Ubuntu

Graphics Problem

Asked by Mark Fonda

I have a problem with firefox and thunderbird and other program windows not displaying completely. The right 1/3 of the window is gone, along with the upper-right window control buttons. I cannot maximize the windows by double-clicking on the title bar and also nothing shows in the application panel for any windows that are open. The cursor also looks like an X while on the desktop, but is the normal arrow in applications.

I had installed gyrotools for use in virtual box when the problem started. I went back and removed gyrotools but that did not solve this ubuntu graphics problem. I have gone into synaptics program manager and repaired broken packages (nothing was broken), rebooted in recovery mode (nothing would update) and tried a number of root terminal command line fixes such as sudo dpkg --configure -a and sudo nvidia-xconfig, but nothing has done any good.

The windows come up just fine in Virtual Box using Windows XP so I don't think I have a graphics driver problem, just some Ubuntu configuration settings I think. I tried changing the theme but that did not help. I have a Nvidia driver but I'm not using visual effects. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Mark Fonda
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Revision history for this message
Hans Spaans (hspaans) said : 		#1

It may be smart to file a bugreport for both applications.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

Try:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Then reboot

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Mark Fonda (mark-fonda) said : 		#3

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg did nothing. Nothing happened in the root terminal after entering the command and nothing different happened upon reboot. The problem is with some other applications too, such as KWrite and File Manager. Some others like Synaptic Package Manager and GnuCash seem to display the full window but don't show the window control buttons. Nothing shows in the application panel no matter what is loaded and the cursor is a big X in some windows but an arrow in others.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

You don't need a root terminal, sudo means yuo dont need root.

The command won't output anything, in Linux you don't get an 'ok' after each command, it's redundant and stupid, "no news is good news" in Linux.

Try a reboot after the command.

With the button thing, are you missing the whole bar or just the buttons? The whole bar is incidentally called the window decorator.

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Mark Fonda (mark-fonda) said : 		#5

I tried the command and rebooted and nothing changed. I am not missing the window decorator bar, just the buttons which minimize, maximize and close. The menus are still displayed but sometimes they stop functioning i.e. the menus pop up but nothing happens when items are clicked. At that point I reboot and at least the applications work, but I can't see all the workspace within them. I don't mind doing a system reinstall but I'd like to keep my settings if possible.

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Mark Fonda (mark-fonda) said : 		#6

Please just tell me how I can do a minimum reinstall of ubuntu. I already tried repairing broken packages but it did not help. How do I reinstall everything without losing all my settings?

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Mark Fonda (mark-fonda) said : 		#7

Isn't there just a RESTORE function like in Windows where I can back-track to a known-good restore point before this problem occurred?

And isn't there a general reference for restoring or reinstalling Ubuntu that is current? I search through this board and find 20 different explanations covering six different releases and it can be very confusing. I don't think this is too much to ask.

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Mark Fonda (mark-fonda) said : 		#8

OK, I think I solved the problem. I went to the Change Desktop Background by right-clicking on the Desktop and selecting Appearance Preferences. I changed the Visual Effects from None to Normal and the graphics all reset and the problem has completely cleared. I rebooted to make sure it was working permanently because I had a problem with this setting before, here on my HP laptop with a Nvidia video card, but it rebooted fine and all is good.