I started Ubuntu with 14.04LTS, then upgraded to 16.04LTS. This year I explored other desktop flavours, loading Kubuntu, Mate, Xubuntu desktops beside Unity. From these I picked Mate, despite a few bugs.
So I saved my old system with deja-dup, re-formatted the disk and clean installed Mate 17.10. It looked beautiful, and all panels etc worked fine until I restored my backup. Now I have the same bugs each time I boot up:
Bug 1 : Windows manager: Mate-Tweak says ‘unrecognised window manager’. I must load any of the managers to get things working at all.
Bug 2 : Dead desktop: On boot-up my wallpaper is gone, and my icons, and there is no right-click wallpaper menu. The Mate panels are there, so I can proceed. After a random time (10 to 100 minutes) my own desktop returns. No idea how or why.
Bug 3 When I get past bug 2, my desktop icons are scrambled: different sizes and shapes, with no text.To get them back
It would be so nice to get Mate working as it can.
Hi jon,
I am only guessing but I would say that your backed up version from 14.04 isn’t compatible with 17.10?. Do you have all your files backed up on a storage drive?. if so, I would do a clean install again and copy and paste your files into the new system!.
I don’t use any back up apps so cannot say whether my opinion is valid or not?. 
You can follow this guide to keep your home partition intact: