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Thread: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

  1. #1
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    20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    I have had to go back to version 20.04LSE by way of a fresh install, but I am having a big problem with the screen display.

    The Logitech mouse seems to be prompting a program's window to be hidden behind the background and so the window can not be read. Not all drop down menus on the desktop are hidden, but the activities drop down and ubuntu settings do not show on the screen once the problem is active. Places do show. Desktop Icons do not show.

    I have tried more than one background. The problem usually arises after quickly moving the cursor to the top left of my primary screen. I have 2 screens. It just happened when I was in Firefox and moved the mouse to the top left corner in order to get the list of activities to show.

    Sometimes I find some resistance between the two screens which I avoid by going to the other screen via the top left corner, other times it is because I want to open a second program. Fortunately the background hiding the windows does not happen as soon as I log in. I have therefore been able to post this message.

    Logging in afresh causes the problem to temporarily go away.


    The processor is an AMD 64bit, 15g memory., Mother board ASROCK FM2A88X EXtreme6+

    20.04 was working well. I tried to upgrade to 21.04 and ended up with a corrupted version. That was subject to another posting.
    Last edited by Robbyx; October 17th, 2021 at 04:02 PM.

  2. #2
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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    I think that as I have made amendments to my post, no has noticed I have not had a reply from anyone other than me.

  3. #3
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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    I have just completely reinstalled 20.04.3 and I still get the problem. What can I do next?

  4. #4
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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    Excuse me but I am confused. Your mention of Places and the Activities drop down menu got me wondering if you and I are using the same desktop environment. I am using Ubuntu 20.04.3 with the standard Gnome 3 desktop environment and the Gnome 3 shell user interface. Are you using a derivative based on Ubuntu 20.04.3 with a different user interface? A UI more like the old Gnome 2 panel?

    What happens when you change to a different background image? In my Settings utility under Appearance there are three themes available - Light, Standard, Dark. What happens when you change themes.

    Are you using a proprietary video driver or the open source video driver? Does the application window appear on the screen and then disappear when the mouse pointer moves over the window?

    You say that you have just re-installed 20.04.3 and the problem is still there. So, I assume that the OS is in the default state without any Gnome shell extensions being added or new themes being added?

    Now I am thinking: "monitor." Have any adjustments been made directly to the monitor settings? You say you "had to go back to 20.04.3." Go back from what?

    I remember many years ago when testing a development version of Ubuntu the issue of drop down menus not showing up against the background image did occur. It was all fixed by the release day. And I have not seen it since.

    Regards
    It is a machine. It is more stupid than we are. It will not stop us from doing stupid things.
    Ubuntu user #33,200. Linux user #530,530


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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    Quote Originally Posted by grahammechanical View Post
    Excuse me but I am confused. Your mention of Places and the Activities drop down menu got me wondering if you and I are using the same desktop environment. I am using Ubuntu 20.04.3 with the standard Gnome 3 desktop environment and the Gnome 3 shell user interface. Are you using a derivative based on Ubuntu 20.04.3 with a different user interface? A UI more like the old Gnome 2 panel?
    I have attached a screen shot of my two screens.The activities to which I referred are shown by clicking the button at the top of the screen on the right. Is it different from your screen?

    I have been using gnome extensions via Gnome Tweak. After taking the screen shot I have just installed Gnome Tweak in the newly reinstalled version of 20.4.3 and have disabled the extensions option in Gnome Tweak.

    What happens when you change to a different background image? In my Settings utility under Appearance there are three themes available - Light, Standard, Dark. What happens when you change themes.
    The problem remains even without any background image.


    Are you using a proprietary video driver or the open source video driver? Does the application window appear on the screen and then disappear when the mouse pointer moves over the window?
    I am not using the prop video driver as none appear as an available option for my AMD cpu.

    I am using the open source video driver as it is the only option.

    You say that you have just re-installed 20.04.3 and the problem is still there. So, I assume that the OS is in the default state without any Gnome shell extensions being added or new themes being added?
    I did a reinstall it was via 20.4.1 with updates taking it to 20.4.3. Settings show I have 20.4.3 installed.

    My method has been to retain the Home subdirectory as separate from the /.

    The earlier problem started because I decided to upgrade to 21.04. Before then the system was stable. I just wanted to take advantage of some of the improvements. I think I had to upgrade the version of python to use it and it all went wrong after that.

    This is the earlier posting:

    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2468028


    Now I am thinking: "monitor." Have any adjustments been made directly to the monitor settings? You say you "had to go back to 20.04.3." Go back from what?
    I have not made any adjustments to the monitor settings beyond the standard ones that a user can easily make. There has been no changes since the attempted upgrade to 20.04.
    Attached Images Attached Images

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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    It may be the cause of my outlined problem is having more than one program running at the same time. I am currently trying out closing a program before opening a new one. So far the problem has not arisen, but time will tell.

  7. #7
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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    Your screenshot in Post 5 does not look like a regular iteration of Gnome.
    Have you made many adjustments and/or theme changes?
    You mentioned that you have your /Home on a separate partition, therefore your configuration settings may be picked up from previous changes?

    Anyway, have you tried the keyboard shortcuts to switch between open applications?
    Super + Tab - Switches between open applications
    Alt + Tab - Switches between open windows

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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    Quote Originally Posted by tea for one View Post
    Your screenshot in Post 5 does not look like a regular iteration of Gnome.
    Have you made many adjustments and/or theme changes?
    You mentioned that you have your /Home on a separate partition, therefore your configuration settings may be picked up from previous changes?

    Anyway, have you tried the keyboard shortcuts to switch between open applications?
    Super + Tab - Switches between open applications
    Alt + Tab - Switches between open windows
    Thank you for your helpful comments.

    I expected that OS changes would not be in the home dir. I thought that was for external programs. I had assumed that the reinstall had over written system configurations.

    The key board shortcuts work without me having to log in again. So that is a success.

    I have also found that the terminal can be switched to from Firefox by the cursor. It does not crash it.

    It is a bit difficult to always remember to switch by shortcut. In other ideas?

    This went wrong due to me trying to update python. Does that give you a clue to a cure?

  9. #9
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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    I have been offline for the day. I could not get Ubuntu to load. Eventually I found the reason and did another full install of 20.04.3.

    I have been able to get ubuntu working again but even on this new version some programs such as Ubuntu software are opening in the background or not opening at all . Firefox opens to the front. The tab switches you recommended do not show that Ub Software is open and available. When I claimed it was open in the background a pink line was showing at the top of the screen which indicates it is open in the background. The mouse movement to the top left is not causing programs to be sent to the background. So that is an improvement.

    I wonder if some settings stored in the home are causing this problem. I do not know where to look.

  10. #10
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    Re: 20.04 Ubuntu Background image is hiding new windows opened by programs

    It's difficult to offer concrete advice because your situation is impossible to reproduce.
    I think that you need to start from a very clean slate including your /home/user settings.

    Suggestion

    Back up home and user data
    Check that the backup is restorable
    Install Ubuntu again and format your separate home partition (this will remove all user settings)
    Restore your data only i.e. Documents, Music, Pictures etc.
    Do not restore hidden config files or themes or tweaks yet.
    Reboot and check if everything is OK.

    Then restore your .mozilla folder (for firefox)
    Check again
    Then restore your email folder (.thunderbird in my case)
    Check again

    Continue restoring necessary config files as and when you need them.
    Many user configurations will be initialised after a re-installation so you won't need to restore all of them.

    Sooner or later, you will find the culprit(s)

    It's a bit of a turgid exercise but it will work if managed carefully.
    Lastly, please leave python to operate peacefully in the background

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