Gnome-shell crashes while using pen (Wacom) as input method

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Hello everybody.

I’m experiencing frequent gnome-shell crashes (brings me back to the login screen) while using the tablet pen (Wacom) as input method. This happens during general use of the pen in Gnome, as well as working with apps like xournalpp (taking handwritten notes). From time to time the screen freezes for a short moment and then I’m back at the login screen. I can not predict when it happens exactly, but I would say 4-5 times during a normal working day. Sometimes it just works for hours, sometimes Gnome crashes within seconds.

I’m not using any Gnome Extenstions, except the default ones shipped in Fedora.

This happens in F39 and F40, I tried both versions.

I’m using a Lenovo X1 Tablet Gen2, but having the same experience on my HP x360 Notebook, so it is not device specific.

I tested different distros on my tablet (Ubuntu and Debian) and I did not have issues in the other distros.

ABRT points to bugs like: Bug 2275228

But the standard response is that a bug should be opened with the Gnome team. However, I assume it may be Fedora specific as I did not had similar issues in other Linux systems.

I hope you guys can help me resolving this issue.

Thanks in advance.

DeLex

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f40 hinzugefügt

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Does the crash happen both in Wayland and X11 sessions?

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It happens on Wayland. I’m currently logged in with Gnome on X11 and will report shortly if it’s the same.

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Gnome-shell did not crash yet using X11 session and extensive use of pen input. I would say in Wayland it would have crashed by now. I will continue testing and keep you updated.

Main problem with X11 is a missing “fractional scaling”, which seems to be a Wayland only feature. On my screen the text and objects are by far too small at 100% and by far too big at 200%. Also the whole “Tablet” experience is better on Wayland compared to X11, but this is just a side note.

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I will also test Wayland once again without “fractional scaling”, I know it’s experimental right now. It will take a while, but I will report results.

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Hi. Gnome-shell on X11 session seems stable. A full day with extensive pen usage and no crashes.

GUI scaling at 100% in combination with font scaling factor of 1.5 (Gnome Tweak-Tool) is an acceptable work around, although the icons remain tiny without fractional-scaling options. The touch experience on X11 is not the best. But it’s ok and overall better compared to unexpected crashes.

I also tested Wayland without use of fractional-scaling: Gnome-shell still crashes.

Issue seems somehow Wayland related I assume.

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I only play osu! when using a Wacom CTH-470 on Linux. On F39 GNOME Wayland and F40 Plasma 6 Wayland it was fine while using it as a aiming cursor and sometimes tapping on the pad with the pen.

I’m on F40 GNOME with forced Xorg currently but when I get the chance I’ll try it out on Wayland.

If anyone else is interested in testing, osu! is free and provides an AppImage on Linux. I don’t know if you need an account to download the basic beatmaps during the initial set-up, but an account is free to make too.

The idea is to click circles to the beat of a song, and fair-warning that might hook you in to keep playing :stuck_out_tongue:

I also vaguely recall there being something about the wacom driver, libinput, and/or evdev. I think libinput is forced for everything by-default on Fedora, but I’m not sure about wacom’s specific driver. evdev I think is only for Xorg and needs xorg.conf forced on Fedora iirc. But in any case I wonder if changing something with the input driver for the tablet or the whole driver might be a fix?

When I test osu! i’ll also take some time to try to figure out what my tablet is connecting with :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’ve running into the same problem as DeLex. In my case my Microsoft Surface Pro 7 and pen worked fine running Fedora 39 using Wayland. This is not the case with Fedora 40 using Wayland. Using the pen intermittently causes the Gnome session to log out. I’ve tried turning off Gnome Extensions and re-scaling to no avail. Single and multi-touch on the tablet work fine. An inspection of the hardware logs indicates a problem with the intel touch host controller. I really enjoy using Fedora. I hope this helps.

4:17:42 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: invalid dma rx data! channel 1, buffer 8, size 321: 03 00 00 00 dc 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
4:17:42 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: invalid dma rx data! channel 1, buffer 8, size 321: 03 00 00 00 dc 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
4:17:42 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: DMA RX timeout/error (try decreasing activeltr/idleltr if this happens frequently)
3:59:58 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: hid_input_report failed with -1 (size 1, report ID 0x00)
3:59:45 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: hid_input_report failed with -1 (size 1, report ID 0x00)
3:54:53 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: hid_input_report failed with -1 (size 1, report ID 0x00)
3:54:51 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: hid_input_report failed with -1 (size 1, report ID 0x00)
3:52:51 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: hid_input_report failed with -1 (size 1, report ID 0x00)
3:52:36 PM kernel: ithc 0000:00:10.6: hid_input_report failed with -1 (size 1, report ID 0x00)

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I can confirm that this is also happening for me on wayland on a wacom display/tablet when using xournalpp. Should this be formally filed at the bugtracker?

Here are my logs:

[202351.213649] gnome-shell[189345]: segfault at a100000040 ip 00007f9cf0275a14 sp 00007ffdf5765178 error 4 in libwayland-server.so.0.22.0[7f9cf0273000+9000] likely on CPU 24 (core 8, socket 0)
[202351.213663] Code: 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 50 28 48 8d 42 e0 48 39 d7 74 0b 48 39 70 40 75 ed c3 0f 1f 40 00 31 c0 c3 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa <48> 8b 47 40 c3 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 77 48 c3 0f
[202352.737755] wacom 0003:056A:0391.0005: wacom_idleprox_timeout: tool appears to be hung in-prox. forcing it out.
[202352.863691] rfkill: input handler enabled
[202354.025727] rfkill: input handler disabled
[202362.436175] rfkill: input handler enabled
[202363.462906] rfkill: input handler disabled
[202415.071738] xdg-desktop-por[649942]: segfault at 89 ip 0000561fba615b16 sp 00007ffc4f449f00 error 4 in xdg-desktop-portal-gnome[561fba5e9000+3f000] likely on CPU 1 (core 1, socket 0)
[202415.071748] Code: 89 e7 48 81 ec 98 00 00 00 4c 8b 6a 08 64 48 8b 1c 25 28 00 00 00 48 89 5d d8 48 89 d3 e8 52 5d fd ff 4c 89 e7 e8 2a 6a fd ff <4d> 8b a5 88 00 00 00 be 02 00 00 00 48 8d 3d 99 37 01 00 48 89 c2
1 Like
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Looks like I’m not alone, which is good to know, so it is not purely related to the way I work. This gives me confidence that it is picked up (hopefully sooner than later) and will be solved.

Quick FYI: Not a single gnome-shell crash since I switched to X11 some days ago, which is good enough as a workaround (at least for me) right now.

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Welp, looks like I’ll have to test my HUION KAMVAS16 PRO. I’ve had it on the shelf for a bit since when using Krita or GIIMP, the further from the center of the screen I get the more drift I see, this would also give me time to test this scenario out.

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I’ve updated once or twice since having this problem and the crashes aren’t happening (at least not yet). Am I just lucky?

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Issue persists on my tablet. I updated as suggested and tested once again, gnome-shell still crashes on Wayland after some time of pen usage - I’m back on X11.