[SOLVED] Strange visual artifacts in many apps like gimp and libreoffice in Mint 21 Cinnamon

[linuxovios]

I am coming from Mint 20.3 where there was no problem.

I noticed this behavior even from live mint 21 environment.

I 've wiped my 20.3 installation and proceed to a Mint 21 installation.

I have not installed any additional PPAs.

I have a 5800X3D cpu and a Radeon 5600XT gpu

This is my system report: https://termbin.com/52ji

The problem is that there are strange visual artifacts (usually green blocks) when a) hovering over icons in desktop b) running gimp c) libreoffice and probably some other apps. However there is no problem when running apps like firefox, chrome and other.

I don't know whether it is a GTK2/3 issue, or mesa issue, or xorg issue.

I have found similar reports here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/6456

Any ideas?

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

If you have noticed problems with live Mint 21 environment, why did you change your working 20.3 installation for a non-working 21 one?

Linux Mint 21 is recent, based on recent Ubuntu 22.04, and there are bugs, coming from Linux Mint own software and/or from Ubuntu one.

So, if you want to recover a stable functioning, go back to 20.3 (supported up to April 2025) and wait more stable releases of Mint 21 / Ubuntu 22.04 before to install Mint 21.

Regards,

MN

[Cosmo.]

If you have noticed problems with live Mint 21 environment, why did you change your working 20.3 installation for a non-working 21 one?

Good question.

But Timeshift will correct the problem in a few minutes.

[linuxovios]

If you have noticed problems with live Mint 21 environment, why did you change your working 20.3 installation for a non-working 21 one?

1) I had noticed only the hovering over some icons problem. I didn't install gimp or try libreoffice in live environment.
2) I thought that this was a live environment issue that would correct itself through updates once I installed mint 21 properly
3) mint 21 was solving other problems. For example my network laser multifunctional Samsung printer/scanner/fax would work out of the box in mint 20.3 only as printer. For scanner functionality I had to install dated drivers (samsung printer division no longer exists) through a difficult process. Now, the same machine works out of the box perfectly. Mint 21 also solves some system suspend issues I had in Mint 20.3 etc.

Having said all that, I still have a timeshift snapshot of my previous installation, but I prefer to stay on Mint 21 and try to fix the issue. After all, sooner or later there will be some update that will fix the issue hopefully.

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

About Gimp, you could check if its flatpak version still has the problem or not:

Code: Select all

flatpak install org.gimp.GIMP

It is the latest version, 2.10.32

LibreOffice is also available as a flatpak, though it is the "fresh" branch 7.4.1.2 and might have some bugs:

Code: Select all

flatpak install org.libreoffice.LibreOffice

Regards,

MN

[linuxovios]

Thank you, but I don't think the solution is to install 1-2 GB flatpaks for 100MB apps.

In addition to that, the artifacts also appear in other apps. I used gimp and libre office as example.

[Cosmo.]

It seems, that your brand new hardware gives the trouble, although it is strange, that it worked in 20.3. Perhaps this thread helps you: viewtopic.php?t=378449

[linuxovios]

Actually my hardware is quite old. Only cpu is brand new but it has nothing to do with these artifacts.

Must be something devs changed in mesa drivers or xorg or gtk, that's why there was no problem in mint 20.3

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

Your system report shows that it uses the amdgpu driver (generic amd driver, part of the kernel).

AMD has released the 22.20 driver for your graphics card on 7/14/2022; they are available for Ubuntu 22.04, and you can download it (a DEB) from https://www.amd.com/en/support/linux-drivers.

Direct download link:
https://repo.radeon.com/amdgpu-install/ ... -1_all.deb

Installation instruction are there:
https://amdgpu-install.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Simply:

Code: Select all

cd ~/Downloads
sudo apt-get install ./amdgpu-install_22.20.50200-1_all.deb
sudo apt-get update

Installation is done in two steps:

Installing “amdgpu-install” will add the installer and AMD related repositories to your system. The repositories will be accessible to the system package manager, which is in turn used by the installer.

Maybe it is worth a try. Don't forget to make a Timeshift snapshot before to begin.

Regards,

MN

[Cosmo.]

Only cpu is brand new but it has nothing to do with these artifacts.

How do you know this?

[SMG]

I have found similar reports here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/6456

Any ideas?

Did you try the suggestion in one of the bug reports?

adding AMD_DEBUG=nodcc to /etc/environment

[linuxovios]

I have found similar reports here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/6456

Any ideas?

Did you try the suggestion in one of the bug reports?

adding AMD_DEBUG=nodcc to /etc/environment

Yes. Like others in the above bug report, there was no effect.

[linuxovios]

Hi,

About Gimp, you could check if its flatpak version still has the problem or not:

Code: Select all

flatpak install org.gimp.GIMP

It is the latest version, 2.10.32

LibreOffice is also available as a flatpak, though it is the "fresh" branch 7.4.1.2 and might have some bugs:

Code: Select all

flatpak install org.libreoffice.LibreOffice

Regards,

MN

I 've installed gimp flatpak version. Problem remains.

[MikeNovember]

I 've installed gimp flatpak version. Problem remains.

Hi,

Since you have artifacts with flatpaks and Mint packages, it is very probable that the problem comes from your graphics card driver.

In this thread I provided a link for the latest AMD drivers.

In the release notes it is written:

Visual corruption may be observed when running the in-box version of Firefox on Ubuntu 22.04 with the ‘workstation’ use case

This confirms the origin of the problem

Use cases are explained in the installation guide; there are the "All-OPen" use case, and the "Workstation" use case.

Maybe, installing the amdgpu stack in its "All-Open" use case might solve the problem.

Regards,

MN

[linuxovios]

UPDATE:

After searching for other solutions, I finally decided to upgrade mesa drivers (I was using mesa 22.0.5 which is default for Linux Mint 21). The artifact problem occurred only with 5600XT gpus, therefore not many users had the problem and there were no solutions online. I first took a timeshift snapshot and then installed oibaf ppa (instructions here) and updated mesa drivers to 23.0.0. That was it! Artifacts gone, problem solved!

PS I notified Mint devs about the problem and they don't care because probably it affects very few people (with 5600XT gpu)
https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues/540

I will keep posting the bug in linuxmint_beta 21.1 until someone cares and properly updates the mesa drivers for the default linux installation
https://github.com/linuxmint/mint21.1-beta/issues/13

[MikeNovember]

PS I notified Mint devs about the problem and they don't care because probably it affects very few people (with 5600XT gpu)
https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues/540

I will keep posting the bug in linuxmint_beta 21.1 until someone cares and properly updates the mesa drivers for the default linux installation
https://github.com/linuxmint/mint21.1-beta/issues/13

Hi,

This bug does NOT concern Linux Mint devs; Linux Mint devs make Cinnamon and the X apps (Xreader, Warminator etc.). All the other packages (probably some 99.99 % of Linux Mint distros) come from Ubuntu, including graphics drivers.

You should address your bug reports to the right place.

Regards,

MN

[linuxovios]

I was wondering, since I can manually update the Mesa drivers and fix the problem, why can't I address the problem to mint devs so they update the default Mesa drivers? Why is this a problem? They don't have to hack the drivers themselves, just put them in the repository. What am I missing?Since I use Linux mint , why address the problem to Ubuntu devs? After all I can't help Ubuntu devs with debugging info, since I don't use Ubuntu. Please educate me.

[SMG]

I was wondering, since I can manually update the Mesa drivers and fix the problem, why can't I address the problem to mint devs so they update the default Mesa drivers? Why is this a problem? They don't have to hack the drivers themselves, just put them in the repository. What am I missing?

You are missing the fact the packages must meet quality control testing criteria before being placed in the repositories. The people responsible for releasing the official packages are the ones who test it and support it (ie. fix bugs). Just because that package works for you on your one computer does not mean it will work for everyone.

If you review the PPA page from where you obtained that package, it indicates, "You can update your system with unsupported packages from this untrusted PPA by adding ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers to your system's Software Sources." (emphasis mine)

Since I use Linux mint , why address the problem to Ubuntu devs? After all I can't help Ubuntu devs with debugging info, since I don't use Ubuntu. Please educate me.

You should address the problem to those responsible for the development and release of the package. If you check your repository list, you will find multiple Ubuntu repositories on it because you are using many packages which come directly from Ubuntu. The mesa packages come from Ubuntu repositories.

Complaining to the Linux Mint devs that they should update packages over which they have zero responsibility is not the way to address the issue.

[linuxovios]

I was wondering, since I can manually update the Mesa drivers and fix the problem, why can't I address the problem to mint devs so they update the default Mesa drivers? Why is this a problem? They don't have to hack the drivers themselves, just put them in the repository. What am I missing?

You are missing the fact the packages must meet quality control testing criteria before being placed in the repositories. The people responsible for releasing the official packages are the ones who test it and support it (ie. fix bugs). Just because that package works for you on your one computer does not mean it will work for everyone.

If you review the PPA page from where you obtained that package, it indicates, "You can update your system with unsupported packages from this untrusted PPA by adding ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers to your system's Software Sources." (emphasis mine)

Since I use Linux mint , why address the problem to Ubuntu devs? After all I can't help Ubuntu devs with debugging info, since I don't use Ubuntu. Please educate me.

You should address the problem to those responsible for the development and release of the package. If you check your repository list, you will find multiple Ubuntu repositories on it because you are using many packages which come directly from Ubuntu. The mesa packages come from Ubuntu repositories.

Complaining to the Linux Mint devs that they should update packages over which they have zero responsibility is not the way to address the issue.

I totally understand that Mint is based on Ubuntu. And it is a free "take it or leave it" deal. However I disagree that mint devs are not responsible for their own distro. They should be able to release mint with a different mesa version, since there is a known bug with amd gpus which is acknowledged by mesa devs and has been fixed in a updated mesa version, mint devs should be able to release mint with the updated mesa drivers. Clement himself acknowledged the bug and hopes that the solution will be backported to Ubuntu. I understand that mint team does not have the money and the number of devs to make such changes and quality control them, but that doesn't change the fact that this is their responsibility. Distro is a collection of programs. The dev team is responsible for the collection...

[SMG]

However I disagree that mint devs are not responsible for their own distro. They should be able to release mint with a different mesa version, since there is a known bug with amd gpus which is acknowledged by mesa devs and has been fixed in a updated mesa version, mint devs should be able to release mint with the updated mesa drivers. Clement himself acknowledged the bug and hopes that the solution will be backported to Ubuntu.

In other words, that fix is not yet available in a form which can be used by Linux Mint.

Just because you figured a way to work around that requirement for your individual situation does not mean the Mint Team feels that is an appropriate way to address the situation for all Mint users.

I understand that mint team does not have the money and the number of devs to make such changes and quality control them

Then how and why do you expect them to fix it? Clem's info made it clear the Mint team will not be personally "fixing" it. They will let those responsible for the code fix it and when that code becomes available it will be included (just like every other upstream fix is included--this one is not something special). That means they are meeting your requirement to be responsible so your last comment (The dev team is responsible for the collection...) is addressed.