Unity desktop "smears" (doesn't refresh) and shows no wallpaper

Posted by Cedric Reichenbach on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Cedric Reichenbach
Published on 2013-10-18T08:08:54Z Indexed on 2013/11/11 16:16 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 401

Filed under:

unity

|

graphics

|

display

|

wallpaper

Since a couple of days now, my unity desktop background smears everything, just like what old Windows versions were famous for:

smeared desktop

Of course, I tried rebooting a couple of times. Also, I switched graphics driver and I tried to change wallpaper and theme, but none of them solved the problem.

What could be causing that problem, and where can I search on for its source?

Infomation update

I'm using Ubuntu 13.04 (not updated to 13.10 yet).

The following command were all run from cinnamon (on the same Ubuntu installation).

sudo lsb_release -a:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 13.04
Release:    13.04
Codename:   raring

sudo uname -a:

Linux cedric-MacBookPro 3.8.0-32-generic #47-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 1 22:35:23 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

sudo dpkg -l | grep xserver-xorg-video:

ii  xserver-xorg-video-all                    1:7.7+1ubuntu4                         amd64        X.Org X server -- output driver metapackage
ii  xserver-xorg-video-ati                    1:7.1.0-0ubuntu2                       amd64        X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper
ii  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus                 1:1.5.2-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Cirrus display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-fbdev                  1:0.4.3-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- fbdev display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel                  2:2.21.6-0ubuntu4.3                    amd64        X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-mach64                 6.9.3-0ubuntu1                         amd64        X.Org X server -- ATI Mach64 display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-mga                    1:1.6.2-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- MGA display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-modesetting            0.7.0-0ubuntu2                         amd64        X.Org X server -- Generic modesetting driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-neomagic               1:1.2.7-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Neomagic display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau                1:1.0.7-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-openchrome             1:0.3.1-0ubuntu1.13.04.1               amd64        X.Org X server -- VIA display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-qxl                    0.1.0-0ubuntu3                         amd64        X.Org X server -- QXL display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-r128                   6.9.1-0ubuntu1                         amd64        X.Org X server -- ATI r128 display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-radeon                 1:7.1.0-0ubuntu2                       amd64        X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI Radeon display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-s3                     1:0.6.5-0ubuntu3                       amd64        X.Org X server -- legacy S3 display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-savage                 1:2.3.6-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Savage display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion          1:1.7.7-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- SiliconMotion display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-sis                    1:0.10.7-0ubuntu1                      amd64        X.Org X server -- SiS display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-sisusb                 1:0.9.6-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- SiS USB display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-tdfx                   1:1.4.5-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- tdfx display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-trident                1:1.3.6-0ubuntu2                       amd64        X.Org X server -- Trident display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-vesa                   1:2.3.2-0ubuntu1                       amd64        X.Org X server -- VESA display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-vmware                 1:12.0.2+git.e5ac80d8-0ubuntu1         amd64        X.Org X server -- VMware display driver

sudo lspci | grep VGA:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216M [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2)

Developer IT