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Gnome shell installed through software centre does not display top toolbar panel properly (missing text and icons), and when one of the icons on it eg user's name is clicked the menu popup has missing text. Also when searching for application after pressing the super key, the filter list on the right is also missing random text letters often replaced by small rectangular [] shape.

enter image description here

EDIT: It's the ATI drivers (using Mobility Radeon 5650), but after it's un-installed gnome-panel falls back to classic only and the system has to be reinstalled for the gnome-panel to work again. If the ATI drivers are not installed even the login screen lags when typing password. Also the ATI (post-release) driver never installs properly, the standard however does.

Braiam
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Kashew
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  • that doesnt look like the default theme - what is it? Does it occur with the standard themes? – fossfreedom Sep 24 '11 at 16:25
  • If you tried to use a Shell Theme probably you didn't "installed" it right. – Uri Herrera Sep 24 '11 at 20:53
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    Reinstalled gnome-shell several times through both terminal and soft centre and the theme being used is "Adwaita". – Kashew Sep 26 '11 at 09:18
  • not using any custom theme, its default. – Kashew Oct 07 '11 at 07:26
  • unity works fine – Kashew Oct 11 '11 at 13:38
  • Exactly the same issue, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, Ubuntu 11.10. Unity it's fine, but gnome shell look exactly the same. Deactivating fglrx it falls back on Classic Desktop (gnome-panel) with no effects. Also as reported before, fglrx post-release doesn't install. –  Oct 10 '11 at 10:31
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    As reported here the problem is the fglrx does not support 3.0 kernel. _Can I suggest switching back to the standard natty kernel.

    Alternatively, you should download and install Catalyst 11.7 or Catalyst 11.6 from the ATI website._

     –  Oct 10 '11 at 10:39
  • So I shouldn't install the latest 11.9? – Kashew Oct 11 '11 at 13:37
  • I think we should wait for next fglrx update, see here: http://old.nabble.com/Missing-letters-in-Menus-td32575034.html – Stefano Oct 15 '11 at 11:28
  • i am using 11.8 driver,i am facing the same problem... – saiki4116 Nov 10 '11 at 13:27
  • I'm using catalyst version 11.11 and gnome still looks awful, I still have a lot of screen flickering. Note: I updated via http://askubuntu.com/questions/78906/ati-amd-proprietary-fglrx-graphics-install-fails-how-can-i-resolve-the-problem i.e. by removing the current version, purging it and then updating the post-release updates, which as of writing gives you catalyst v11.11. – Gerard Roche Jan 22 '12 at 11:57
  • No seriously follow my answer below on a fresh install, its fixed. It only flickers with apps like shutter which place a mini icon at the bottom and to fix that simply install the extension which places app icons on the top panel instead. – Kashew Jan 23 '12 at 03:53

2 Answers2

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The new 12.1 are 100% working on both my mobility and desktop ATI card but only if the dependencies listed below are installed first (i.e. don't download off the installer and try to execute it otherwise it breaks gnome 3). To properly install 12.1, type the following in terminal:

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6 dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 dh-modaliases
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
cd ~/; mkdir catalyst12.1; cd catalyst12.1/
wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/amd-driver-installer-12-1-x86.x86_64.run
sh ./amd-driver-installer-12-1-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/oneiric
sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb
sudo aticonfig --initial -f

Then restart.

Kashew
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I was having the same problem as reported and tried at least three fixes listed here and elsewhere. I finally found an Ubuntu Wiki entry that made everything just work on my ATI 4200 with Oneiric and gnome-shell from the Ubuntu standard repositories.

I don't know why this works, and after spending the better part of 2001 trying to make X work on Linux have absolutely no interest in figuring out why.

Pasted here for convenience, please consider the link more authoritative:

Problem: Need to fully remove -fglrx and reinstall -ati from scratch Here is a more aggressive recipe which removes both -fglrx and -ati, and reinstalls the latter:

sudo /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh  # (if it exists)
sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*
sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon 
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
msw
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    This is just switching back to the open source drivers which are pre-installed anyway. They are really laggy compared to fglrx which is the whole reason as to why i installed the latter and asked the question in the first place. – Kashew Oct 20 '11 at 07:12