 GiB used: 18.28 GiB (18.1%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/sdf2 
  ID-6: /rofs raw size: 1.76 GiB size: <root required> used: <root required> 
  fs: squashfs dev: /dev/loop0 
  ID-7: swap-1 size: 5.22 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap 
  dev: /dev/sda3\040(deleted) 
  ID-8: swap-2 size: 4.88 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap 
  dev: /dev/sde6\040(deleted) 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 51 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 256 Uptime: 3h 01m Memory: 15.62 GiB used: 1.67 GiB (10.7%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.19 
  inxi: 3.0.27 

[WharfRat]

I don't see anything mounted to /mnt

paste back blkid and mount|grep /dev

[bushyiii]

I could not access the LM19.1 drive. I removed it and accessed it attached through USB.
This is the command string I used to mount the LM19.1 SSD: mint@mint:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdf2 /mnt/toshiba
After doing that I was able to open the drive and check the folders.

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dev/sdb1: LABEL="Hitachi_Deskstar" UUID="fd20aa88-558f-4754-9dd0-9f56c0431258" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="00020e63-01"
/dev/sdc2: LABEL="Seagate Backup Plus Drive" UUID="168C19218C18FD45" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="24e60710-bd4b-47cd-beee-6d9041713601"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sdd2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="044E-AC17" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="09bebfcf-02"
/dev/sdf1: UUID="6451-7FBF" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System Partition" PARTUUID="27df18c3-7b96-45d3-856d-175a1fd93d10"
/dev/sdf2: UUID="f04f6bd1-b16b-4bb1-a591-d3bfce3a1ecb" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="955f61c0-f300-43d4-b4b0-6ae9b4ab4e2c"
/dev/sdf3: UUID="b766ed70-3593-4cb5-9d10-05262a95d940" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="4904837d-defa-4d74-b12e-cc24caf18540"
/dev/sdc1: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="02e6e477-b4f7-408b-b9db-2f77fcdce592"
/dev/sdd1: UUID="2018-12-17-14-00-47-00" LABEL="Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon 64-bit" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="09bebfcf" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="09bebfcf-01"

mint@mint:~$ mount|grep /dev
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=8170216k,nr_inodes=2042554,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
/dev/sdd on /cdrom type iso9660 (ro,noatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048)
/dev/loop0 on /rofs type squashfs (ro,noatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,pagesize=2M)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/mint/Hitachi_Deskstar type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,stripe=32747,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/sdc2 on /media/mint/Seagate Backup Plus Drive type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/fuse on /root/.cache/doc type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0)
/dev/sdf2 on /mnt/toshiba type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)

[WharfRat]

To me it looks like the mint partition is /dev/sdf2.

Just to make sure you looked in the right place for xorg.conf do:

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sudo umount -v /dev/sdf2
sudo mount /dev/sdf2 /mnt
ls -lh /mnt/etc/X11

Paste back the results of the last line.

[bushyiii]

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mint@mint:~$ sudo umount -v /dev/sdf2
umount: /mnt/toshiba (/dev/sdf2) unmounted

mint@mint:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdf2 /mnt

mint@mint:~$ ls -lh /mnt/etc/X11
total 72K
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  709 Nov 10  2015 Xreset
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Feb  4 17:27 Xreset.d
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Feb  4 17:27 Xresources
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.7K Mar  4  2016 Xsession
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Feb  4 22:03 Xsession.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  265 Nov 10  2015 Xsession.options
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   13 Dec  5  2016 XvMCConfig
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Feb  4 21:23 app-defaults
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   18 Nov 24  2017 default-display-manager
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K Nov 24  2017 fonts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  17K Nov 10  2015 rgb.txt
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Feb  4 21:23 xinit
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Jan 22  2016 xkb
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Feb  4 21:23 xsm

[WharfRat]

Now for some Hail Mary stuff.

yourname=your mint user folder name

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cd /mnt/home/yourname
sudo mv -v ..cache/  .cache/.bak
sudo mv -v .config/dconf/user .config/dconf/user.bak
sudo reboot

When rebooting pull the USB asn see if there is any change.

[bushyiii]

My home folder is on another drive, does that change anything with your last post?

[WharfRat]

My home folder is on another drive, does that change anything with your last post?

Yes, where is it

[bushyiii]

home = /dev/sdb1: LABEL="Hitachi_Deskstar" UUID="fd20aa88-558f-4754-9dd0-9f56c0431258" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="00020e63-01"

[WharfRat]

home = /dev/sdb1: LABEL="Hitachi_Deskstar" UUID="fd20aa88-558f-4754-9dd0-9f56c0431258" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="00020e63-01"

yourname=your mint user folder name so use your mint username in the fourth line.

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sudo umount -v /mnt
sudo umount -v /dev/sdb1
sudo mount -v /dev/sdb1 /mnt
cd /mnt/yourname
sudo mv -v ..cache/  .cache/.bak
sudo mv -v .config/dconf/user .config/dconf/user.bak
sudo reboot

[bushyiii]

Received an error:
mint@mint:/mnt/guy$ sudo mv -v ..cache/ .cache/.bak
mv: cannot stat '..cache/': No such file or directory

Did not continue with the terminal commands since this error. I opened my home directory as root and found many .cache folders. Is ..cache the problem, should it be only one dot rather than two?