Empty menus in top panel

[grumblebum2]

Sounds like some package needed for gtk2 or gtk3.
ie there are packages unity-gtk2-module and unity-gtk3-module.
Just wild guesses here.

Have a poke around in synaptic looking at your installation history under the File menu.

Have you added 3rd party ppas?

[t_ras]

I added 3rd party ppas. What is the efect?

[grumblebum2]

I added 3rd party ppas. What is the efect?

Depends on the ppa.
Some ppas can contain additional packages that can upgrade your ubuntu version of a package and cause problems.

eg I just installed gis-weather from the noobslab/apps ppa.
The ppa includes upgrades (denoted by yellow star in synaptic) to libaudclient2 among others which will be included upon next update and upgrade.
This can cause problems with the default ubuntu repo packages using a different version.
So after installing gis-weather I disable the noobslab/apps ppa.

I always check in synaptic when adding ppas to see what other packages are in a ppa.

[t_ras]

I dont seem to have libaudclient2 installed ( though I remember I got errors about it being missing when I tried to installed from PPA).
I removed the PPA repositories and have nothing marked with a yellow star, though maybe I already installed some unwanted thing from PPA through upgrades.
How can I knwo if theres eneything I need to downgrade?

[grumblebum2]

I dont seem to have libaudclient2 installed ( though I remember I got errors about it being missing when I tried to installed from PPA).
I removed the PPA repositories and have nothing marked with a yellow star, though maybe I already installed some unwanted thing from PPA through upgrades.
How can I knwo if theres eneything I need to downgrade?

libaudclient2 was just an example.

Have a look in synaptic. Click on origin then the added ppa. Only currently enabled ppas show.
If you disabled a ppa, in synaptic, goto menu > settings > repositories > other software
and re-enable.
Close the "software and updates" window and hit the reload button in synaptic.

This may not even be your problem...just a suggestion.

[deadflowr]

Thanks! The weirder part is that it doesn't happen to ALL applications.

That might be helpful.
Can you list some that it doesn't happen to?

Maybe we can see a pattern, or something.

[t_ras]

It happens to file manager and system menus, but chrom menus are fine.

[t_ras]

It seems I have many packages from the PPA repositories, most of them seem to be related to gnome (though also Unity tweak is from PPA).

[t_ras]

Might reinstalling unity help?

[grumblebum2]

If it was me I would backup and do a fresh install and put it down to a learning experience and
take more care and diligence when using 3rd party ppas.