Intermittent inability to popup menus in top panel

[Aaron Peachey]

Binary package hint: unity

Intermittently clicking (right or left) on an icon (e.g. me menu) in the tray shows a small highlight (with circular corners) around the icon that has been clicked but the associated menu does not appear. This appears to affect all icons on the top panel as well as any application menu entries that are currently on the panel.
The problem persists for an indeterminate period of time (not insignificant, at least 1 minute) before 'going away' (i.e. clicking on items in the panel again produces a popup menu as per expected behaviour.
The problem seems to be more apparent immediately after login (although I have logged in and been able to access them immediately) and persists for a period of time. Once it has gone away, it doesn't appear to return for the rest of the session.
Occurs using Natty daily build 30/12/2010.
Also began occurring on Natty Alpha after all latest updates were applied on 30/12/2010.

"lsb_release -rd":
Description: Ubuntu natty (development branch)
Release: 11.04

"apt-cache policy packagename":
unity:
  Installed: 3.2.8-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 3.2.8-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 3.2.8-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: unity 3.2.8-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.37-11.25-generic 2.6.37-rc7
Uname: Linux 2.6.37-11-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins'
Date: Fri Dec 31 05:15:13 2010
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha i386 (20101230)
LiveMediaBuild_: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha i386 (20101230)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A8Le
PciDisplay: 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8:en
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=en_AG.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/hostname.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
ProcVersionSignature_: Ubuntu 2.6.37-11.25-generic 2.6.37-rc7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.5+6ubuntu6
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.9+repack-1ubuntu3
 libdrm2 2.4.22-2ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.13.901-2ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.2-1ubuntu2
SourcePackage: unity
XorgConf: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
dmi.bios.date: 10/25/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 203
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: A8Le
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr203:bd10/25/2007:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnA8Le:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnA8Le:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: A8Le
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system: distro = Ubuntu, architecture = i686, kernel = 2.6.37-11-generic

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

Could you please try after startup making an empty selection on the desktop bakckground, and try it afterwards? I have the same issues, and this workaround solved the problem in all cases, so if it solves it for you, than this might be a duplicate bug.

[Aaron Peachey (aaronp)]

Thanks Robert. Your suggestion was right, after making the empty selection, clicking on the icons resulted in the menus appearing as expected.
Looks like this is a duplicate

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

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 #695638, 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.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Great diagnosis, Robert, thanks for helping!