Menu not showing in Mate 13

[Ogmios]

Hi. I have a bug that is driving me crazy. Everytime I log in, the first time I open the menu, it only displays the shadow, but not the menu itself. However, when I "close" it and reopen, the second time works perfect and it does not show this bug until the next login.

I am using Mint 13 Mate in a Gateway EC1430u installed from Mint4win. The graphics processor is Intel and I have 3 Gb of RAM, so I do not think it is a hardware problem.

¿Any ideas of how can I prevent this from happening?

Sorry for my English if I made a spell mistake.

I leave a picture of the bug where you can see the shadow. Thanks for your help.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340906984.720606.jpg (188.42 KiB) Viewed 1443 times

[Monsta]

Everytime I log in, the first time I open the menu, it only displays the shadow, but not the menu itself. However, when I "close" it and reopen, the second time works perfect and it does not show this bug until the next login.

Hmm, so the Ubuntu-based edition has this bug too... that's interesing. (Here's the thread about the same issue in LMDE - viewtopic.php?f=219&t=106008).
I can't reproduce it neither in LMDE nor in Mint 13. But I've used VirtualBox in both cases to test this. Can you please test it in VirtualBox and confirm if it happens there too?

[Ogmios]

Thanks for your answer Monsta. I will try it on VMware and Virtualbox as soon as I go home and post the results.

[mpiter]

I have exactly the same problem with only a shadow at the first menu call, then everything is normal. It does not drive me crazy though because it happens only once per session.

[Ogmios]

I tryed to reproduce the error in VMware with no success.

You are right about I should not worry because it only happens one time and everything else works flawless but I would like to solve it.

Since it is a Mint4win install I will re-install it and see if it happens again, and I will post the result in a couple of days. Maybe if I reinstall it does not happen again.. Who knows.

Thanks.

[mpiter]

I updated yesterday my computer and the problem seems solved. The menu popped up the first time I clicked it after login in this morning. I will see whether it is a real fix or just luck for my current session.

[Monsta]

So... has it been fixed with the update (and what version is it now)?

[mpiter]

So... has it been fixed with the update (and what version is it now)?

The regular Linux Mint 13 mate version updated at level 3 with the update manager. I only saw the bug once during the last 10 days.

[Ogmios]

Ok. For me it has something to do with Genome Composition. As soon as I disable it, the bug desapear. Maybe it is all because of the Mint4win instalation and it does not happen in a "real" instalation.

[mpiter]

I am running a "real" installation and the bug nevertheless happens once in a while.

[Wouter]

Hi, I was experiencing the same issue of the menu occasionally not showing. This problem seems to be solved after having removed the Cairo-dock (and replaced it with the Avant Window Navigator).

[mpiter]

Hi, I was experiencing the same issue of the menu occasionally not showing. This problem seems to be solved after having removed the Cairo-dock (and replaced it with the Avant Window Navigator).

I do not use any dock and I still have the bug. It might be due to Gnome Composition as Ogmios pointed out. Did you use Cairo Dock with or without OpenGL? As I previously wrote, the bug is not too annoying so I do not investigate it anymore.

[slash]

I know this thread is a bit old, but it's still relevant! I would like to offer an additional solution in case the simple disabiling of MATE's compositing doesn't work.

I had this same issue start yesterday after I enabled compositing on my MATE desktop. However, after I attempted to disable compositing, the issue persisted. I had to open the Configuration Editor and manually edit the Marco configuration to fix it.

Here's what I did for those that can't get this fixed:

1. Make sure the Use compositing box is unchecked in Preferences > Desktop Settings > Windows before continuing.

Desktop Settings screenshot

Screenshot-Desktop Settings.png (34.34 KiB) Viewed 456 times

2. Open Terminal and type mateconf-editor then press Enter. This opens up the Configuration Editor.

3. Navigate to apps > marco > general.

4. Make sure the compositing_manager box is unchecked in the right pane then exit out of the editor.

Configuration Editor screenshot

Screenshot-Configuration Editor - general.png (93.61 KiB) Viewed 456 times

5. Press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to log out. This also restarts the X window system. Log back in and this issue should be fixed.

You may have to repeat steps 2-5 if the "Use compositing" box was checked before attempting this fix. I'm not sure why but the compositing_manager box was still checked and I had to repeat those steps to take care of it. This was why I was having the shadowy, invisible menu issue. Annoying bug. Eventually it'll be patched. Best of luck!

[mpiter]

Thanks for the solution. Oddly enough, I still use the Mate Compositing feature and have not suffered from this bug for months. That is maybe because I use Compiz with Mate. I also enabled the Compositing feature in Compiz. God only knows why I have not seen this bug for months!

[SteveIDusa]

I can also confirm that I have seen this bug, not only in Mint 13 Mate, but also in Mint 14 Mate, both 64-bit, I also recently upgraded my Video Card from AMD HD 4670 to Nvidia GT 640, with either card it was present, so this is not hardware related. I also sometimes get shadow artifacts after popup Titles after hovering my mouse pointer over an Icon. I however use a dock and it of course requires compositing to display it correctly. Has anyone found any other fixes for this?