App menus often don't appear at all

[Egmont Koblinger]

I have Unity with System Settings -> Appearance -> Behavior -> Show the menus for a window: In the menu bar.

When I log in, often most of the apps don't present their menus in the topmost menu bar, rendering the entire desktop pretty much unusable.

In the top left corner I can see the app's name (e.g. "Text Editor" for gedit, "Terminal" for gnome-terminal, "System Settings", "Files" etc.). However, the apps' menu entries don't appear on mouseover, I still only see the app's name. Interestingly, Firefox is an exception, its menu is properly shown.

I have to log out and log in again to fix this situation.

The problem began to appear when I upgraded to Xenial alpha. I never saw this behavior in Wily and previous releases.

My crappy laptop reboots once or twice a day (when I happen to hold it in a certain angle). I have a feeling that this bug perhaps occurs right after reboots, although I'm not sure. It could be that upon crash some lock file remains there in my home and it triggers the buggy behavior. I should get my laptop fixed, I know, but an unclean exit of the desktop or a complete system crash must not be a reason for it not to start up properly the next time. I might be on the wrong track, I haven't tested logging out and back in when the desktop comes up properly. Maybe the bug has nothing to do with the spontaneous reboots.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: unity 7.4.0+16.04.20160209.3-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-4.19-generic 4.4.1
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-4-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,move,resize,place,imgpng,snap,session,mousepoll,scale,resizeinfo,gnomecompat,regex,animation,expo,workarounds,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue Feb 16 20:49:08 2016
DistUpgraded: 2016-02-13 21:20:21,112 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: xenial
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [144d:c606]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-05-30 (1357 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
MachineType: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. 300E4Z/300E5Z/300E7Z
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.4.0-4-generic root=UUID=570ce59e-b28f-434e-9aef-b608ff12622d ro quiet splash nomdmonddf nomdmonisw nomdmonddf nomdmonisw nomdmonddf nomdmonisw nomdmonddf nomdmonisw nomdmonddf nomdmonisw vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-02-13 (2 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/14/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
dmi.bios.version: 03QB
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 300E4Z/300E5Z/300E7Z
dmi.board.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
dmi.board.version: FAB1
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
dmi.chassis.version: 0.1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLtd.:bvr03QB:bd12/14/2011:svnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:pn300E4Z/300E5Z/300E7Z:pvr0.1:rvnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:rn300E4Z/300E5Z/300E7Z:rvrFAB1:cvnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:ct9:cvr0.1:
dmi.product.name: 300E4Z/300E5Z/300E7Z
dmi.product.version: 0.1
dmi.sys.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.12.2+16.04.20160209-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.66-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 11.1.2-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 11.1.2-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.17.3-2ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.9.2-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.6.1-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20160127-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.12-1
xserver.bootTime: Tue Feb 16 20:44:38 2016
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors: systemd-logind: failed to get session: PID 3332 does not belong to any known session
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 12874
 vendor SEC
xserver.version: 2:1.17.3-2ubuntu3

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Occurred to me again, this time after a clean (intentional) reboot.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Marco Giannini (marco-giannini)]

I have the same problem on my pc, Latest daily fresh install (25/02/2016)

[Marco Giannini (marco-giannini)]

The only way to restart the menu is given from a terminal the following commands:

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
unity --reset

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Is your unity-gtk3-module installed, right?

Also,

env |grep GTK_MODULES|grep unity-gtk-module

Returns something?

[Marco Giannini (marco-giannini)]

unity-gtk3-module is already the newest version (0.0.0+15.04.20150118-0ubuntu1)

and

marco@ubuntu:~$ env |grep GTK_MODULES|grep unity-gtk-module
GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge:unity-gtk-module

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

For me it's almost the same.

unity-gtk3-module:
Status: install ok installed
Version: 0.0.0+15.04.20150118-0ubuntu1

GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge:unity-gtk-module:gail:atk-bridge

[Marco Giannini (marco-giannini)]

I found that the menu returns to work even if I make the logout and then login

[Marco Giannini (marco-giannini)]

By enabling automatic login the problem no longer occurs and the menu always works every time the computer starts .
Turning off auto- login and the problem returns and the menu disappears

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

I don't have autologin either.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

A "unity --reset" on its own solved the problem for me now.

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

"unity --reset" or just "unity" solves the problem, but i must repeat the command after each login.
--reset (deprecated: provided for backwards compatibility)

[Ronnie Tucker (ronnietucker)]

Strangely, when I installed Unity8 (to try it out - which didn't work for me) the menus have reappeared on my Unity7 windows.