[SOLVED]Today's update has crippled my desktop

[Saunter]

Today I had a routine notification that new updates were available: Mostly CUPS, but also a new kernel. I updated, but after reboot, my desktop is crippled:

1. All windows open with the top border out of view. They cannot be moved or resized. Only way to close them is with the File menu.

2. The panel doesn't show what's open, thus I can't close or switch, or minimize, etc. from the panel.

3. I only have one desktop now instead of my normal two. When I right-click on the desktop icon to reconfigure desktops, nothing happens.

4. I tried booting in recovery mode and into the previous kernel to no avail.

I'm going to do a complete reinstall later today, unless someone has a quick and easy fix......

[Saunter]

Re: Today's update has crippled my desktop

Oops, I remember now that before the update, I removed Wine in preparation for trying the new release of Code Weaver's Crossover. During the uninstall, there was a KDE package removed as a dependency. Maybe it was something essential for KDE to work properly? I don't remember what package it was. Does the package manager keep a log of changes somewhere? Perhaps I can just reinstall KDE from scratch?

Now I've got the System Settings window open and I can't close it. I also can't search for any packages. If I'm going to fix anything, I'll probably have to do it from the terminal.

[kubicle]

Re: Today's update has crippled my desktop

This sounds like a window manager (kwin) issue. I'd first check that package kde-window-manager is installed (you can install it with 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kde-window-manager')...You can also make sure you have all the essential packages installed by (re)installing the kubuntu-desktop package.

This assumes you're using the KDE default window manager (and not compiz)

[Saunter]

Re: Today's update has crippled my desktop

That fixed it! My terminal was unusable, so I had to close the desktop and go to console mode. Then all it took was:

apt-get install Kubuntu-desktop

I noticed during the process that a package that was deselected during the Wine uninstall was reselected. That's probably what fixed it!