[SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

bsmntoid · 2025-06-22 01:59:15

Hello!

Just this morning after updating and rebooting, I've started having this issue where my mouse cursor appears duplicated, and the screen will flicker below.
The duplicated cursor appears to the right of the real one, and one pixel higher. Just below it there's a short, one pixel thick line of seemingly random colour.
Just below both cursors, the full width down to the bottom of the screen flickers. Sometimes it is a solid colour, other times a vertically striped pattern. It seems to be based on whatever is under my cursor.
The issue is intermittent -- sometimes nothing will happen, sometimes only the cursor will be duplicated, and sometimes the screen will flicker too. It doesn't seem to be associated with load or thermals.

I usually use Plasma with Wayland, but this issue also occurs for me when testing it with X.org. I haven't tested any other DEs or WMs as of yet.
I have an AMD Radeon RX 7900XT, using the latest versions of mesa and vulkan-radeon, and I'm using the linux-zen kernel instead of the default.

Is anyone else having a similar issue?

Thanks in advance.
bsmntoid

Edit: Nothing appears in screen recordings or screenshots, but I've managed to record it happening with a camera. Video is (removed). (epilepsy warning)
Edit 2: Issue also occurs in other WMs.

Last edited by bsmntoid (2025-06-22 18:53:50)

ActualFyrn · 2025-06-22 05:23:30

Hi bsmntoid,

I am also having this exact issue, as you describe it with the duplicated cursor and flickering screen below it. As well as that, my audio is also louder in volume than usual, at least on Discord. Just uninstalled and reinstalled linux-firmware (due to the manual intervention required with recent updates) and this problem started immediately on the next reboot.
I actually registered just because I saw your post here, as I am somewhat at a loss of what to do to fix it. I'm going to at least try reinstalling my graphics driver packages first, maybe a downgrade if that doesn't work. Compositor off also does not help. Interestingly, I found if I turn off my primary monitor the issue then only happens on the 2nd monitor, even when I turn the primary monitor back on.

Currently I am running EndeavourOS (Arch), XFCE and X11, vulkan-radeon. This is occurring for me with an AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX.

Last edited by ActualFyrn (2025-06-22 05:29:50)

Fungyo · 2025-06-22 05:49:20

Same issue here on AMD Radeon RX 7800XT (mesa, vulkan-radeon)

For me, the issue appears to have been caused by the latest linux-firmware package split (20250613.12fe085f-5).
Downgrading the linux-firmware package to (20250508.788aadc8-2) fixes the issue for me.

Other than the firmware downgrade, my system is fully up-to-date.

WM = Hyprland 0.49.0
Standard (follow the wiki) Arch install.

linux-lts, only has the double cursor issue, no flickering, no line under the cursor.

Last edited by Fungyo (2025-06-22 06:08:09)

seth · 2025-06-22 06:47:31

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … /issues/16

astroboy · 2025-06-22 09:16:16

Fungyo wrote:

Downgrading the linux-firmware package to (20250508.788aadc8-2) fixes the issue for me.

Thank you, I downgraded, and it fixed it for me as well. I was a bit worried because didn't know if it was safe to just downgrade linux-firmware, but it was fine. I used this command to downgrade (it's from the official docs https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages):

sudo pacman -U file:///var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-firmware-20250508.788aadc8-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

but it gave me a whole lot of errors about files, saying something like "exists in filesystem (owned by linux-firmware-other)".

So I had to force it to downgrade, overwriting all existing files using the `--overwrite \*` option:

sudo pacman -U --overwrite \* file:///var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-firmware-20250508.788aadc8-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

Xephon · 2025-06-22 09:23:33

Fixed in 20250613.12fe085f-6

lphrgg · 2025-06-22 09:27:12

Same problem on GNOME:
X11 or Wayland doesn't matter, glitching on both.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 gre

this helps:

astroboy wrote:

So I had to force it to downgrade, overwriting all existing files using the `--overwrite \*` option:
sudo pacman -U --overwrite \* file:///var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-firmware-20250508.788aadc8-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

Last edited by lphrgg (2025-06-22 09:27:46)

Doomguy136 · 2025-06-22 13:57:15

I was also having this issue on hyprland as of the firmware split; However, updating to 20250613.12fe085f-6 has completely fixed the issue!

I would recommend updating your system and marking this post as solved!

bsmntoid · 2025-06-22 18:17:58

Can confirm, upgrading linux-firmware to 20250613.12fe085f-6 has solved the issue for me.
Thank you everyone!

Raposeiro39 · 2025-06-22 22:34:29

Even after upgrading to 20250613.12fe085f-6 the issue persists, anyone with the same problem?

hsgg · 2025-06-23 05:06:06

Raposeiro39 wrote:

Even after upgrading to 20250613.12fe085f-6 the issue persists, anyone with the same problem?

Yes, for me, too. Seems to trigger especially when doing full-screen operations (e.g. Super+w on KDE) when the cursor is on the left side of the monitor (resolution 3440 x 1440). Moving the mouse stops the issue temporarily. AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT.

Raposeiro39 · 2025-06-23 14:36:03

hsgg wrote:

Raposeiro39 wrote:
Even after upgrading to 20250613.12fe085f-6 the issue persists, anyone with the same problem?
Yes, for me, too. Seems to trigger especially when doing full-screen operations (e.g. Super+w on KDE) when the cursor is on the left side of the monitor (resolution 3440 x 1440). Moving the mouse stops the issue temporarily. AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT.

I had to delete all the new linux-firmware pkgs and downgrade it using downgrade (aur) with these commands:

Remove all linux-firmware pkgs:

sudo pacman -Rdd $(sudo pacman -Qq | grep linux-firmware)

Downgrade linux-firmware:

sudo downgrade linux-firmware

I'll keep an eye out for an update on the situation, here's some info on my system if that's relevant:

CPU: Ryzen 9 7900x
GPU: RX 7600 XT 16gb
RAM: 64gb 5200 MHz
DE: KDE 6.4.0 (wayland)

lphrgg · 2025-06-23 16:54:34

i have a problem with last linux-firmware update
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2247757

Last edited by lphrgg (2025-06-23 16:55:11)

ActualFyrn · 2025-06-24 05:37:27

Thank you Fungyo, this helped a lot. No more issues. For anyone else trying to solve this, you'll need to -Rdd the new split linux-firmware packages that have associated files that block the downgrade. Get a downgrade package from a safe source like the Arch package archive.

astroboy · 2025-06-24 17:09:28

I updated to 20250613.12fe085f-6 and the flickering is gone, however my monitor refresh rate is now locked to 60 Hz. So they didn't fully fix, but applied some kind of workaround?

hsgg · 2025-06-26 05:45:04

Definitely NOT solved with 20250613.12fe085f-9. Same occasional flickering when the mouse is in the left half of the screen and big things are happening on screen. (Though the excellent instructions by Raposeiro39 downgrading to 20250508.788aadc8-2 worked like a charm. Thanks!)

chiyusuru · 2025-06-26 22:16:35

Thanks so much for help. Hope a proper fix is in the works.

astroboy · 2025-06-29 12:20:56

The proper fix? Ha! I solved the issue! The problem as far as I understand it is in the linux-firmware package. Recently, it got split up into multiple packages for each vendor, so now we have linux-firmware-intel, linux-firmware-amdgpu, linux-firmware-radeon, linux-firmware-nvidia, etc.

All these packages simply need to be rebuild! You need to update to the latest version of linux-firmware and its friend packages, and then just rebuild them again. The solution is that simple!

Be sure to update all your linux-firmware packages. I'm using yay (a package manager), so I just typed this:

yay linux-firmware

It shows all packages that are available in the repos, but also it marks those that I have installed:

18 core/linux-firmware-broadcom 20250627-1 (12.9 MiB 12.9 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Broadcom and Cypress network adapters
17 core/linux-firmware-liquidio 20250627-1 (1.5 MiB 1.6 MiB) 
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Cavium LiquidIO server adapters
16 core/linux-firmware-mediatek 20250627-1 (22.0 MiB 22.8 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for MediaTek and Ralink devices
15 core/linux-firmware-mellanox 20250627-1 (89.3 MiB 89.4 MiB) 
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Mellanox Spectrum switches
14 core/linux-firmware-atheros 20250627-1 (41.5 MiB 41.6 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Qualcomm Atheros WiFi and Bluetooth adapters
13 core/linux-firmware-realtek 20250627-1 (5.3 MiB 5.4 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Realtek devices
12 core/linux-firmware-marvell 20250627-1 (77.9 MiB 79.4 MiB) 
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Marvell devices
11 core/linux-firmware-cirrus 20250627-1 (1.6 MiB 1.6 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Cirrus Logic audio devices
10 core/linux-firmware-nvidia 20250627-1 (98.8 MiB 103.5 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for NVIDIA GPUs and SoCs
9 core/linux-firmware-whence 20250627-1 (38.7 KiB 324.6 KiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - WHENCE file (vendor licenses)
8 core/linux-firmware-radeon 20250627-1 (2.3 MiB 2.3 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for ATI Radeon GPUs
7 core/linux-firmware-amdgpu 20250627-1 (25.0 MiB 25.6 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for AMD Radeon GPUs
6 core/linux-firmware-qlogic 20250627-1 (11.4 MiB 11.4 MiB) 
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for QLogic devices
5 core/linux-firmware-other 20250627-1 (24.9 MiB 25.1 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Unsorted firmware for various devices
4 core/linux-firmware-intel 20250627-1 (104.5 MiB 109.0 MiB) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Intel devices
3 core/linux-firmware-qcom 20250627-1 (110.2 MiB 111.4 MiB) 
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Qualcomm SoCs
2 core/linux-firmware-nfp 20250627-1 (4.5 MiB 5.4 MiB) 
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Netronome Flow Processors
1 core/linux-firmware 20250627-1 (2.4 KiB 0.0 B) (Installed)
    Firmware files for Linux - Default set

All I had to do is to select all the packages that are marked as installed, rebuild them, then reboot my system, and it fixed all issues I had. And I had more issues then just the flickering cursor, my keyboard would type double keystrokes, my WiFi wouldn't work, and my PC wouldn't be able to suspend. All those issues were fixed after rebuilding the linux-firmware packages, which makes sense, since they contain the firmware for all devices.

I hope this helps someone, I spent the entire day yesterday trying to fix this, now I am a happy man (:

tekstryder · 2025-06-29 12:56:31

astroboy wrote:

rebuild!

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means⁽¹⁾.

⁽¹⁾ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk

Last edited by tekstryder (2025-06-29 12:59:53)

astroboy · 2025-06-29 13:36:11

tekstryder wrote:

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means⁽¹⁾.
⁽¹⁾ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk

Hahah, might be. Rebuild, reinstall, I don't know. I'm not a super advanced linux user, I've been using Arch for only 1+ years, so yeah. Either way, it fixes everything. Just turn it off and on again.

seth · 2025-06-29 14:37:49

The actual solution was also probably just to update to 20250627

astroboy · 2025-06-29 16:56:50

Hi seth! Really good to see you, you're helping a lot of people around on this forum.

seth wrote:

The actual solution was also probably just to update to 20250627

Not sure. I saw the 20250627 update, and thought to myself "maybe they fixed it there", so I went, and updated my system. This didn't fix anything however, and I had to reinstall all linux-firmware packages for it to work. I first just reinstalled `linux-firmware`, `linux-firmware-amdgpu` and `linux-firmware-radeon`. That fixed my refresh rate being locked at 60Hz. I then thought "maybe I should update other packages as well?", because there were packages like `linux-firmware-realtek` and `linux-firmware-others` which I might need to fix my WiFi, etc. So I reinstalled all of them, and that fixed it.

seth · 2025-06-29 19:29:53

I first just reinstalled `linux-firmware`, `linux-firmware-amdgpu` and `linux-firmware-radeon`

Installing linux-firmware will installed the other two implicitly - as well as the rest of the pack.
Check your pacman log, also you'll oc have to have rebooted after updating the firmware to see the impact of that.

hsgg · 2025-06-30 05:19:52

So is this actually fixed for anyone? I can still reliably reproduce the flicker + double-mouse with 20250627-1. Reinstalling all the linux-firmware-* packages didn't make a difference (only downgrading to 20250508.788aadc8-2 helps).

I believe it might be related to the resolution of the monitor (native resolution is 3440 x 1440, refresh 144 Hz):

Using resolution 3440 x 1440, refresh 144 Hz, I get the flicker (mouse must be in left half of monitor, then Ctrl+w on KDE)
Using resolution 2560 x 1080, refresh 144 Hz I cannot reproduce the flicker.
Using resolution 3440 x 1440, resfresh 99.98 Hz: no flicker!
Using resolution 3440 x 1440, refresh 144 Hz + adaptive sync: only double mouse cursor.

Anything else I should try?

seth · 2025-06-30 06:56:53

Apparently of the OP. Might be co-incidentaly or they unwittingly run on a lower resolution/rate now.

Do you the same behavior w/ X11 and wayland (do you only downgrade the firmware?
Because you might otherwise crossing the moment where the KDE display server default changed)

Other than that, apparently this hinges on the signal size.
If you can reproduce this on X11 please post the output of "xrandr --verbose"

Can you impact the situation by forcing the GPU to run in a higher performance level/power profile?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU … nce_levels

Arch Linux

#1 2025-06-22 01:59:15

[SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#2 2025-06-22 05:23:30

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#3 2025-06-22 05:49:20

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#4 2025-06-22 06:47:31

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#5 2025-06-22 09:16:16

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#6 2025-06-22 09:23:33

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#7 2025-06-22 09:27:12

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#8 2025-06-22 13:57:15

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#9 2025-06-22 18:17:58

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#10 2025-06-22 22:34:29

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#11 2025-06-23 05:06:06

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#12 2025-06-23 14:36:03

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#13 2025-06-23 16:54:34

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#14 2025-06-24 05:37:27

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#15 2025-06-24 17:09:28

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#16 2025-06-26 05:45:04

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#17 2025-06-26 22:16:35

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#18 2025-06-29 12:20:56

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#19 2025-06-29 12:56:31

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#20 2025-06-29 13:36:11

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#21 2025-06-29 14:37:49

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#22 2025-06-29 16:56:50

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#23 2025-06-29 19:29:53

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#24 2025-06-30 05:19:52

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

#25 2025-06-30 06:56:53

Re: [SOLVED] Duplicated cursor and flickering screen?

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