"Hey guys, new to the Ubuntu community here. Just installed latest Ubuntu Desktop on my laptop and I'm having some issues - everything looks a bit wonky and desktop icons keep disappearing. Anyone have experience with a clean install gone sideways?"
"Lol, noob no more! Try booting into recovery mode and reinstalling the Ubuntu desktop package. If you're still stuck, post the exact error message and we'll help you troubleshoot"
"Hey OP, sorry to hear that. Try booting into recovery mode and see if you can remove any unwanted packages that might be causing issues. Also, have you checked the Ubuntu forums for a similar issue?"
"Hey OP, sounds like you're getting some newbie vibes. Have you tried booting in safe mode to see if it's a software issue or a hardware one? Also, what's your GPU setup like, might be a driver issue."
"Lol noob problems are the best, I've been there too. Try reinstalling the desktop environment or checking your graphics drivers, that usually does the trick. If not, post some error logs and we can try to help you troubleshoot"
Yeah, I had a similar issue with the graphics drivers on my Ubuntu install last week. Try running `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver-510` (or the equivalent for your GPU) and then rebooting. See if that fixes your desktop issues.
"Hey OP, can you share more about what's happening? Error messages, system crashes, or just a whole lot of nothing? Sometimes a fresh install needs some TLC, so try booting into recovery mode and see if you can run a checkdisk or something"