Like David, I downgraded the mesa packages in order for the problem to disapear. The package system needed the old libllvm library (unfortunately, I purged it with "sudo apt autoremove" before) so my command line for this downgrade/fix was
sudo dpkg -i \ libllvm5.0_5.0-3~16.04.1_amd64.deb \ libllvm5.0_5.0-3~16.04.1_i386.deb \ libgbm1_17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1_amd64.deb \ libwayland-egl1-mesa_17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1_amd64.deb \ libegl1-mesa_17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1_amd64.deb \ libgl1-mesa-dri_17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1_amd64.deb \ libgl1-mesa-dri_17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1_i386.deb \ mesa-vdpau-drivers_17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1_amd64.deb now the menus and buttons look normally -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to mesa in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1780846 Title: After update 2018-07-08 menus and buttons are behaving badly Status in mesa package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: After an update to Description: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS Release: 16.04 Menus and buttons are behaving badly. This is a general issue, affecting most programs. Text in buttons is not always being displayed. When you mouse over an entry in a menu list the previous entry disappears e.g. the logout menu (power button icon at top right of panel) Menu items are getting red backgrounds where they were not before. Introduced by update done by update-manager on Last update Start-Date: 2018-07-08 21:25:10 Modified packages: libgles2-mesa:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libdrm-nouveau2:amd64 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libdrm-nouveau2:i386 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libapt-inst2.0:amd64 (1.2.26, 1.2.27) libegl1-mesa-dev:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) apt:amd64 (1.2.26, 1.2.27) libglapi-mesa:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libglapi-mesa:i386 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) mesa-common-dev:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libxatracker2:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libegl1-mesa:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libapt-pkg5.0:amd64 (1.2.26, 1.2.27) apache2-data:amd64 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.8, 2.4.18-2ubuntu3.9) libgbm1:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libdrm-amdgpu1:amd64 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libdrm-amdgpu1:i386 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) firefox-locale-en:amd64 (60.0.2+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1, 61.0+build3-0ubuntu0.16.04.2) libwayland-egl1-mesa:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libdrm2:amd64 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libdrm2:i386 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libgl1-mesa-dev:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) apt-utils:amd64 (1.2.26, 1.2.27) libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libosmesa6:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libosmesa6:i386 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libgl1-mesa-glx:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) libdrm-intel1:amd64 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libdrm-intel1:i386 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) apache2-bin:amd64 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.8, 2.4.18-2ubuntu3.9) firefox:amd64 (60.0.2+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1, 61.0+build3-0ubuntu0.16.04.2) apt-transport-https:amd64 (1.2.26, 1.2.27) libdrm-radeon1:amd64 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libdrm-radeon1:i386 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) mesa-vdpau-drivers:amd64 (17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1, 18.0.5-0ubuntu0~16.04.1) apache2:amd64 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.8, 2.4.18-2ubuntu3.9) apache2-utils:amd64 (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.8, 2.4.18-2ubuntu3.9) libdrm-dev:amd64 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) libdrm-common:amd64 (2.4.83-1~16.04.1, 2.4.91-2~16.04.1) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mesa/+bug/1780846/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp