Arch Linux

forumache

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2011-09-02

Posts: 57

Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

Hi guys,

LE: it's not wayland, it is Gnome apps using wayland. I see the I can run Calibre, Chrome, QT Creator, all running in Wayland (because xlsclients doesn't show them, but it shows xterm which is clearly an X.org app). So please read the following text making adjustments, I will edit it but this Later Edit was quicker

Suddenly a strange problem appeared... I cannot see wayland windows content. Let me explain, I am providing a video as well here.

I am using Gnome under Wayland. In the morning (yesterday) I opened browser (Chrome) and a terminal (Ptyxis). Performed some updates and then I continued working in terminal and browser. I don't remember opening new windows (a terminal and a browser were enough for what I was doing, terminal to issue commands and browser to read docs on the web).

At the end of the day I thought to install ls++ because I remembered seeing it in a video and I liked its output. I saw that it didn't display differently the symlinks where the target was available or not, no difference in colors. This was important, because I was setting up git annex with some remotes and of course it was nice to know if a file is locally available or just on remotes. Anyway, I don't think this is important, but... just providing context. So, I thought, ok, maybe the colours are not ok in Ptyxis because I have it set up to use the dark theme, let's try in Console (Gnome Console). And this is when I noticed the issue: Console window was blank. Closed Console, closed Ptyxis, started Ptyxis, blank. Logged out, logged in, started Console, blank... Started browser, browser works. Rebooted. Same results. Logged out and logged in again, this time selecting Gnome under X.org, everything works. To conclude: under Wayland, Wayland apps window content is not rendered, apps using XWayland (like Chrome) work, under X.org stuff works.

I am attaching the list of updates I applied in the morning, don't know which one caused the issue: mesa, vulkan-intel...
The issue is on a Intel Ivy Bridge desktop, no other video cards, just the internal one.

Is there anything else that I need to provide? Any hints, does it ring a bell? Of course I can continue running on X.org, but I moved to Wayland years ago and everything worked perfectly until now...
Funny thing, in order to try to debug I had to install xterm, because the terminal apps (Console and Ptyxis) didn't work under Wayland and where they work (in X.org), the issue does not reproduce

[2025-06-05T09:40:53+0200] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -Syu'
[2025-06-05T09:40:53+0200] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2025-06-05T09:40:57+0200] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] transaction started
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded alsa-card-profiles (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded audit (4.0.3-1 -> 4.0.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded libgdm (48.0-1 -> 48.0-2)
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded mesa (1:25.1.1-2 -> 1:25.1.2-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded libusb (1.0.28-1 -> 1.0.29-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded gnupg (2.4.7-2 -> 2.4.7-3)
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded libpipewire (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-audio (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-jack (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-pulse (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded gdm (48.0-1 -> 48.0-2)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugin-pipewire (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded pipewire-alsa (1:1.4.4-1 -> 1:1.4.5-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded vim-runtime (9.1.1376-1 -> 9.1.1431-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded vim (9.1.1376-1 -> 9.1.1431-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] upgraded vulkan-intel (1:25.1.1-2 -> 1:25.1.2-1)
[2025-06-05T09:41:34+0200] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2025-06-05T09:41:35+0200] [ALPM] running '20-systemd-sysusers.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:35+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload-system.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:35+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload-user.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:35+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-restart-marked.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:36+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-tmpfiles.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:36+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-udev-reload.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:36+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-update.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:37+0200] [ALPM] running 'dbus-reload.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:37+0200] [ALPM] running 'glib-compile-schemas.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:37+0200] [ALPM] running 'gtk-update-icon-cache.hook'...
[2025-06-05T09:41:37+0200] [ALPM] running 'update-desktop-database.hook'...
[2025-06-05T19:18:03+0200] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -Syu'
[2025-06-05T19:18:03+0200] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2025-06-05T19:18:06+0200] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
[2025-06-05T19:19:05+0200] [ALPM] transaction started
[2025-06-05T19:19:05+0200] [ALPM] upgraded docker-compose (2.36.2-1 -> 2.37.0-1)
[2025-06-05T19:19:06+0200] [ALPM] upgraded pulumi (3.173.0-1 -> 3.174.0-1)
[2025-06-05T19:19:06+0200] [ALPM] upgraded signal-desktop (7.56.0-1 -> 7.56.1-1)
[2025-06-05T19:19:07+0200] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2025-06-05T19:19:07+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-update.hook'...
[2025-06-05T19:19:07+0200] [ALPM] running 'gtk-update-icon-cache.hook'...
[2025-06-05T19:19:07+0200] [ALPM] running 'update-desktop-database.hook'...
[2025-06-05T19:19:24+0200] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -S vault'
[2025-06-05T19:19:50+0200] [ALPM] transaction started
[2025-06-05T19:19:50+0200] [ALPM] installed vault (1.19.5-1)
[2025-06-05T19:19:51+0200] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2025-06-05T19:19:51+0200] [ALPM] running '20-systemd-sysusers.hook'...
[2025-06-05T19:19:51+0200] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Creating group 'vault' with GID 957.
[2025-06-05T19:19:51+0200] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Creating user 'vault' (Vault daemon) with UID 957 and GID 957.
[2025-06-05T19:19:51+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-daemon-reload-system.hook'...
[2025-06-05T19:19:51+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-tmpfiles.hook'...
[2025-06-05T19:19:51+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-update.hook'...
[2025-06-05T20:05:09+0200] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -S ls++'
[2025-06-05T20:05:15+0200] [ALPM] transaction started
[2025-06-05T20:05:15+0200] [ALPM] installed perl-term-extendedcolor (0.504-7)
[2025-06-05T20:05:15+0200] [ALPM] installed ls++ (1:0.36-10)
[2025-06-05T20:05:15+0200] [ALPM] transaction completed
[2025-06-05T20:05:15+0200] [ALPM] running '30-systemd-update.hook'...
[2025-06-05T20:05:15+0200] [ALPM] running 'detect-old-perl-modules.hook'...

Thank you!

Last edited by forumache (2025-06-06 09:02:07)

forumache

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2011-09-02

Posts: 57

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

Culprit found, with help from Gemini.

Initially it blamed it on drivers, mutter and other stuff, but when I told it that the issue is with Gnome apps running under Wayland, it proposed to remove vulcan usage, by using VK_ICD_FILENAMES set to empty.
Lo and behold, it works.

❯ ptyxis                        
MESA-INTEL: warning: Ivy Bridge Vulkan support is incomplete
MESA-INTEL: warning: ../mesa-25.1.2/src/intel/vulkan_hasvk/anv_formats.c:759: FINISHME: support YUV colorspace with DRM format modifiers
MESA-INTEL: warning: ../mesa-25.1.2/src/intel/vulkan_hasvk/anv_formats.c:790: FINISHME: support more multi-planar formats with DRM modifiers

~ 3s 
❯ VK_ICD_FILENAMES= ptyxis

First run is with vulkan and I get the white window, second is not using vulkan and it works. And yes, I can see the warning about incomplete Ivy Bridge, but I had it before and it worked regardless. But yesterday upgrade made it incompleter (!!)

Problem solved, will remove vulkan and all will be fine

Archespor

Member

Registered: 2020-09-21

Posts: 1

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

Hello,

I had the same problem after the latest updates (on a Haswell desktop system using the integrated GPU).

Uninstalling vulkan-intel “solved” the problem - at least made the system usable again.

Edit: Sorry, my comment overlapped with the 2nd post …

Last edited by Archespor (2025-06-06 09:35:47)

fantocci

Member

Registered: 2016-10-18

Posts: 6

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

Haswell ULT i5-4300U here, same problem.
Downgrading vulkan-intel to vulkan-intel-1:25.1.1 temporarily solves.

Last edited by fantocci (2025-06-06 10:52:17)

waldganger

Member

Registered: 2025-02-03

Posts: 2

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

Same issue on Intel Core i7-4770HQ with Intel Crystal Well Integrated Graphics.

satriani

Member

Registered: 2015-06-26

Posts: 27

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

After updating to GNOME 48.3.1-1.2 and `vulkan-intel` 1:25.1.2-3 on Arch Linux, I encountered rendering issues with GTK4/libadwaita applications—such as black boxes around windows and application crashes. These problems are due to GNOME's switch to Vulkan as the default renderer on Wayland. 

To temporarily resolve the issue, I forced GTK to use the OpenGL renderer (`ngl`) instead of Vulkan by setting the `GSK_RENDERER` environment variable. This change significantly improved stability and eliminated the rendering artifacts.

Steps to apply the workaround:

1. Open a terminal.

2. Execute the following command to append the environment variable to `/etc/environment`:

echo 'GSK_RENDERER=ngl' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment > /dev/null

3. Reboot your system to apply the changes.

This solution is a temporary workaround until a more permanent fix is implemented in future updates.

fantocci

Member

Registered: 2016-10-18

Posts: 6

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

The new packages in extra-testing fix the issue.

orcun

Member

Registered: 2024-08-16

Posts: 1

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

In your GDM screen settings, if Xorg is available, please select it until the temporary Wayland issue is resolved.

fantocci

Member

Registered: 2016-10-18

Posts: 6

Re: Gnome Wayland stopped rendering window content

New packages in regular repository should solve.
Workarounds such as: uninstalling vulkan-intel or changing the GTK renderer, should no longer be necessary.

See:
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … /issues/30