unity is broken in multihead configuration

What graphics drivers are you using? Unity works in dual head with my laptop and an external 23" monitor.

Hi Alex,

it's:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Dell Device 0277
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 42
        Memory at f6c00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
        Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at ef98 [size=8]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
        Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915

I think this may be the bug that I'm seeing. On installing 64 bit 11.04 from the liveCD, Unity worked. After allowing the updates to complete and re-booting, all I got was the background and an active mouse cursor. This is a single monitor installation, so I suspect the multihead configuration is irrelevant. I am using an ASUS® M4A78LT-M: mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s with the monitor connected to the internal graphics adaptor (no video card). I have 2GiB RAM and I'm using it with an AMD Athlon II quad core at 3GiHz. My normal installation is 10.04 running on a separate hard drive and I have no problem with that. I have the proprietary graphics driver installed on both 10.04 and 11.04.

I can boot in grub recovery mode and use the failsafe video mode which starts the Gnome desktop. I have to switch to Classic Desktop to get it to work any other way. I thought I might have done a faulty install first time around but I have just re-installed as a clean install and get exactly the same symptoms.

Please ask if you want any more information about hardware or anything else.

I've attached a file with the output if I attempt to start Unity from the terminal, and the apport log for bug reporting.

I tried uninstalling and the reinstalling Ubuntu desktop. This left me with an almost unusable desktop. The Gnome desktop appeared, but the menus in the top panel did nothing when clicked. I had a terminal on the desktop, so I tried killing compiz. This brought the menus back to life again. Should I report a possible compiz bug her? And if so, what do I say? Did I read somewhere that compiz might not be used in the final build of Unity?

Further to the above: a workaround seems to be re-installing compiz. This gives me a fully working Gnome desktop. If I then re-enable the Ubuntu Desktop and re-boot, I am back to nothing more than a background and active mouse cursor. The only way to get into the 11.04 installation is to boot using grub fail-safe and use failsafeX graphics mode. I can then re-enable the Gnome desktop, but have to re-install compiz to get full functionality back into the Gnome desktop. Hope this helps.

After the latest updates this morning, the gnome desktop seemed a lot more responsive and some of the tiny niggles such as dropdown menus taking ages before they would work had gone. Unity would not work at all, and starting with the unity desktop gave a whole lot of things that failed to start beginning with the wastebasket. Clicking on re-try put these as menuitems or icons in the gnome desktop.

I decided to re-install as a clean installation and go through the upgrade/update process. On first installing, Unity worked. After the updates had completed, unity would not start and I was left with the gnome desktop with the error messages as above. Attempts to start Unity from the terminal give the attached output, and Unity works, but is somewhat broken; ie no gnome menus, or only some. Switching to the gnome desktop as default now gives a workable system again.