Running Buster on a Pi4, updates, upgrades were just done. Everything was working just dandy then... I shut my Pi down in order to physically move it on my workspace. I reconnected everything exactly as it had been, the same HDMI, USB, and power. When I booted it up, everything seemed OK right up to the password request. After typing my password, the dialog disappeared as it always did but no menus appear, none, not across the top of the screen or the desktop icons. But the desktop image is there. I rebooted again, and again, and again, to no avail. I can right-click and get a dialog box with 'Terminal emulator', 'Web browser', and other items including 'Applications' but nothing in any of them gives me a solution. None of the traditional fixes seem to work. Anyone have an idea what I should try next?
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1None of the traditional fixes seem to work - which traditional fixes? I'd hate to suggest one of the fixes you've already tried– Jaromanda XCommented Feb 6, 2020 at 20:22
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1I did this: $ sudo rm -r ~/.config/lxpanel $ startx– Keith D KaiserCommented Feb 6, 2020 at 20:54
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1I tried several other things suggested in forums but thinking each was going to fix things I didn't keep a record of them. I'll take any suggestion you have.– Keith D KaiserCommented Feb 6, 2020 at 20:55
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1On reboot under the 4 raspberries I get this: "[2.109001] usb 1-1.2.4: device descriptor read/64, error-32 and another, [2.3390631] usb 1-1.2.4: device descriptor read/64, error-32" I don't know if they are related or not.– Keith D KaiserCommented Feb 6, 2020 at 21:12
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1Are you booting from a SD Card or an external USB-connected device? Try booting into CLI.– user96931Commented Feb 6, 2020 at 21:43
2 Answers
I have observed the behavior you described on Debian Desktop installations when the device tried to connect to network resources (NFS exports, network shares) that are not available. The operating system tries a long time to connect and only after a long timeout it gives up and completed the Desktop. You should also find error messages in journalctl -b -e then. In my case it where some NFS connections to a not available server which timed out after about 2 min per connection. So you should wait a long time and look if the Destop finished with a complete user interface. I know, this will not really help you but you know where you have to look. In my case I verified this issue by commenting the network connections in /etc/fstab. If you find that the reason are also network connections then you know what to manage to start your Desktop without delay.
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1Thanks @Ingo for this. As it happens I have a recent backup of the SD disk causing the problems. So I've switched to the BU and all is well. I'll copy the BU back to the original and hope for the best. Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 17:21
The solution to this problem is illusive. So I decided to use the backup I created. Its working great, so I'll just start over with that. Thanks to all who tried to help.
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Please accept your own answer with a click on the tick on its left side. Only this will finish the question and it will not pop up again year for year.– IngoCommented Feb 12, 2020 at 19:22