New to Linux. Run with either Ubuntu Linux on USB or installed on Aspire laptop.
Problem: Chromium and Eclipse act like they are starting but no window opens.

For Eclipse, icon comes up, workplace prompt answered, icon reappears and counts down but no window comes up.
pstree shows that both Chromium and Eclipse have threads running.
Booting with same USB to different computer and all works fine.
Have used both 32 bit and 64 bit USB boot on 64 bit Aspire with no success.

Firefox comes up and works fine

This issue is a strange issue - don't know if it is because you didn't click on something properly while installing Chromium and Eclipse or if there was a corrupt download on something. If I understood your post correctly, it worked on some installations and USB live systems and not on others.

My first suggestion is to remove both Chromium and Eclipse using Ubuntu's command line package manager called "apt-get" on the computer giving you trouble to see if it is an issue related to the App store. This will remove chromium and eclipse and any components installed when they were installed, and reinstall them.

To do this:

1. Click on the Ubuntu icon in the top left corner of your desktop

2. Search for "terminal" and then click on "Terminal"

3. Type in and press ENTER

4. It will ask for your current password, just type it and press ENTER

5. Type in and hit ENTER

6. Try running those programs again. If you still have issues, try starting these programs from the terminal by entering in and . Please copy and paste the outputs of these programs in the terminal (note in the terminals normal cut/copy/paste keyboard shortcuts don't apply).

Sorry if I'm overexplaining things. Don't want your first taste of Linux to be overwhelming.

And one thing that will make it easier to try this in a VM and would be wise to include in your posts when asking for help in the future - what version of Ubuntu did you download (14.04, 14.10, 15.04, etc.)?

Running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 32 bit
I3 CPU, 4G RAM,109G HD allocated
Ran both Eclipse and Chromium and neither comes up from terminal install.
Since both act the same I focused on Chromium. Note that the app is called "Chromium-Browser". Attached is test file for Chromium testing. Ran it several ways/several times so the attached is my final test run.
What I did in attached:
Fresh reboot with Chromium installed from terminal.
Tried to run: unsuccessful.
Deleted terminal Chromium, installed Software Center Chromium
Tried to run: unsuccessful.
Deleted Software Center Chromium, installed terminal Chromium
Tried to run: unsuccessful.
If you can give me some direction on VM, I can collect data that way

Attached Files

test.txt (12.1 KB, 27 views)

When I spoke of VM, I was thinking of me trying to simulate your situation in a virtual machine that I can use to simulate Ubuntu installing Chromium and Eclipse, although since I just moved I lost that ability for a few days.

So, if I'm not mistaken, if you boot the USB thumbdrive to another computer, it works and installs? Do you do the exact same things on both computers, and do you have persistence set up on the live USB so it remembers settings between boots and computers?

I am using the same USB thumbdrive and booting on two different machines. Applications come up fine on one machine and on the other it does not. Not familiar with what you mean by persistence setup on the live USB. However I have gone back and forth with the same USB between machines and it always works on one and never on the other.
Observations:
I have Ubuntu installed on the machine that is having the problem and it acts the same in the dual boot installed mode as it did in the USB mode. Problem occurs with Chromium-browser and eclipse downloaded and installed within Software Center or installed from terminal. Downloaded Chrome from Google website into Software Center and installed it - same result. When any of these applications run, the Icon comes up, goes thru lengthy countdown and then icon goes away but the application does not show up with a GUI. If I run pstree, it shows the process running.
I also tried Cairo-Dock and it did not come up but it is a messy install so not sure I did it correctly though I think I did.

I tried loading a game called Chromium BSU. Downloaded and installed from Software Center and it came up fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????
Firefox also works fine.

I noticed that when you removed Chromium after removing it and uninstalling it from the command line, you only used "apt-get remove chromium-browser". It seems if both Chromium and Chrome aren't working that there might be some issue with a dependency. Doing "apt-get autoremove chromium-browser chrome" will remove any unneeded dependencies not used by Chromium and Chrome when you remove them, and will cause the reinstallation of their dependencies when you install them.

I only have an observation, I'm afraid, rather than real help but I do notice that you leave the chromium-browser process running when uninstalling it then, when you reinstall and run it again, it's just adding another tab to the invisible browser windows already running. Uninstalling something in Linux does not necessarily stop it running.
try killing the process, ensuring it is not running, then purging the application. Then ensuring that the purge did delete the hidden configuration files in your home directory. Then, perhaps, even reboot.

Rebooted from USB each time to hopefully ensure no residuals left. Also entered
find . -name "chrom*"
Nothing found.
Did install of chromium-browser inside Software Center. Result: icon comes up, acts like it is booting, no GUI comes up. pstree says it is running.

Rebooted, ran find in terminal with nothing found. Downloaded google-chrome-stable to Software Center(32 bit .deb for debian/Ubuntu). Installed thru Software Center. Attempt to run with following result:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ find . -name "chrom*" Note: This was before download
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ google-chrome-stable &
[1] 5372
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof google-chrome-stable
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome
5415 5407 5388 5384 5372
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Yes, I think the binary itself is called "chrome" so you have 5 running instances somewhere. What is your display setup. And do you have multiple workspaces these instances could be appearing on?
I'm probably wrong but this looks to me like the chrome instances are displayed on a non-visible display. Either way I repeat the advice to kill the processes, uninstall Google Chrome, remove the hidden directory in your home, reboot, then reinstall and test.

Uninstalled google-chrome-stable and chromium-browser thru software center.
Rebooted from USB. Then ran following from terminal:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ find . -name "chrom*"
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome

Looks like nothing there. pstree shows nothing. Next I downloaded "google-chrome-stable" into Software Center and installed it from Software Center. Ran the following in terminal:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ google-chrome-stable &
[1] 5356
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrom*
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome
5399 5391 5372 5368 5356
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

So there are now 5 processes. Let's kill them all and try again

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrom*
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome
5399 5391 5372 5368 5356
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ kill 5399 5391 5372 5368 5356
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome
5356
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ kill 5356
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome
[1]+ Terminated google-chrome-stable
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ google-chrome-stable &
[1] 6901
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ [6901:6901:0522/233003:ERROR:url_pattern_set.cc(240)] Invalid url pattern: chrome://print/*

Now terminal is hung. Haven't figured out how to get out of this other than restarting terminal. Instead I open new terminal and get the following:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ pidof chrome
6953 6943 6935 6916 6912 6901
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

6 processes and all I did was start chrome once?

Chrome may be trying to start a few of your favourite websites in separate processes, as it mentions in the blurb -- I see no mention of getting rid of the old chrome settings.
Also, when trying to troubleshoot it's probably easier not to append the '&' character -- probably does nothing but it's not needed when troubleshooting.

How do I get rid of old chrome settings? I boot from USB and from terminal do a find . -name "chrom*" and get no listing. Searched the drive and see nothing that looks like chrome? How do you find that old chrome settings?

On my system it is /home/me/.google-chrome
Browsers do tend to keep setting in the most annoyingly inconsistent places though.

I finally got a hold of an Ubuntu virtual machine and tested installed Chromium under Ubuntu 14.04. While it worked completely fine, it made me think of a way to test 273's idea.

All I can really say before throwing the towel in is to make sure as 273 suggested that the program isn't popping up in a weird place. Perhaps try firing it up in a simple windows manager like fvwm and seeing what happens (I tried in an Ubuntu 14.04, don't try twm)

I boot from USB and both Chrome and Eclipse run but the user inteface/GUI does not come up. Take that same USB physical device and boot to another machine and all works fine. The "bad" machine works fine in Windows for both Chrome and Eclipse.

Doesn't this indicate a driver problem in my Ubuntu installation?

Is there not software that can trace the startup process for these applications?

Furthermore these are just 2 of the examples I have of this behavior. Any applications that I download has this problem whether installed from USB or from dual boot. I have tried Synaptic Package Manager, Cairo Dock with same result - they start but no GUI comes up. Firefox was installed as a part of Ubuntu and comes up and works fine.