i upgraded from Ubuntu 15.10 Wily to the 16.04 LTS that was offered by my ‘software updater’ . Everything seemed to go fine. Then when it was finished with the rather long upgrade it restarted my computer. Now my computer only loads the Ubuntu Mate desktop background image and nothing else. I can’t use the Ctrl+Alt+T to drop into terminal…don’t have any control over the computer.
Please help
12.04 would be a “downgrade” and that version should never be offered to 15.10 users.
Was it really 12.04 and not 16.04?
You are correct…it was 16.04…sorry.
Can you get to a text console via Ctrl-Alt-F1/F2/F3/etc.?
I’ll try now and get back to y’all.
Btw. if that does not work, try booting into recovery mode
I was able to get the terminal with ctrl+alt+f1…what should i do from there?
I’d suggest typing this in the console (CTRL+ALT+F1):
env DISPLAY=:0 mate-tweak
Then press CTRL+ALT+F7 to return back to your desktop. The MATE Tweak window should be open.
Here, change the panel to something else and with a bit of luck, the panels will reset and reappear.
That did work to show the panels, but nothing worked when i clicked it. After reboot i’m still with a desktop ubuntu mate background and nothing else.
I'm not sure what you mean here. The panels appeared, but are not functioning?
If you open MATE Terminal from the console:
env DISPLAY=:0 mate-terminal
Then switch back with CTRL+ALT+F7... use the terminal to try loading the panels:
mate-panel --replace
This might print out any errors to give a clue why the panels are not loading.
I would guess it's most likely due to a configuration error in your home folder. If you don't mind losing some configuration (e.g. bookmarks, web browser stuff, preferences for programs), I'd suggest creating a new user account and transferring your personal files.
From a terminal, this is the command for the Users & Groups window:
users-admin
To log out:
mate-session-save --logout
If a new user (or guest session) does not work, then this is definitely a system-wide problem. It may be possible to re-install the panels if this is the case:
sudo apt install --reinstall mate-panel
When i did this...
...the terminal displayed the following errors:
** Message: Could not connect to session manager: Could not get owner of name 'org.gnome.SessionManager': no such name
** (mate-panel:2694): WARNING **: Could not connect to session manager: Could not get owner of name 'org.gnome.SessionManager': no such name
** (mate-panel:2694): WARNING **: Could not connect to session manager: Could not get owner of name 'org.gnome.SessionManager': no such name
(mate-panel:2694): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Then, when i ran this...
I got the following errors...
(nautilus:2796): Gtk-WARNING **: Failed to register client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files
** (mate-panel:2694): WARNING **: Could not connect to session manager: Could not get owner of name 'org.gnome.SessionManager': no such name
(mate-panel:2694): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
err:winediag:SECUR32_initNTLMSP ntlm_auth was not found or is outdated. Make sure that ntlm_auth >= 3.0.25 is in your path. Usually, you can find it in the winbind package of your distribution.
fixme:iphlpapi:NotifyAddrChange (Handle 0x103e368, overlapped 0x103e380): stub
err:winediag:SECUR32_initNTLMSP ntlm_auth was not found or is outdated. Make sure that ntlm_auth >= 3.0.25 is in your path. Usually, you can find it in the winbind package of your distribution.
fixme:iphlpapi:NotifyAddrChange (Handle 0x10fe8a0, overlapped 0x10fe8ac): stub
fixme:event:wait_for_withdrawn_state window 0x20062/2a00001 wait timed out
Looking at my .xsession-errors is see this...
nm-applet-Message: using fallback from indicator to GtkStatusIcon
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:50: RuntimeWarning: You have imported the Gtk 2.0 module. Because Gtk 2.0 was not designed for use with introspection some of the interfaces and API will fail. As such this is not supported by the pygobject development team and we encourage you to port your app to Gtk 3 or greater. PyGTK is the recomended python module to use with Gtk 2.0
warnings.warn(warn_msg, RuntimeWarning)
** Message: Initializing gksu extension...
** (caja:1614): CRITICAL **: caja_menu_provider_get_background_items: assertion 'CAJA_IS_MENU_PROVIDER (provider)' failed
sys:1: Warning: /build/glib2.0-meArNm/glib2.0-2.46.2/./gobject/gsignal.c:2634: instance '0x2536960' has no handler with id '7008'
sys:1: Warning: /build/glib2.0-meArNm/glib2.0-2.46.2/./gobject/gsignal.c:2634: instance '0x25c6780' has no handler with id '6828'
sys:1: Warning: /build/glib2.0-meArNm/glib2.0-2.46.2/./gobject/gsignal.c:2634: instance '0x2496520' has no handler with id '6835'
sys:1: Warning: /build/glib2.0-meArNm/glib2.0-2.46.2/./gobject/gsignal.c:2634: instance '0x2304560' has no handler with id '6842'
sys:1: Warning: /build/glib2.0-meArNm/glib2.0-2.46.2/./gobject/gsignal.c:2634: instance '0x21a8300' has no handler with id '6849'
(caja:1614): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/gtk+2.0-gl_hAC/gtk+2.0-2.24.28/gdk/x11/gdkproperty-x11.c:325 invalid X atom: 1869621875
Could you try to create a new user account from the command line and logging in as that user instead?
I put Ubuntu 15.10 back on my system and will not upgrade to 16.04 lts…i guess the problem is now solved 
Not the ideal solution, since support for Ubuntu 15.10 ends later this month.
You could have tried and/or installed 16.04 as I presume the revert back to 15.10 is a fresh install.
Try booting in recovery mode and running "dpkg" per the update guide (a network cable connection is required!), see the update guide for further info:
Good idea. Maybe this weekend i’ll try a fresh install of 16.04 instead of an upgrade.
It’s just that i need my computer running because i do all of my work on it…these kinds of issues are very problematic in such circumstances.
It’s working now!! 
I did the upgrade again but with one difference…the first time when it asked me if i wanted to remove outdated packages i said ‘no’, but this time i said ‘yes’. That was it…works like a charm now. Those packages must have conflicted with the upgraded system.
I had same problem just re-install mate from command line and everything worked
This is covered in the update guide!:
Replacing Files:
Sometimes when updating you will be asked if you want to replace an existing file with a new one, the normal default action is to say no, I on the other hand find it better to install the new one, you must decide yourself whether or not you wish to do the same, I recommend replacing the existing file with the new one!!. (Use at your own risk but I have never had a problem doing just that!.)