Unity puts weird window artefacts and dead pixels on my screen

[Toby Smithe]

Ok, I don't have a screenshot illustrating a dead pixel, but I have two illustrating the window artefacts. These windows do not seem to be real windows: clicks pass straight through, and so cannot be detected by xwininfo. They also disappear when unity is restarted (as is the case when dead pixels appear - I thought it was my monitor until switching to a tty showed me otherwise).

I don't have any data on when these occurrences occur. It's just weird.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.8.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,decor,compiztoolbox,regex,obs,place,imgpng,session,grid,unitymtgrabhandles,vpswitch,move,mousepoll,animation,gnomecompat,workarounds,resize,wall,wobbly,expo,fade,scale,ezoom,scaleaddon,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Thu Apr 12 18:44:03 2012
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 fglrx, 8.960, 3.2.0-20-generic, x86_64: installed
 fglrx, 8.960, 3.2.0-21-generic, x86_64: installed
 fglrx, 8.960, 3.2.0-22-generic, x86_64: installed
 fglrx, 8.960, 3.2.0-23-generic, x86_64: installed
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV620 [Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series] [1002:95c4] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:029f]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20110720.1)
JockeyStatus:
 xorg:fglrx_updates - ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
 kmod:wl - Broadcom STA proprietary wireless driver (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use) [auto-install]
 xorg:fglrx - ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Studio 1537
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic root=UUID=95566113-5e3f-4768-9095-e5d8a634b28b ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-16 (26 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 05/27/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A09
dmi.board.name: 0P132H
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A09
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A09
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA09:bd05/27/2009:svnDellInc.:pnStudio1537:pvrA09:rvnDellInc.:rn0P132H:rvrA09:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA09:
dmi.product.name: Studio 1537
dmi.product.version: A09
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.4-0ubuntu3
version.fglrx-installer: fglrx-installer N/A
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.32-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.2-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.2-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu10
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2

[Toby Smithe (tsmithe)]

Artefact 1 has only occurred once, but artefact 2 occurs regularly, and always occurs in the same position.

[Toby Smithe (tsmithe)]

And now it has happened - look left next to the BFB for a strange little white pixel. (Again, note: this is not a hardware problem, and, in the small amount of testing with Metacity/Openbox I have done, seems not to occur under other window managers.)

[Toby Smithe (tsmithe)]

[Oh, it seems I was wrong: there is also a dead white pixel in the first screenshot attached, though not in the second.]

[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 940603, 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.