This sounds like a unity issue as I've seen no evidence of Upstart misbehaving yet. That .xsession-errors log would be useful to have if you can attach it though.
** Also affects: unity (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1365535 Title: Desktop fails to start properly after 14.04 > 14.10 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1365535/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs