2

tl;dr

  • [solved] render problems (e.g. in keepassxc) only appear when use_composite in XFCE4 is disabled (see new bug report)
  • black screen in Firefox still appears. Workarounds:
    • start Firefox with --safe-mode
    • disable hardware acceleration in settings
    • use Nvidia GPU (either prime-select on-demand or prime-select nvidia) but then hibernate does not work

(Switching to 21.10 was not a good move for me)


After upgrade Xubuntu to 21.10 Firefox shows in 2 of 5 starts a black screen:

Firefox showing only black content

When disabling the hardware acceleration (or starting with --safe-mode) the rendering is better:

Firefox settings to disable hardware acceleration

But now I face some distortions in rendering (they disappear after seconds) - e.g. also visible in KeePassXC:

rendering distortions in KeePassXC

I don't see any errors/warnings in Xorg.0.log or journalctl - and glxgears is working fine. Here is a subset of glxinfo, hwinfo and inxi -G:

cpu:
                   Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2600 MHz
graphics card:
                   nVidia TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile]
                   Intel UHD Graphics

OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics (CML GT2)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6 (Core Profile) Mesa 21.2.2
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60
OpenGL version string: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 21.2.2
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 21.2.2
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CometLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel 
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile] driver: N/A 
  Device-3: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: loaded: modesetting 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.2 

I'm running the on-chip graphics by prime-select:

$ /usr/bin/prime-select query
intel
$

I don't know if this issue is connected to the following output:

$ firefox
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.
$ firefox --safe-mode
ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

edit: After enabling DRI in xorg.conf firefox falls back to default rendering and printing the error [GFX1-]: Failed to create EGLContext!: 0x3001:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel-graphics.conf
Section "Module"
    Load "dri3"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
    Driver      "intel"
    Option      "DRI"   "3"
EndSection
$

After removing the file and restarting the notebook, the behavior stays the same (no black screen, but EGL error). After renaming /etc/X11/xorg.conf the old behavior (black screen) returns.


edit2:

$ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x46 cap: 0x9, Source Output, Sink Offload crtcs: 3 outputs: 4 associated providers: 0 name:modesetting
$

edit3:

  • I've removed Firefox and installed it from snap - the graphic errors remain, but the black screen did not appear any more. But since the KeePassXC plugin is not supported for snap Firefox, I switched back to the apt version.
  • I've removed (renamed) the .mozilla directory - without any success.
  • I've installed the Qt5 examples - and could reproduce the graphic errors there too - KeePassXC is a Qt app too.
  • I've created a new user - and there the graphic errors are gone - also the black screen did not appear (yet). I will investigate the differences and let you know.

And one more: When Firefox starts with [GFX1-]: Failed to create EGLContext!: 0x3001 the screen is shown. In case of the black screen, this error/message is not printed.


edit4:

It seems to be two separate problems: The first is solved. I had the composite disabled which causes the strange artifacts. When setting the value to type="empty" programs like keepassxc work fine again.

diff -Naur .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfwm4.xml .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfwm4.xml
--- .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfwm4.xml  2021-12-29 16:25:36.634389272 +0100
+++ .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfwm4.xml  2021-06-30 09:48:33.925160991 +0200
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
     <property name="title_vertical_offset_active" type="empty"/>
     <property name="title_vertical_offset_inactive" type="empty"/>
     <property name="urgent_blink" type="empty"/>
-    <property name="use_compositing" type="empty"/>
+    <property name="use_compositing" type="bool" value="false"/>
     <property name="workspace_count" type="int" value="6"/>
     <property name="wrap_resistance" type="empty"/>
     <property name="wrap_windows" type="empty"/>

But the black screen of Firefox remains.


edit5: The workaround to use prime-select on-demand or prime-select nvidia causes a black screen on resuming from hibernate (I'm using mem_sleep_default=deep in /proc/cmdline). In this case I switch to TTY1 and perform sudo systemctl restart lightdm.

10
  • xrandr --listproviders please.
    – nobody
    Dec 28, 2021 at 10:20
  • No wrong idea from me. modesetting is active.
    – nobody
    Dec 28, 2021 at 10:47
  • This seems to appears in hybrid graphic config. then you could start to prepare them. First of all, u must install nvdia drivers, Dec 29, 2021 at 14:07
  • the nvidia drivers are already installed - but I don't want to use the external graphic card, since I don't need it. So I've switched to the on-chip GPU which comes with the processor.
    – Charly
    Dec 29, 2021 at 21:08
  • "I've created a new user - and there the graphic errors are gone" – If creating a new user fixes the problem, you can port settings to the new user, one by one. When the problem returns, you should have an idea of which setting is causing it.
    – xiota
    Dec 30, 2021 at 7:57

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