Black background in Gnome with latest kernel (bug?)

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Main question would be. Is this a bug? If it is a bug, how to find similar bugs and report it? The information available is not very clear to me. Should it be at bugzilla of Red Hat, Gnome, or any other?

If you need some context, read this topic started by me.

I found a new workaround:

  • Start Fedora with an older kernel which does not have this black background issue. In my case it was kernel version 5.5.16-200.fc31.x86_64.
  • I opened Terminal and issued the following commands:
    • First checked current settings with:
      gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
      It returned in my case 'file:///usr/share/backgrounds/f30/default/f30.xml'
    • Set to no background with:
      gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri ''
    • It is very likely the background color is set to black, and you can check it with:
      gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background primary color
    • You can change the color with an rgb value like this:
      gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background primary color 'rgb(32,68,106)'
  • Reboot your system to your latest kernel version. In my case it is now 5.6.18-200.fc31.x86_64 and you should see a desktop set with your desired color.

Some notes. It works kinda. Sometimes small icons in the top menu bar of the desktop are garbled. Pop-up windows have sometimes artifacts around the edges and have sometimes ghosting of those edges.

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After a kernel update and other regular updates it seems it’s getting worse.
Any ideas how to resolve this?

One example of garbled text. Sometimes it is only the window title. Not only in Terminal, it can happen with any other application.

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0ae5e75486b95dc335c0d6d5990f7a4af5f1e696.png1042×749 61.4 KB

3

You are using nouveau, right?
I think that their bugtracker is the most appropriate place. Once that’s done, it wouldn’t hurt to file another one in RHBZ, linking to the other one, so any progress can be tracked.

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Yes, I’m using nouveau. Way way in the past I tried to use nvidia drivers, but I think I removed them, because I failed to get it working and today there are no updated nvidia drivers for my card.
I hope I can reproduce the problem, before I can report it. It seems to happen randomly.

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First issue reported at the new bug/issue tracker of nouveau at drm / nouveau · GitLab
Also reported at Red Hat Bugzilla (#1852250).

I’m curious what kind of solution will be presented :crossed_fingers:

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