Ubuntu 13.04 Parallels 8 -- New(ish) installation, screen is black except dock

I have spent a very frustrating 2 days trying to get Parallels 8 Desktop (Mac OS X) working with Ubuntu desktop Linux

The first day was spent trying to get 13.10 working -- the Parallels Tools are not compatible with that version of the Linux kernel, and the only patch I can find is for Parallels 9, which I have not upgraded to. I gave up on that around 1:00AM last night and installed Ubuntu 13.04, installed Parallels Tools, then went to bed. This morning, I spent several hours installing software, etc. and then installed the updates to 13.04 from Ubuntu. After the reboot, the video no longer works once I've logged in. The login screen is fine, but once logged in, the desktop is black except the dock along the left margin of the screen. I assume that the Ubuntu updates broke the Parallels tools installation, but I have found no way of getting to a text login so I can reinstall the tools. The instructions for doing so on the Ubuntu site don't work for a VM under Parallels because the left shift is not being detected by GRUB.

Has anyone else run into this problem? If so, has anyone solved it?

Details:

Mac OS X 10.6.8, 8GB RAM, Mac Mini (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo)
Parallels Desktop 8
Ubuntu 13.04 Desktop Linux (64 bit) guest OS, Parallels Tools installed.

 

I'm seeing the same thing with Parallels 9 and Ubuntu 13.04. Everything had been working fine but today I installed the latest Parallels update (23136) which upgraded the Parallels Tools in the VM, and I also allowed Ubuntu to install updates. After the Ubuntu updates I have a black screen and the dock. When I launch an app the screen sometimes flashes very quickly but then goes black again and I can't see the app I launched.

 

It looks like it's the latest 13.04 X.ORG updates (Version 2:1.13.3-0ubuntu6.2) that are breaking things.

I rescued my Ubuntu VM by reinstalling Parallels Tools on it after it was in the black screen state. In my case I pressed CTRL-ALT-F1 to get to a full-screen terminal which rendered correctly, then mounted the Parallels Tools ISO and ran the install script. It also looks like one could probably just use the the "Reinstall Parallels Tools" command on the Parallels menu then after waiting several seconds, blindly type in your password and hit enter to get past the "Run as Root" dialog that the installer throws up. The installer is running fine, you just can't see it. Once it finishes it will auto-reboot after a couple of minutes.

 

This saved my day. Good find.