Comment 1 for bug 883708

Made this entry in #873545 item #14:

White icons and no logout button was my problem too after upgrading from 10.04 to 11.10 through the releases 11.10 and 11.04.

Found a solution by coincidence: had also a mismatch in wallpaper resolution and opened the select wallpaper (background) menu by right clicking on the desktop.

When clicking on the different themes I discovered that "Ambiance" and "Radiance" triggered the correct appearence to the white icons. And also showed the log out button at the clock.
Selecting the 'contrast' themes regenerated the white icons.