This is related to bug 931138
Whenever I log-in with Unity 2D or 3D, the Unity dock doesn't appear, but the top panel is there with only the globalmenu. 1st it happened after a couple days of using Precise alpha 2. I installed the system 1 day after it was released. I did two bug reports for that when it happened and for the other error, but I searched for them under my account and the summary and couldn't find them (they were marked as public and I only have one account). This Happens with nvidia(version current) and nvidia(version current)(post release updates). I can now reproduce it just by freshly installing it on a new partion with updates selected from the ubiquity installer. I don't know if it happens when if I don't have select to get updates during the installation process and after I installed it. Each time I tried to install Precise with isos from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/precise-desktop-i386.iso
I just noticed that unity works after I installed xubuntu-desktop and gnome-do. Im not sure if the packages in xubuntu-desktop did anything. Ill try to see if the same thing happens again after a fresh installation.
Please remove bug #931125
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: nvidia-settings 285.05.09-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-14.23-generic-pae 3.2.3
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-14-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Feb 12 14:27:36 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha i386 (20120209)
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: nvidia-settings
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
I can't recreate this bug anymore.