OK, so I can't leave stuff like this alone, so I did the following. I uninstalled the fpcupdeluxe and the .deb packaged installations completely. Including config file directories , all /usr/lib/fpc and /usr/share/lazarus, /etc config files, and config files in my home .config and .Lazarus directories.
Then I reinstalled laz with the 3 packages on the lazarus-ide.org page by clicking the Download Now link. The installed went fine and then I had a a lazarus that brought up a new project and factory colors when run. None of my defined directories or options were in place, so it was as close to a virgin install as I can make it.
I set up my directories in fp.cfg and in fpc.cfg so that my components and stuff can be found, and set up my colors for the editor, fonts. etc. Now I had a working lazarus that can compile all the stuff I do. I am the odd one in that I am the only one in the company that works with pascal (plus c++ and java for the few android apps we still maintain).
Now when I run fpc tst.lpr I get perfect borders. It's the same when I load it into fp ide. When I compile with lazarus, I get the same bad borders as I originally did. Cool, now I can play.
First I tried adding the -Cg to the compiler commands in Laz. That did nothing, so I removed that and tried the -dDisableUTF8RTL in the options. That also did nothing. Yes I am being careful that I am using the same mode (default, debug, release) always using release mode.
Then I uninstalled and wiped the config files again and re-installed with the lazarus package from the Neon (ubuntu) repository. This is the one that worked fine, but after this install, it was back to not working (as in not giving me borders).
Right now, I am back to the official 3 package install from the lazarus site (because it's 3.6). I know that laz can create the same binary as fpc/FP IDE because it did so on this machine for a full day and night until I got cocky and decided to find out why. I will eventually stumble across the right switch or setting, it might just take a while though.
--- Jem