I had the same issue. In my case it turned out that gnome-control-center had been uninstalled. I'm not sure why, but reinstalling fixed it.
-- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-control-center in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1721637 Title: can't open system settings(Ubuntu 17.10), icon is visible but settings don't dislay Status in gnome-control-center package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Bug description: When i click on system settings, icon is displaying but settings window doesn't visible. I have already reinstalled ubuntu desktop and gnome-control-center, but without any success.(reboot also didn't help).If i try to open gnome-control-center in terminal the same result only icon appearce To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1721637/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp