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[Rick Harris <1212821@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been bitten by this also on a new install, exhibiting exactly the
same blank desktop with no icons, side launcher or top panel.

My gfx hardware is an Intel 855GM (not an 865 but is of the same
generation chipset).

The OpenGL failure (Root visual is not a GL visual) and the resulting
compiz opengl plugin failure is due to the intel driver defaulting to
the new 'sna' (Sandybridge) renderer.

This generation of intel gfx cards needs the old 'uxa' renderer and so
needs to be manually set in xorg.conf.d entry like so:

# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf 
Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"                                                                                                                                                                      
   Driver      "intel"                                                                                                                                                                               
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"                                                                                                                                                                  
EndSection

That should give you a very slow but working software rendered Unity desktop.
It's debatable, but this slow desktop performance is probably unacceptable for everyday use.

The card only supports up to OpenGL-1.3 and Unity3D needs OpenGL-1.4+
which is why it falls back to software render.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1212821

Title:
  Unity fails to load on old hardware on Saucy

Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  On logging in I see just the wallpaper with no top panel and no launcher.
  Note that this is not bug #1066764 (Unity fails to load on old hardware (compiz enabling LLVMpipe has no effect and Mesa tries to use hardware still)) as compiz is at 1:0.9.9~daily13.04.18.1~13.04-0ubuntu4 and the errors for that bug are not seen in .xsessionerrors.

  .xsessionerrors only contains
  Script for cjkv started at run_im.
  Script for default started at run_im.

  The graphics is an intel 865 chipset.

  Xorg.0.log attached

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
  Package: unity 7.1.0+13.10.20130813.1-0ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-2.5-generic 3.11.0-rc5
  Uname: Linux 3.11.0-2-generic i686
  ApportVersion: 2.12-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: i386
  CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
  Date: Thu Aug 15 20:41:24 2013
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-08-15 (0 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha i386 (20130815)
  MarkForUpload: True
  SourcePackage: unity
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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