Gnome Shell glitching/flickering/stuttering and sometimes locks up after an update a week ago
Affected version
Fedora Workstation 33
Gnome version 3.38.3
This issue happens in Wayland. I briefly used the Xorg session without the flickering issue, but I didn't use it for long enough to say, with 100% certainty, that the issue doesn't happen in Xorg.
Thinkpad T440p, i5-4210M, Intel HD 4600, 2x4GB PC3-12800 dual channel RAM matching spec
Bug summary
Randomly at any time, parts of Gnome Shell will begin flickering/glitching, sometimes also having transparent parts where there shouldn't be. This sometimes also happens in application windows, usually XWayland windows, but also native windows. Interacting with the flickering object will change the behaviour. One example is if parts of the top bar are flickering, mousing over them or clicking on them may change the type of flickering behaviour or stop the flickering. If a window is flickering, closing and reopening it may fix it.
I've also been experiencing frequent lock ups beginning around the same time as the flickering issue appeared(about a week ago at the time of writing). Gnome Shell will stutter for seconds at a time(including the cursor), then it may recover or the shell may lock up. If it recovers, I can continue using my PC like nothing happened. But if the shell locks up, the cursor will be able to move but I can't interact with anything on screen.
Steps to reproduce
- Login to a Gnome Wayland session.
- Do your normal computing activities; web browsing, video meetings, image/video editing, etc...
- Gnome Shell might begin flickering, or even lock up, after a a few minutes or longer. The issue is more likely with apps that make heavy use of hardware acceleration, like Zoom or Firefox/WebRender. The worst culprit is Firefox/WebRender, it will trigger severe flickering and usually a lock up if used for a while. Zoom will trigger severe flickering, but usually not a lock up.
What happened
Flickering/glitching/stuttering in parts of the shell, windows, and animations.
What did you expect to happen
For Gnome Shell to run smoothly without flickering or lock ups.
Relevant logs, screenshots, screencasts etc.
finalbugvid I can't get the video to work on gitlab, so I put it here https://youtu.be/jKlOF1x7ybY
I'll do my best the provide any additional information if needed.