Program sub menus dark gray on black, thus illegible

[KalaDude]

When using a program, for example Libre Writer, when I click on file, open, then in the Open menu box I have the opportunity to change the file type from "All files" to a specific file type, when I click on "All files" the selection list appears. The font color for the different file types is a dark grey on a black background making the list items illegible. As I move the cursor, the font color and background change to "normal" black on a white background but only for the item that the cursor is hovering over at that moment. This makes the rest of the list impossible to read and moving the cursor slowly down the list, pausing to read each item, is a very cumbersome way to get things done.

This doesn't just happen on Libre Writer but also Inkscape, Geeqie, and a variety of other programs and their sub menus. The only program I could find where this didn't happen was Firefox (58.02). Furthermore this happens on 3 different machines, each with a different processor, different graphics card and where the machine has multiple monitors, it happens on all monitors.

All machines are running 16.04, one with the latest updates, the others slightly behind on updates.

WORKAROUND: In Settings-Appearance-Theme change the theme from the default Ambiance to anything else.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+13ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-112.135-generic 4.4.98
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-112-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: talpa_vfshook talpa_pedconnector talpa_pedevice talpa_vcdevice talpa_core talpa_linux talpa_syscallhook
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Feb 21 20:57:30 2018
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: xenial
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: sysdig, 0.20.0, 4.4.0-112-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 770] [10de:1184] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 770] [10de:1033]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-20 (1404 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic root=UUID=8f4996c0-c2f5-449f-a35c-47f301f66803 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/12/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P1.70
dmi.board.name: 970 Extreme3
dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.70:bd10/12/2012:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rn970Extreme3:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.12.3+16.04.20171116-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.83-1~16.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.18.4-0ubuntu0.7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.1-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.7.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1.2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.12-1build2
xserver.bootTime: Wed Feb 21 19:32:42 2018
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.devices:
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 6
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 7
 input PixArt USB Optical Mouse MOUSE, id 8
 input Logitech USB Keyboard KEYBOARD, id 9
 input Logitech USB Keyboard KEYBOARD, id 10
xserver.errors:
 Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
 Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.18.4-0ubuntu0.7
xserver.video_driver: nouveau

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Nick Gammon (nickgammon)]

This issue (which did not occur with a fresh install of 16.04) appears to be related to the contents of file: /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

At line 346 (at present) there is the following:

    style "menu" = "dark" {

Changing it to:

    style "menu" {

... resolves this particular issue, however I'm not sure what side-effects that would have. In the original release the line was like that in the first place, so it would have been changed for a reason.

Screenshots of "before" and "after" that change can be seen here:

https://askubuntu.com/a/1014016/425017

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 1725921, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.