X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

bWF0a3Vr · 2021-04-24 07:54:22

I was running Sway (Wayland) and updated the system yesterday (update before that was probably one week ago). After rebooting the system and starting sway, the UI is flickering (very similar to this post from a few days ago).

I installed KDE Plasma and even X11. The first start was fine and everything worked as usual. I rebooted the system after a few hours of work and now KDE Plasma/X11 takes ages to show anything. Login (SDDM) takes around 10 seconds, which usually took 2 seconds. Pressing the META (windows) key, takes multiple seconds to show the menu popping up. Furthermore I don't see any mouse cursor on KDE Plasma (most likely on Sway as well, but due to the flickering I can't tell). Basically, Sway (Wayland) and KDE (X11) don't work after I updated my system.

Using the machine without any desktop environment at all works absolutely fine, but this is obviously not a long term solution. I run the nouveau driver (mesa package), since sway requires it.

I use an i5-3570K and RTX 2070 Super, if that matters. Dual booted system with Windows.

The following shows the GUI on wayland (you only see my waybar on the top; even if I would run a terminal I wouldn't see it due to flickering/artifacts): https://youtu.be/Gp3g1ytAXUI
And here is the X11 (Plasma) version (at the end of the video I press the meta key and it takes nearly 10 seconds to show the Plasma menu. As you might notice there is no cursor for some reason...): https://youtu.be/VjCRVtKYSHs

Interestingly reinstalling X11 and KDE works fine for the first login, but only the first login. After rebooting it doesn't and I run into the same problems shown in the videos.

Any ideas how to approach this? I didn't have any problems so far with Arch. Until 2 days ago, everything was fine. All packages are updated. Thanks to reddit I gave this (https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/70554?p … &sort=desc) a try (although I run a NVIDIA card) and downgraded mesa, but it didn't help.

seth · 2021-04-24 08:44:30

Dual booted system with Windows.

3rd link in my signature.

Otherwise: Do you get similar problems w/ the nvidia blob (and X11 and KDE)?
What if you speed up nouveau? https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/No … management

bWF0a3Vr · 2021-04-24 09:02:22

I disabled fast-boot. Thanks (didn't solve my problem though).
Could you elaborate what you mean with: "Otherwise: Do you get similar problems w/ the nvidia blob (and X11 and KDE)?"

Is there some way to check what packages were updated (2 days ago on my system) through pacman? The issue is related to the update. I need a functional system asap and downgrading the packages would be a sufficient workaround for now...but I need to know which packages were updated/affected.

I noticed that every time I run Windows after Arch, Windows tries to perform a disk check and repair some volumes (this didn't happen before the update).

seth · 2021-04-24 10:10:31

Your pacman log will tell you what was updated when, I meant to install and test the nvidia binary driver and the FS checks happen(ed?) because, thanks to fast boot, windows was hibernating and didn't like that somethnig (linux) touched the FS while it was asleep (hence the link in my signature - you were effectively running two OS at the same time, but w/o a hypervisor)

bWF0a3Vr · 2021-04-24 11:47:48

After installing the nvidia driver X11/Plasma works fine. Yay! I had to disable the Intel-GPU though: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NV … grated_GPU

So something is faulty with my nouveau package. I decided to downgrade the mesa package to mesa-20.3.4-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst in hope that this would solve my problem, but it still exists.
Trying to run sway I had to set the nvidia flag, which results in the same error message as discussed here: https://www.reddit.com/r/swaywm/comment … rm_device/

Problem is, that I can't enable the integrated graphics, since I get a black screen (see the first link)...which means I can't use sway while using the nvidia package...

Last edited by bWF0a3Vr (2021-04-24 11:48:22)

seth · 2021-04-24 13:13:38

Wait a second, so this is an optimus setup?

lspci
xrandr --listproviders

Sure that you were not running on the intel chip beforehand?

You can actually select which GPU to drive which terminal, https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/fb/fbcon.html
But first please detail on the setup and your intentions on how to use it.

bWF0a3Vr · 2021-04-24 14:30:20

From the plasma session (X11):

➜  ~ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 Display controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c4)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Z77 Express Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 [GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 HD Audio Controller (rev a1)
01:00.2 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 USB 3.1 Host Controller (rev a1)
01:00.3 Serial bus controller [0c80]: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 USB Type-C UCSI Controller (rev a1)
03:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 03)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
➜  ~ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x1b8 cap: 0x1, Source Output crtcs: 4 outputs: 7 associated providers: 0 name:NVIDIA-0

Unfortunately I can't check the wayland session, since I don't see anything...

seth wrote:

Sure that you were not running on the intel chip beforehand?

If I think about it, I'm almost sure I ran the wayland (sway) session on the intel chip without using the nvidia gpu at all (YouTube was laggy at higher resolutions and the CPU workload unusually high when watching YouTube...it never really bothered me to much to look into it).
How could I verify this? Any idea? Running xrandr on the wayland session wouldn't work anyway, since it has nothing to do with X11, right?

I would like to use the wayland (sway) session powered by my RTX 2070 Super. I thought I had it set up like this all the time...but thinking about it I most likely used the Intel GPU...

Last edited by bWF0a3Vr (2021-04-24 14:31:31)

seth · 2021-04-24 15:30:25

That's not an optimus system, you just have two VGA controllers.
How does wayland perform on nouveau, now that you blacklisted the intel chip?

eglinfo should™ tell you which GPU you use (under wayland)

bWF0a3Vr · 2021-04-27 09:32:26

Sorry for the late response. I really appreciate your help!

Correcton: I actually never used the iGPU, since both monitors were always plugged into the dedicated GPU I/O. Therefore the dedicated nvidia gpu was always used. Therefore blacklisting the intel chip didn't solve my issues (since it was never used in the first place).

Nothing changed. Here's a quick summary (I added in awesomewm):
- nvidia package:
- plasma (X11): works
- awesomewm (X11): works
- sway (wayland): obviously doesn't work, since it is not supported

- nouveau (mesa) package
- plasma (X11): extremely slow and unresponsive (see the videos listed in the OP)
- awesomewm (X11): works.
- sway (wayland): articafts and flickering all over the place (see the videos listed in the OP)

Everything worked fine a few days ago, until I updated the system. Using the nouveau driver the plasma (x11) session is so unresponsive than I can't even run a terminal. The sway (wayland) session is responsive, but I can't see anything on the screens due to artifacts and flickering. I just want my sway (wayland) to work again

Last edited by bWF0a3Vr (2021-04-27 09:32:51)

progandy · 2021-04-27 09:41:10

For sway you could try to start with WLR_DRM_NO_MODIFIERS=1.
https://github.com/swaywm/wlroots/issues/2874

By the way, RTX 2070 is rudimentary at best with nouveau. You only get boot clock speeds which is only a fraction of what the card is capable of. (OpenGL might even run as a pure software implementation) There is not much that can be done until nvidia releases signed firmware that can be used by nouveau.

Last edited by progandy (2021-04-27 09:43:53)

bWF0a3Vr · 2021-04-27 10:07:27

Thank you so much! This solved my issue.

I didn't test plasma yet, but sway (wayland) now runs perfectly fine

Regarding the nvidia gpu I'm aware (as I mentioned, even the desktop usage is relatively bad with nouveau) and my next gpu will be AMD. But the current gpu prices, or hardware prices in genereal, are insane. Since I don't use linux for gaming, I should be fine for now

Last edited by bWF0a3Vr (2021-04-27 10:09:12)

progandy · 2021-04-27 10:25:16

Since you have an internal GPU, it might be more performant to set that up as your primary rendering device and use nouveau only for output. (Order the intel gpu first with WLR_DRM_DEVICES) Maybe even connect one of the monitors directly to the igpu.

bWF0a3Vr · 2021-04-27 10:35:10

That was my initial plan, but I need 2 x DP 1.4 which my CPU doesn't provide. In fact, even the best APU on the marktet (AMD Ryzen PRO 4750G) comes with only a single DP 1.4...

Arch Linux

#1 2021-04-24 07:54:22

X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#2 2021-04-24 08:44:30

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#3 2021-04-24 09:02:22

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#4 2021-04-24 10:10:31

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#5 2021-04-24 11:47:48

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#6 2021-04-24 13:13:38

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#7 2021-04-24 14:30:20

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#8 2021-04-24 15:30:25

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#9 2021-04-27 09:32:26

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#10 2021-04-27 09:41:10

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#11 2021-04-27 10:07:27

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#12 2021-04-27 10:25:16

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

#13 2021-04-27 10:35:10

Re: X11 and Wayland show flickering/artifacts after update (videos inside)

Board footer