freaky screen stuff

[sviginak]

Hello, GazP6, 14.04 LTS, Firefox. Mostly while on the internet, but it happens with Gimp also; dark gray areas on the screen appear and then disappear after a keystroke such as down arrow. But they often don't completely disappear, part of it hangs around on the tool bars at the top of the page, covering up which web pages I have open, or the address bar, sometimes I can just see a dark streak running at the top that doesn't block anything.

Once in a while it comes in as a 3D view of the corner of a box, with each side of the box a different shade of gray to help display the 3D look. This usually covers the whole screen, and it takes a few keystrokes to get rid of it - arrow keys, enter, whatever.

Has anyone else experienced this? I am thinking it is probably not System 76 exclusively, but thought I would start here.

[sviginak]

153 views and not a single reply,....hmmmm?

[JeQhdMD]

What debugging and investigation have you done yet?

For instance:

> Does this also happen with other browsers?
> Does this happen on the standard Unity desktop?
> Have you enabled (and possibly mis-configured) the Compiz screen effects?
> What other changes have you made (not including standard updates and the usual tweaks (such as installing ubuntu-restricted-extras) . . . Have you installed the Gnome config tools (not all of which are compatible with Unity)?
> Does any of this happen if you load a LIVE usb-stick (with a different DE such as Mate)? An easy and fast one to try is Porteus (see the distrowatch site for info and links). Mate uses different GPU drivers by default.
> Have you run X Diagnostics Settings? (invoke it via the dash)

[sviginak]

Thanks for the reply. The issue seems to have gone away. It was around for a month or two. I use my Gazelle Pro pretty much as it came. It had Ubuntu 12.04 (I think) on it and I upgraded to 14.04LTS when it became available last July. I update it via Software Updater regularly. I only use Mozilla Firefox. I get easily confused when questions are asked like 'does this happen with the standard Unity desktop'. I have downloaded and use programs like Gimp, Guayadeque music player, Librecad, I use Libre office a bit, other than that I just use it for internet access - email, general surfing news and sports. So thanks again for the suggestions. For the most part I have been very happy with Ubuntu and my gazp6!

> Does this also happen with other browsers? I only use Firefox. I have added a few programs such as Gimp, Guayadeque, Librecad,
> Does this happen on the standard Unity desktop? I don't know about this
> Have you enabled (and possibly mis-configured) the Compiz screen effects? I don't think so,
> What other changes have you made (not including standard updates and the usual tweaks (such as installing ubuntu-restricted-extras) . . . Have you installed the Gnome config tools (not all of which are compatible with Unity)? I doubt if I have used Gnome config tools, I have installed restricted extras when I got the computer a couple years ago
> Does any of this happen if you load a LIVE usb-stick (with a different DE such as Mate)? An easy and fast one to try is Porteus (see the distrowatch site for info and links). Mate uses different GPU drivers by default. I think I would get lost trying to do this
> Have you run X Diagnostics Settings? (invoke it via the dash) I tried this - no error message, but then the problem seems to have 'fixed' itself.