I am a Linux/Ubuntu "noob" really so forgive me ahead of time. I I wanted to ask this question here also as I know there are some people on here who seem to be experts with some Linux distributions.

Anyway I started Dual Booting Ubuntu 13.04 with Windows 8 a couple days ago. The installation went smoothly and everything worked great. I was read up on some things about the Nvidia Drivers (was using my Intel 4000 Card first couple days) and seemed from everything I read, this command should work:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

everything seemed fine. I then did the update to 13.10. That seemed to go smoothly and it asked me to restart so I rebooted. On the reboot into Ubuntu that didn't go so smoothly. All I have is the desktop background. The Unity Launcher doesn't seem to load up. All I see is my desktop background and I can do crtl+alt+T to bring the terminal up but that seems to be it. Nothing else. I tried another reboot and the same thing.

I thought I would try to remove the nvidia packages and see if that helped. So I did

dpkg -l | grep nvidia-

so list the packages then removed them with

sudo apt-get purge <insert package name here>

that seemed to remove them. Rebooted and the same thing. Still only have the desktop background with no Unity Launcher or anything. anyone here have any advice about what the issue could be? I'm not sure what do about a recovery or anything like that. So if anyone has any advice to try or know what the issue could be that'd be great. A Google Search seems to lead that this was a Nvidia issue and to remove the packages. So I followed those instructions like I listed and nothing. So I am a little lost right now.

Thanks to all who help!

PS: my Windows 8 installation remains unaffected and is what I am using right now to type this and look for solutions.

I dunno. I never install nVidia drivers from the package manager. I just download them from nVidia's site, and sh the installer.

One time I tried to install drivers from the package manager, something fckd up and I had to remove each of the related packages one by one.

Yea I've been reading of issues of using nvidia drivers through packages.

Installing official ones through their website? All I kept reading is that nvidia didn't have very well supported drivers Linux at all and people have big issues with the latest ones. Actually I seemed to read of a lot of Nvidia issues for some reason. So they have some and work reliable for Linux? Would their be anyway I could try to get them without having a any GUI, just my desktop background and a terminal?

If I can't find a solution by tonight when I get off work or someone else can't really find anything I think may I just do a fresh reinstall. Since it's only been running a couple days I don't have any data saved on my Linux Partition yet so I wouldn't be losing anything. Just seeing of other solutions before I take that time.

Download the drivers from somewhere. Put them on a pendrive, and connect it to the computer.

From there you can work with the terminal (actually, you could do everything from the terminal, I just don't know how to download stuff from it ). Either copy the file from the pendrive, or execute it from it.

You'll need to stop your Xorg server first. For Gnome, it should be something like /etc/init.d/gdm stop, then you'll have only the terminal, then sh the installer and follow the instructions. If something is missing it will probably fail and you'll just have to do whatever you have to do and sh the installer again. One of the common issues is that you need the linux kernel headers for your current kernel version and you need to have the exact GCC version installed that was used to compile the kernel.

To bring the Xorg server up again, its just /etc/init.d/gdm start.

You'll be better reading a guide in internet though, since I'm skimming over things.

Well while I was at work I did some looking online to see if I could find anymore solutions. I seemed to find someone who was having the same issue I was having. Someone suggested he restart unity using the following command(s)

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
unity --reset-icons &disown

screen flashed for a bit but everything showed up. I haven't restarted yet to see what would happen on a restart but now that I do have everything back up and running I will attempt the drivers install from Nvidia. I will post back what happens after that...

Well been working on this for a couple of hours and can't seem to figure it out. The driver will never install. I quit X-Server and everything else it asks me too and I sudo sh the .run file. It fails pre-installation script it says then, then when trying to continue it starts to build the Kernal and it gets to 100% then hangs there a bit then pops up a message saying that it failed to build the Kernals. I've tried to do even more searching and can't seem to find a solution that works. Maybe the issue is that I am running 13.10 and it brought something in that the drivers don't support yet but I am not very sure. Google didn't bring anything up

Actually just did a bit more reading and seemed to find something interesting. "Ubuntu Developers have worked to support Hybrid Graphics in 13.10...unfortunately, the Nvidia Linux Graphics Drivers don't yet fully support Optimus."

It seems it does ship with something called "Nvidia-Prime" to switch on the Nvidia Card. I can install those. Though their are some pretty negative effects.

*Some laptops will get very hot, careful using this

*will experience screen tearing more than likely

*hotplug won't work so if want to use multiple monitors (like I currently am) then they be setup in xorg.conf manually

Just not sure if I want that right now. I think I'll just stick with the Intel Integrated 4000. I don't plan to play any graphical intense games on the Linux side.

Anyway that seems to be the issue from what I'm reading. I do appreciate you attempting to help also! Thanks! Just trying to learn and get used to a Linux Distribution and expand my knowledge of different OS's.

Ahh I can't help you with that. Yep, I've heard bad things about the state of Optimus in Linux :/

I have an ION 2 on a netbook and works pretty well! But no "HybridGraphics" at all, just the ION.

Well, I hope the next time you can solve it :) (or better yet, someone with experience in Optimus may pop up to help you)

I'm running Ubuntu Server 12.04 and ran into a similiar issue when I tried to upgrade it. That was on a server machine, and after that I always copy the server to a VM and make the upgrade there. If and when that works, I make the upgrade on the physical machine too.

Well, first off, never ever EVAR install the nVidia drivers from the nVidia site onto Ubuntu. It does not properly install things and it messes up your system in indescribable ways and things are gonna be bad. Always use the Ubuntu packaged versions on Ubuntu. Canonical and nVidia have a cross-company team dedicated to making everything work properly between the two parties (and certain other, significant, third parties).

Second, your symptom was that Unity was not starting, which is unlikely to have anything to do with the nVidia driver, since the X server is obviously running (you're seeing a graphical interface). The log file for Unity is ~/.cache/upstart/gnome-session.log, and that's what you need to make sure gets included in the bug report you file. You should file a bug report by using ctrl-alt-T to bring up a terminal, type "ubuntu-bug unity<return>" and follow the direction on the screen. That program will gather information on your system configuration and include it in the bug report.

If you're still having trouble, come back here and let me know.

Thanks a lot Bregma for that information. I am still not sure if I want to install the latest "prime" after reading some of the issues with Optimus in Linux. Have you by chanced used them in 13.10 to where you could comment on it. I do think they would be fine for me just not sure if I want to take the chance of my laptop getting hot and always having to check that out. So if you have any opinions on that then that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for letting me know on filing the bug report. I will be sure to do that.

BTW: Is when I go to the Software and Updates->Additional Drivers and it displays "No additional drivers available" good or bad? Does that really just mean I have the latest ones? I just figured it'd have a suggestion for the Nvidia one...