Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

Shino · 2025-10-03 19:35:42

seth wrote:

Please post your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General and the output of "glxinfo -B"
Does
GSK_RENDERER=cairo GDK_BACKEND=x11 kicad
help?
(The next part would be LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 but that only does something if you're not using nvidia)

GSK_RENDERER=cairo GDK_BACKEND=x11 kicad

That seems to help.

LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 kicad

This also helps (with the drawback of lagging of course). I'm on AMD

glxinfo -B
name of display: :0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
    Vendor: AMD (0x1002)
    Device: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi, gfx1200, LLVM 20.1.8, DRM 3.64, 6.16.10-arch1-1) (0x7590)
    Version: 25.2.4
    Accelerated: yes
    Video memory: 16384MB
    Unified memory: no
    Preferred profile: core (0x1)
    Max core profile version: 4.6
    Max compat profile version: 4.6
    Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
    Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.2
Memory info (GL_ATI_meminfo):
    VBO free memory - total: 14689 MB, largest block: 14689 MB
    VBO free aux. memory - total: 30873 MB, largest block: 30873 MB
    Texture free memory - total: 14689 MB, largest block: 14689 MB
    Texture free aux. memory - total: 30873 MB, largest block: 30873 MB
    Renderbuffer free memory - total: 14689 MB, largest block: 14689 MB
    Renderbuffer free aux. memory - total: 30873 MB, largest block: 30873 MB
Memory info (GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info):
    Dedicated video memory: 16384 MB
    Total available memory: 47328 MB
    Currently available dedicated video memory: 14689 MB
OpenGL vendor string: AMD
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi, gfx1200, LLVM 20.1.8, DRM 3.64, 6.16.10-arch1-1)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.2.4-arch1.1
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile

OpenGL version string: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.2.4-arch1.1
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile

OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 25.2.4-arch1.1
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20

seth · 2025-10-03 19:43:25

You can also test

GSK_RENDERER=gl GDK_BACKEND=x11 kicad

pacman -Qs vulkan # GSK_RENDERER defaults to vulkan and there're several optional AMD implementations

Do you have xf86-video-amdgpu installed?

Shino · 2025-10-03 20:27:05

GSK_RENDERER=gl GDK_BACKEND=x11 kicad

also works

pacman -Qs vulkan
local/qt6-shadertools 6.9.2-1 (qt6)
    Provides functionality for the shader pipeline that allows Qt Quick to operate on Vulkan, Metal, and Direct3D, in addition to OpenGL
local/spirv-tools 1:1.4.321.0-1 (vulkan-devel)
    API and commands for processing SPIR-V modules
local/vulkan-headers 1:1.4.321.0-1 (vulkan-devel)
    Vulkan header files and API registry
local/vulkan-icd-loader 1.4.321.0-1 (vulkan-devel)
    Vulkan Installable Client Driver (ICD) Loader
local/vulkan-mesa-device-select 1:25.2.4-1
    Mesa's Vulkan Device Select layer
local/vulkan-radeon 1:25.2.4-1
    Open-source Vulkan driver for AMD GPUs

xf86-video-amdgpu is not installed. I was under the assumption, that all of these xf86-video- packages are not needed on modern platforms.

seth · 2025-10-03 20:40:10

They're irrelevant for wayland and *probably* disadvantageous for xwayland - you can still try whether the DDX driver actually performs better in your case but I mostly wanted to inquire and record the status quo.

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

gxt25 · 2025-10-04 00:36:33

Shino wrote:

I'd much rather change distros to get a working gnome back because that has less impact on me than changing the UI. It's a personal preference. Nothing technical. So it does not make sense to try to discuss that.

It makes some sense to be clear that Gnome doesn't support X11, or by extension any apps which rely on X11, and the distro is irrelevant unless and until some distro forks Gnome (again) and bakes in X11 support. (Seems unlikely but I guess you never know.)

seth · 2025-10-04 08:39:16

any apps which rely on X11

As long as gnome doesn't scratch xwayland support you still can run X11 clients - the problems w/ kicad were that
a) it didn't run on xwayland w/o GDK_BACKEND=x11 (something upstream could facilitate by checking the environment and defaulting to that before starting the GTK stuff.
b) the vulkan renderer doesn't work (apparently also kicad specific)

If the problem w/ wayland would be down to the ability to nest an X11 server, wayland would not have any problems.

gxt25 · 2025-10-04 09:49:23

That's good to know. Thanks Seth.

Arch Linux

#26 2025-10-03 19:35:42

Re: Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

#27 2025-10-03 19:43:25

Re: Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

#28 2025-10-03 20:27:05

Re: Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

#29 2025-10-03 20:40:10

Re: Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

#30 2025-10-04 00:36:33

Re: Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

#31 2025-10-04 08:39:16

Re: Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

#32 2025-10-04 09:49:23

Re: Gnome Update: No Xorg anymore.Kicad and other applications unusable.

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