Closing gnome-terminal may sometimes cause the unity desktop graphics to become corrupted.
This happens when either closing the terminal normally or when force closing an application running in the terminal.
This also happens in Ubuntu 11.04
I'm running Ubuntu 11.10/11.04 as a guest VM under VirtualBox 4.1.4 (Windows 7 64-bit host) with 3D acceleration enabled with 32mb vram and 2 core SMP
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity 4.22.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,vpswitch,imgpng,gnomecompat,compiztoolbox,place,regex,move,mousepoll,resize,snap,animation,grid,unitymtgrabhandles,wall,workarounds,session,fade,expo,scale,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Fri Oct 14 13:45:11 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: vboxguest, 4.1.4, 3.0.0-12-generic, i686: installed
GraphicsCard: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter [80ee:beef] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
Lsusb:
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 80ee:0021 VirtualBox USB Tablet
MachineType: innotek GmbH VirtualBox
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=70571797-c714-4fad-ad51-ae385a2f8bc9 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Software
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/01/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: innotek GmbH
dmi.bios.version: VirtualBox
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvninnotekGmbH:bvrVirtualBox:bd12/01/2006:svninnotekGmbH:pnVirtualBox:pvr1.2:
dmi.product.name: VirtualBox
dmi.product.version: 1.2
dmi.sys.vendor: innotek GmbH
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu3
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1
This I believe is specific to VBox only. Do you have any specific step I could try to reproduce on a normal install?