[Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

GSF1200S · 2017-09-20 02:50:23

Barely ever post here for issues since I can usually figure them out OR someone else already has but:

I use Firefox, Openbox, and Compton as my compositor. If I have Firefox open and disable compton, all my tabs just turn white. The page is still there- if I click where a video was it will play or pause, I can still hear sound, etc- but I can't see it. If I switch tabs, I see the swirling loading icon, but nothing on the page. If I re-enable Compton, same deal- all tabs blank. If I open a new tab, it will work and render fine. If I have a tab open when compositing is disabled and enable compositing, again same deal.

I've tried disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox, and I've tried many things in compton.conf. For example it happens with Xrender or GLX used as the acceleration method. I dont see any errors in journalctl, nor do I see anything special spit out in a terminal if Firefox is run under one. I've also tried Safe Mode- same issue.

To troubleshoot I installed Chromium and it works fine; no scenario sees it failing to repaint. Does anyone else have this issue? The only mention I've seen is of someone on Plasma having a similar issue and setting kwin to not force recomposite the window (or something- I'm not familiar with KDE).

If there are any logs or configs you think are relevant I can post them. I mainly use compton to provide subtle effects, eliminate tearing, and to color invert a few applications I use.

Last edited by GSF1200S (2017-10-07 20:04:17)

adesh · 2017-09-20 06:11:57

I do not use Firefox, so a wild guess: this might have something to do with Quantum compositing Mozilla introduced in Firefox lately. I think currently it is not enabled on Linux. But anyway, try playing with "layers.gpu-process" preferences.

phw · 2017-09-20 11:33:31

Might be related / the same or not: But when using Gnome and restarting Gnome Shell I have exactly the same behavior in Gnome.

Painless · 2017-09-20 19:52:09

I can confirm this behaviour with firefox, compton and fvwm. I played with compton a long time ago, then never used it, but enabled it to check this out. Stopping and restarting firefox fixes the repaint issue, but then firefox runs noticeably slower than normal (scrolling is laggy).

My compton.conf for comparison purposes:

shadow = true;
no-dock-shadow = true;
no-dnd-shadow = true;
clear-shadow = true;
shadow-radius = 7;
shadow-offset-x = -7;
shadow-offset-y = -7;
shadow-exclude = [ "n:e:Notification", "g:si:Conky", "g:e:Cairo-clock" ];
shadow-ignore-shaped = true;
menu-opacity = 1.0;
inactive-opacity = 0.9;
frame-opacity = 1.0;
inactive-opacity-override = true;
alpha-step = 0.06;
blur-background-fixed = false;
blur-background-exclude = [ "window_type = 'dock'", "window_type = 'desktop'" ];
fading = true;
fade-in-step = 0.03;
fade-out-step = 0.03;
fade-exclude = [ ];
backend = "glx"
mark-wmwin-focused = true;
mark-ovredir-focused = true;
use-ewmh-active-win = false;
detect-rounded-corners = true;
detect-client-opacity = true;
refresh-rate = 0;  
vsync = "opengl";
dbe = false;
paint-on-overlay = true;
sw-opti = false;
unredir-if-possible = false;
focus-exclude = [ "g:e:FvwmButtons", "n:a:Firefox" ];
detect-transient = true;
detect-client-leader = true;
invert-color-include = [ ];
glx-copy-from-front = false;
glx-swap-method = "undefined";
wintypes:
{
  tooltip = { fade = true; shadow = false; opacity = 0.85; focus = true; };
  dock = { fade = false; shadow = false; opacity = 1; };
  popup_menu = { fade = false; shadow = false; opacity = 1; };
  notify = { fade = true; shadow = false; opacity = 1; };
  dropdown_menu = { fade = false; shadow = true; opacity = 1; };
  combo = { fade = false; shadow = false; opacity = 1; };
  desktop = { fade = false; shadow = false; opacity = 1; };
  dialog = { focus = false; };
};

Removing the firefox entry from the "focus-exclude" list did improve performance, but did not prevent the repaint issue.

seth · 2017-09-20 20:14:15

Try xcompmgr instead of compton to see whether it also happens with another (and xrender using) compositor.
If not, try compton on xrender next.

Daxter · 2017-09-22 01:38:19

Hi I'm having the same problem with openbox & xcompmgr.

seth · 2017-09-22 06:42:18

Sounds like FF detects the presence of a compositor and "does shit" (under the false assumption that the session is either composited or not, but never changes)

re200484 · 2017-09-23 18:24:58

I had the same behaviour. I deleted the profile folder y restored it with firefox sync. Now it works without problem.

GSF1200S · 2017-10-07 20:03:53

Fixed with the release of Firefox 56- must have been handled upstream.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-09-20 02:50:23

[Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#2 2017-09-20 06:11:57

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#3 2017-09-20 11:33:31

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#4 2017-09-20 19:52:09

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#5 2017-09-20 20:14:15

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#6 2017-09-22 01:38:19

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#7 2017-09-22 06:42:18

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#8 2017-09-23 18:24:58

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

#9 2017-10-07 20:03:53

Re: [Solved] Firefox fails to repaint after disabling or enabling Compton

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