After updating to Linux Mint 22.3 Zena only wallpaper + mouse cursor shows up

[Thrilledfox]

Hey everyone,
I'm pretty new to Linux and posting this for a friend who needs help.
He just updated his PC to Linux Mint 22.3 Zena. After the update finished and he rebooted, the system now only shows the wallpaper and the mouse cursor. Nothing else loads — no menu, no panels, no desktop icons.

Ctrl + Alt + F7 (to get back to the graphical session) does nothing

Ctrl + Alt + T (terminal shortcut) also doesn't work

We can get into the TTY (Ctrl + Alt + F1–F6), but neither of us is very comfortable with the command line yet.
Does anyone know what could cause this after an update and how we can fix it from the TTY? Any step-by-step help would be amazing!
Thanks in advance! 🙏

[Konstantin-The-Goose]

hi,
this usually means that cinnamon crashed or failed to start after the update, but its fixable :)

since you can access TTY, log in there and try the following commands (you may need to reboot for changes to apply). use ctrl + shift + c to copy paste btw. the linux terminal is a bit specific:

1. restart the display manager:
   sudo systemctl restart lightdm

wait a few seconds to see if the desktop comes back

if that doesnt work, try restarting cinnamon manually:

export DISPLAY=:0
cinnamon --replace

and if it still doesnt load, try renistalling cinnamon:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --reinstall cinnamon

then reboot with sudo reboot

if none of those work, run:
journalctl -xe
and send me the output, i can find the exact issue from there

[Thrilledfox]

Hi, I found the solution yesterday. The Mint-l-icons package was corrupted. Thanks to Google and Reddit, I was able to update it via TTY and then reboot. Thank you very much for your reply anyway. Have a great day and Happy Easter! Daniel Jungkunz KonstantinTheGoose ***@***.***> schrieb am Fr., 3. Apr. 2026, 11:34:

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*Konstantin-The-Goose* left a comment (linuxmint/cinnamon#13683) <#13683 (comment)> hi, this usually means that cinnamon crashed or failed to start after the update, but its fixable :) since you can access TTY, log in there and try the following commands (you may need to reboot for changes to apply). use ctrl + shift + c to copy paste btw. the linux terminal is a bit specific: 1. restart the display manager: sudo systemctl restart lightdm wait a few seconds to see if the desktop comes back if that doesnt work, try restarting cinnamon manually: export DISPLAY=:0 cinnamon --replace and if it still doesnt load, try renistalling cinnamon: sudo apt update sudo apt install --reinstall cinnamon then reboot with sudo reboot if none of those work, run: journalctl -xe and send me the output, i can find the exact issue from there — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13683?email_source=notifications&email_token=CBCJERK73XR5PKPW42PUXG34T6ARJA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJYGI3TGNRUGI22M4TFMFZW63VGMF2XI2DPOKSWK5TFNZ2KYZTPN52GK4S7MNWGSY3L#issuecomment-4182736425>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/CBCJERJHOEVWP2MUQKZYJUT4T6ARJAVCNFSM6AAAAACXJWR6RGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DCOBSG4ZTMNBSGU> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>