Ubuntu 20 - Gnome text randomly disappears

Question

I have an issue with Gnome and Ubuntu 20. In particular, top bar text and drop-down menus characters randomly disappear, in a similar way to this. The only fix I found is to reboot. Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this?

P.S. My software is up to date.

EDIT: Info about my computer and graphics card:

sudo lshw -C video

  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: HD Graphics 620
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 02
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:131 memory:a2000000-a2ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff ioport:5000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff
  *-display
       description: 3D controller
       product: GM107 [GeForce 940MX]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:134 memory:a3000000-a3ffffff memory:90000000-9fffffff memory:a0000000-a1ffffff ioport:4000(size=128) memory:a4080000-a40fffff

Add information about your computer and graphics card (edit your post for this) — vanadium, Jun 22 '20 at 10:33
not an solution, but perhaps an better solution than rebooting: press `Alt+F2`then type `r` and confirm with enter -- this restarts Gnome-Shell — d1bro, Jun 22 '20 at 11:00
@vanadium Are there any preinstalled extensions I should be aware of? I haven't installed any. — fresh, Jun 22 '20 at 11:24

score 19 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 12 '21 at 13:52

19

Had the same issue. Reboot did not fix. db429's suggestion of restarting Gnome-Shell worked, though not instantly. I noticed everything (header, desktop icon text) back after a few minutes, but as noted in comments it was just a long few seconds.

Steps: Alt+F2, type r, hit enter, even if you can't see what it says when you do so.

edited Nov 12 '21 at 13:52

muru

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answered Oct 19 '20 at 04:27

Majuba

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db429's solution works for me too. Everything is back to normal in a few seconds on my machine. – fresh Oct 19 '20 at 11:21
Happened again and checked - back in 7 seconds. Long enough that I missed it changing after. Thanks again all. – Majuba Nov 02 '20 at 14:09
In 20.04, alt+F2+r works, but after upgrade to 22.04, this does not work. Still try to find other solution – shijie xu Mar 19 '23 at 06:53
I'm 90% sure I've used it successfully on 22.04, but it's also been happening a lot less in it. – Majuba Mar 20 '23 at 15:03

Ubuntu 20 - Gnome text randomly disappears

1 Answers1