GNOME 3.36 blurred portions of the screen
I'm using Gnome 3.36.4 on Ubuntu 20.04. I realize it is not vanilla Gnome and that a multitude of factors are at play, ut I thought I would create an issue anyway, in case anybody else is experiencing something similar. The problem appeared when I updated to Ubuntu 20.04 and Gnome 3.36. The same hardware configuration worked well on Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.10.
Affected version
patrizio@Trevize:~$ lsb_release -a LSB Version: core-11.1.0ubuntu2-noarch:graphics-2.0-amd64:graphics-2.0-noarch:graphics-3.0-amd64:graphics-3.0-noarch:graphics-3.1-amd64:graphics-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.2-amd64:graphics-3.2-noarch:graphics-4.0-amd64:graphics-4.0-noarch:graphics-4.1-amd64:graphics-4.1-noarch:multimedia-3.2-amd64:multimedia-3.2-noarch:multimedia-4.0-amd64:multimedia-4.0-noarch:multimedia-4.1-amd64:multimedia-4.1-noarch:security-11.1.0ubuntu2-noarch Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Release: 20.04 Codename: focal patrizio@Trevize:~$ uname -a Linux Trevize 5.4.0-42-generic #46 (closed)-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 10 00:24:02 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Gnome shell 3.36.4-1ubuntu1~20.04.2
libgtk-3-0 3.24.18-1ubuntu1
libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:amd64 2.40.0+dfsg-3 amd64
libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 2.40.0+dfsg-3 i386
libpango-1.0-0:amd64 1.44.7-2ubuntu4
libclutter-1.0-0:amd64 1.26.4+dfsg-1
xserver-xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14 amd64 X.Org X server
xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2.4 amd64 Xorg X server - core server
filename: /lib/modules/5.4.0-42-generic/updates/dkms/nvidia.ko version: 390.138 supported: external srcversion: 9CF28EA4192CED46A545E30 name: nvidia
nvidia binary driver installed from Ubuntu repository
DELL 4317Q monitor 4K
Bug summary
Most of the screen area transitions in and out a blurred state.
I'm not sure the problem is not xorg, driver, or kernel related.
Steps to reproduce
Just log into a similar hardware/software configuration.
What happened
Many parts of the screen, not actively refreshed (far from a moving mouse pointer), blurs out and in to then going back to being sharp. Sometimes the transition to blur and back is fast, sometimes is so slow that is almost unnoticeable. It doesn't affect just the fonts. It's impossible to capture with a screenshot or a screen recording. In fact while screenshotting or recording the moving blur effect stops. It feels like portions of the screen go out of focus and then suddenly back in focus, in a loop.
Relevant logs, screenshots, screencasts etc.
In the attached video PXL_20200926_110503538, you'll see the blurred text getting suddenly sharp. It is not the camera's autofocus, that's what happens to my apps.