Arch Linux

essence-of-foo

Member

Registered: 2008-07-12

Posts: 84

[SOLVED] linux kernel 5.10.13 creates pixel artifacts in X server

I did a complete system update yesterday and after that I had random pixel artifacts in deterministic regions. These regions are the i3 status bar and the full window contents of alacritty, dmenu, gedit and chrome-based browsers (making these applications unusable). xterm is also full of random pixels, but when I write something, the letters overwrite the random pixels. Applications that work flawlessly include mplayer and firefox.

The pixel artifacts are full perfect rectangles in window-specific regions. They are random, which makes me think that I'm seeing some memory region that is interpreted as RGB values. And the values continuously change. I am very certain that this a software issue, because the regions depend on the applications.

Downgrading the linux package solves the issue completely. I also switched to Wayland to see if the artifacts show up there and they don't. This makes it clear that the Linux kernel is the problem here (in combination with X11).

My system is completely up to date except the kernel (downgraded to version 5.10.11).

graphics card: Intel HD 4000 graphics
window manager: i3

Intel graphics-related packages:

local/intel-gmmlib 20.4.1-1
    Intel Graphics Memory Management Library
local/intel-media-driver 20.4.5-1
    Intel Media Driver for VAAPI — Broadwell+ iGPUs
local/intel-media-sdk 20.5.1-1
    API to access hardware-accelerated video on Intel Gen graphics hardware platforms
local/lib32-vulkan-intel 20.1.5-1
    Intel's Vulkan mesa driver (32-bit)
local/libmfx 20.5.1-1
    Intel Media SDK dispatcher library
local/vulkan-intel 20.3.4-1
    Intel's Vulkan mesa driver
local/xf86-video-intel 1:2.99.917+916+g31486f40-1 (xorg-drivers)
    X.org Intel i810/i830/i915/945G/G965+ video drivers

This might be a bug in the kernel. But I need to look closer into this issue, before I want to issue a bug report. Where do you think I should I look next?

Last edited by essence-of-foo (2021-02-05 17:49:26)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,672

Re: [SOLVED] linux kernel 5.10.13 creates pixel artifacts in X server

Try removing xf86-video-intel it's generally not very well maintained and very often runs into issues like these not unlike what you are seeing, remove eventually added configuration for xorg referencing the intel driver so that xorg utilizes the modesetting driver built into it instead.

essence-of-foo

Member

Registered: 2008-07-12

Posts: 84

Re: [SOLVED] linux kernel 5.10.13 creates pixel artifacts in X server

Thanks! That advice was spot-on! I marked the topic as solved