Arch Linux

vdochev

Member

Registered: 2026-05-26

Posts: 2

Weird image rendering issues after update

Hello beautiful people! I have been using Arch-Linux for few years now and I love the experience. Sometimes something can break, but it doesn't happen often and I've been always able to find solution on the internet. Always, but this time, unfortunately. Without wasting your time further, here is the issue I received today just after updating my system and rebooted. I hope I'm giving enough info.
I received weird glitches affecting only my wallpaper and any thumbnail I have - image, video, album art. When I change my wallpaper with a different one, it seems to fix itself for a moment and when I hit the super button it glitches immediately again. I've made a video that captures the problem here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJQ2QCWLEQ

If I open an image file in the image viewer or a video in the player, they don't seem to be affected. Web pages also load correctly.
So far I tried:
- switching from an LTS kernel to the latest kernel with no success - the issue is still present.
- reinstalled anything I can think of - wayland, anything intel graphics related, mutter, mesa, installed vulkan, removed vulkan - no change.
My computer is a Lenovo X220. I use it only for Internet shopping, personal e-mailing, youtube and radio streaming - nothing gaming related, no game emulators, etc. I have configured many things a long time ago and I really don't want to wipe everything and re-install.

Here are my specs:
OS: Arch Linux x86_64Memory: 3130MiB / 7822MiB
Kernel: 6.18.33-1-lts
DE: GNOME 50.1
CPU: Intel i5-2450M (4) @ 3.100GHz
CPU: Intel i5-2450M (4) @ 3.100GHz
Memory: 3130MiB / 7822MiB

If anyone has an idea what can I do to fix this, please let me know. I really couldn't find anyone with the same issue as mine. Appreciate your help!
Please keep in mind, though, that although I fixed some things in the past with my systems following tutorials, I'm more of a newbie user and don't know GNU-Linux as a professional.
Thank you!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,194

Re: Weird image rendering issues after update

There's some known bugs in mesa 26.1 and older sandybridge chips, try downgrading mesa to 26.0.6 for now.

As for similar issue see: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=313690 -- but downgrading mesa one version is likely more sustainable for now -- (or switch to mesa-git afaik a fix has been merged that will likely land in 26.1.2)

Last edited by V1del (2026-05-26 21:48:27)

vdochev

Member

Registered: 2026-05-26

Posts: 2

Re: Weird image rendering issues after update

Hi V1del. Thank you so much for the reply! I just downgraded to mesa-1:26.0.6-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst from 30-Apr-2026 and that is the last good version. It seems in mesa-1:26.1.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst something breaks.
So, I hope there is a fix in the future and not making me downgrade after every system update because I love this laptop and don't like changing it
The issue is solved, thank you!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,194

Re: Weird image rendering issues after update

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … g_upgraded -- for not having to remember to do this manually, pacman will warn you about which update you are ignoring, so if you see mesa change to 26.1.2 you can remove it/explicitly install the newer version and check whether you can reproduce.

One of the main things you need to "worry" about is whether llvm receives a version bump to 23, that's one of those core libraries mesa uses for shader compilation and newer versions are usually not binary compatible, but the last bump was fairly recent so it's likely a fixed mesa will get pushed before this becomes relevant.

Please mark as [SOLVED] by editing the title in your first post.

Last edited by V1del (2026-05-27 12:18:35)