Are all your glx video divers set up and working properly, are you using the latest versions available for your hardware? Does \'glxinfo\' report extensions loaded, and glxgears work at reasonable ( ie > 1000 fps, preferably 2000, 3000 or more fps ) speeds?
One other suggestion, try a different skin - you pick this by running the pssetup program. Whatever the default for this was, I was missing icons and backgrounds for many dialog and menu windows, until I picked a skin and now its all fine. There are also video options that are changable in the setup program too that may help.
I\'m assuming that the problem with the updater is also present when running planeshift itself? I never use the GUI updater but the text equivalent ( updater -auto ), which I find is faster and less obtrusive.