How can I make my windows in Ubuntu work fine?

Question

I have Ubuntu 8.10 and I have some problems with windows there. Sometimes the "header" of the window disappears. Under "header" I mean the area containing "close","maximize" and "minimize". If I put the cursor on the "close" area the "header" reappears.

I have ignored this behavior for a while but recently I found out that my simple GUI applications freeze in Ubuntu (while they are working fine on other OS). So, I just supposed that these to problems are related.

Does anybody know how I can fix the above described problems with the windows behavior?

Thank you in advance for any help.

Answer 1

This may get migrated to superuser...but I had an issue similar to this. Go to system, preferences, appearance, then visual effects, and turn them all off. See if the stability improves.

You're describing what sounds like the window manager crashing.

If it does, you can ramp up certain effects and see if certain compiz features are causing issues. There's a compiz manager that can selectively turn features on and off as needed and customize the effects.

Do a google search for your video card manufacturer and "compiz". You might also want to consider making a backup of your system then upgrading to 9.10...several driver glitches were fixed with later releases.

(the instructions for visual effects comes from 9.10...you may need to google for "visual effects compiz 8.10" to find a way to turn compiz off. You'll lose all the eye candy, but for older releases and certain video cards, I found that increased stability dramatically, and later releases seemed to clear them up.)