I had a similar issue under Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS. I figured it out by setting the option System->Preferences->Appearance->Visual Effects from "Normal" to "None".
This is my graphic interface: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 02) Subsystem: Dell Device 011d Xorg loads the following modules: II) LoadModule: "extmod" (II) LoadModule: "dbe" (II) LoadModule: "glx" (II) LoadModule: "record" (II) LoadModule: "dri" (II) LoadModule: "dri2" (II) LoadModule: "ati" (II) LoadModule: "radeon" (II) LoadModule: "vesa" (II) LoadModule: "fbdev" (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw" (II) LoadModule: "fb" (II) LoadModule: "ramdac" (II) LoadModule: "exa" (II) LoadModule: "evdev" (II) LoadModule: "synaptics" ** Attachment added: "Here is my complete Xorg.0.log file." https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/615779/+attachment/1776566/+files/Xorg.0.log -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/615779 Title: Thunderbird menus and dialog boxes are blank -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs