Gnome Shell - messed screen

[Sami Pietila]

Using gnome shell's activities button gives screen that is messed. Windows are not fitted to the screen. Some windows even overlap with virtual desktop views on the right. See attached screenshot. I am using ubuntu 11.10.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Bernhard Schmidt (berni)]

I have the same problem at work (Intel Q45), but not at home (AMD 780G)

[Jason (jnormore)]

same problem, VERY annoying but not critical. See screenshot (window is minimized in 1st desktop and still shows overlap in second).

[Bernhard Schmidt (berni)]

Found a german article describing a workaround:
 http://linuxundich.de/de/software/gnome-shell-neu-starten-falls-ubersicht-falsch-dargestellt-wird/

basically you need to restart the gnome-shell by pressing Alt-F2 and then enter 'r' in the window. Worked for me.

[Bernhard Schmidt (berni)]

It's hard to believe, but it appears to be a gconf bug, tracked in #848198 :-)

There are several reports of this: #853582 #844881 #875954

I could reproduce it on my system by doing 'killall -HUP gconfd-2' and waiting for a couple of minutes. Since this is apparently done on every software update you see these issues popping up.

I'm marking it as duplicate.