Arch Linux

Most likely the problem is not in theme, because the same happens in Swing based NetBeans IDE (without custom look and feel)

So did you change themes and see if it works?

Edit: and what video drivers?

Also, don't just say "last" for a version, as that changes all of the time.

Hi Scimmia, thank for notes.

Packages versions

xfce4: 4.12.3-1
xfce-theme-greybird: 1.6.2-2
elementary-xfce-icons: 0.7-1

I switched to Adwaita theme and began to observe the issue.

Result of "lspci -v" for VGA section:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0688
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

After switching to Adwaita theme, the issue has not yet reproduced. Continue to watch

The issue was reproduced.
Discovered a new detail: The issue was reproduced after notebook has been in sleep mode all night.
New screenshot attached.

Not really sure where the problem lies, taking a guess.

I'm affected by the same issue, using i3wm. Attached is a screenshot of emacs after resume from suspend. The issue occurs after every suspend.
It might have something to do with font rendering cache (if such thing exists?), because over time, many characters become visible again.

lspci -v:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 5006
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 31
Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

This problem still occurs quite often. Another observation. After the issue occurs, I checked all TTY, and found that they do not work. Only the cursor blinks. See screenshot.

This is most likely a kernel issue.

Jan Steffens, What can I do in order to better understand the cause of the problem, when the problem reproduces again?

Follow the instructions here:
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/documentation/how-report-bugs

I found that the issue can be fixed by adding a 20-intel.conf file to xorg.conf.d with the following contents:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"

However, after a short time of using the fix, font and theme colors started messing up instead, giving me problems pictured on the screeenshots.

The issue still reproduced after completely system reinstalling.

Also, the issue reproduced with GNOME 3 Flashback (metacity). So, it is not Xfce4 problem.

Detail: the problem is reproduced only after a long stay in sleep mode (more then 30 minutes).

Maybe it is hardware defect?

There are a few upstream bugs filed about a similar regression:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=88584
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=93886

I am using StumpWM with no DE, so it's definitely not a DE/WM issue, I suspect Intel video most, as changing the AccelMethod does change things.

Thanks, Serge Hooge (serh)

Also found section "Font and screen corruption in GTK+ applications (missing glyphs after suspend/resume)" in our wiki:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_graphics

Looks like this solved the problem:

create file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf with content below:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection