Window decorations solid black

[Joe MacDonald]

Using Xubuntu in a dual head configuration, the problem has been present since at least 11.10. When logging in, one of the two displays will not show graphics for window decorations, just solid black blocks in the size of the decorations. The other display will show decoration graphics normally. Going into the settings manager and making any change to the window manager appearance (including selecting a new style then re-selecting the previous style) results in the graphics displaying properly on both heads.

Before and after screenshots attached.

/usr/bin/lsb_release -r
Release: 12.10

apt-cache policy xfwm4 nvidia-current
xfwm4:
  Installed: 4.10.0-2ubuntu1
  Candidate: 4.10.0-2ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 4.10.0-2ubuntu1 0
        500 http://yow-mirror.wrs.com/mirror/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
nvidia-current:
  Installed: 310.19-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1
  Candidate: 310.19-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1
  Version table:
 *** 310.19-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     304.51.really.304.43-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://yow-mirror.wrs.com/mirror/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/restricted amd64 Packages

Does not appear to be influenced by turning on or off display compositing.

[Daniel-pielmeier-b (daniel-pielmeier-b)]

Created attachment 2440
Black Decorations

Sometimes after starting xfce all windows have black borders. When I fire up xfce4-appearance-settings and switch styles the decorations are back again.

[Daniel-pielmeier-b (daniel-pielmeier-b)]

Output of xfwm4 --version

 This is xfwm4 version 4.6.1 (revision 29817) for Xfce 4.6.1
 Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
 Compiled against GTK+-2.14.7, using GTK+-2.14.7.

 Build configuration and supported features:
 - Startup notification support: Yes
 - XSync support: Yes
 - Render support: Yes
 - Xrandr support: Yes
 - Embedded compositor: Yes
 - KDE systray proxy (deprecated): No

[Olivier Fourdan (fourdan)]

What X derver do you use, what color depth? Do use the compositor? Do the decoration refresh when you resize the window?

[Daniel-pielmeier-b (daniel-pielmeier-b)]

Created attachment 2443
xdpyinfo

X Server version is 1.5.3
Color depth is 24Bits/Pixel
Compositor is off
Decorations do not refresh when resizing, but to be 100% sure I will check if it happens again.

Attached xdpyinfo for more information.

[Olivier Fourdan (fourdan)]

Sorry, I mistyped, I meant what X driver you use?

[Daniel-pielmeier-b (daniel-pielmeier-b)]

Ah okay. So you mean the graphics driver used by X. I use the proprietary nvidia driver version 180.60.

[Daniel-pielmeier-b (daniel-pielmeier-b)]

Okay it happened again after a re-login. I just checked if resizing the windows refreshes the decorations but they stay the same.

[CeDeROM (cederom)]

Hello! I have the same problem with my xfce4 (4.6.2/4.6.4) running on FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE with nvidia driver 256.53. However for my the whole top of the window is black so no control buttons are visible (they work but everything is black).

The problem is caused probably by xorg/nvidia when two monitors are detected by xorg and used together. When second monitor is turned off (at boot time and xorg start) the window decorations are okay, but when both monitors are turned on and detected, then only second monitor has proper decorations and decorations on the first monitor are black. I don't have xinerama running so two monitors are independent and have two separate xfce panels menus etc.

Hope this helps to track down the problem :-)

Best regards,
Tomek Cedro

Below is the output of xfce4 related packages - some components are 4.6.2 some 4.6.4:
xfce4-panel-4.6.4
xfmpc-0.2.0_5
xfce4-xmms-plugin-0.5.2_11
xfce4-wmdock-plugin-0.3.2_8
xfce4-weather-plugin-0.7.3_5
xfce4-verve-plugin-0.3.6_8
xfce4-volstatus-icon-0.1.0
xfce4-time-out-plugin-0.1.1_11
xfce4-systemload-plugin-0.4.2_13
xfce4-quicklauncher-plugin-1.9.4_11
xfce4-screenshooter-plugin-1.7.9_1
xfce4-power-manager-0.8.2_5
xfce4-parole-0.2.0.2_3
xfce4-notifyd-0.1.0_6
xfce4-notes-plugin-1.7.6
xfce4-netload-plugin-0.4.0_13
xfce4-mpc-plugin-0.3.5
xfce4-minicmd-plugin-0.4_12
xfce4-media-0.9.2_19
xfce4-genmon-plugin-3.2_10
xfce4-dict-plugin-0.6.0_3
xfce4-datetime-plugin-0.6.1_8
xfce4-cpugraph-plugin-1.0.0
xfce4-clipman-plugin-1.1.3_5
Thunar-1.0.2
xfce4-desktop-4.6.2
xfce4-artwork-0.0.4_10
mousepad-0.2.16_7
orage-4.6.1_6
xfce4-appfinder-4.6.2
xfce4-mixer-4.6.1_6
xfce4-print-4.6.1_6
xfce4-session-4.6.2
xfce4-settings-4.6.5
xfce4-utils-4.6.2
xfce4-wm-4.6.2
xfce-4.6.2
thunar-volman-0.3.80_2
thunar-svn-plugin-0.0.3_9
thunar-media-tags-plugin-0.1.2_15
thunar-archive-plugin-0.2.4_8
squeeze-0.2.3
ristretto-0.0.91

[B8444920 (b8444920)]

I can confirm the problem. I use nvidia driver 290.10 and xfce 4.8.0.3 in Debian. I have two monitors which configured to use different xorg screens, the first monitor windows has black caption and borders, but on the second monitor everything is ok. When I kill xfwm and xfce restarts it everything becomes ok.

[Olivier Fourdan (fourdan)]

Sorry I cannot reproduce, I do not use the proprietary NVidia driver as it fails miserably with my only NVidia based laptop. Issue has bee nreported for years on various NVidia forums and yet there's no fix.

So... Does the same happen when using the Open Source "nouveau" driver, or even "nv"?

[B8444920 (b8444920)]

I'll try nouveau later, But for now, I fixed this issue by deleting ~/.cache/sessions. When there is no any saved sessions everything works as it should. But when I create any session (even without any other applications) the problem appears. I think something is wrong with execution of xfwm from saved session.

[Home+xfce (home+xfce)]

The problem appears only with proprietary NVidia driver. Both nouveau and nv work fine with xfce.

[B8444920 (b8444920)]

I don't think it's a problem of nvidia proprietary driver, I tried to configure nouveau and notebook with intel video card the same way as I use nvidia driver but I wasn't able to. Because when you setting up driver with xrand it doesn't create two independent xorg screens, and the bug appears only when system has two xorg screens (":0.0" and ":0.1" in my case). And nvidia doesn't support xrand so people with these driver setting up two screens and there the bug appears.

[Joe MacDonald (joeythesaint)]

From the before shot, I selected Applications -> Settings Manager -> Window Manager then chose another theme from the "Style" tab and then went back to "Totem".

[Joe MacDonald (joeythesaint)]

Ah, I forgot, this only seems to happen in the following scenario:

- I've been working in my dual-head configuration at work, with two external monitors and my laptop screen off
- I go home and work on a single display on the laptop screen
- I go back to work and log in again with my dual-head, external screens on, laptop display off

If I don't switch to running at least one session single-head / LVDS, the dual-head problem never seems to happen.

[Joerie de Gram (jdegram)]

If it's of any help, this issue also affects me on 4.10.0 using AMD Catalyst 12.11.

Just like Nvidia's solution, AMD's default setup (non-Xinerama) creates separate X screens.

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Xubuntu 12.10 reached EOL (end-of-life) on May 16, 2014.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Please upgrade to the latest version and re-test.

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Closing this report.