Weird cursor issues on Fedora KDE

,

I am a very casual Linux user so please forgive any mistakes in how the issue is described.

I am on KDE Fedora. Since this morning I’m experiencing weird issues with my cursor. It’s a kind of flicker that seems to show my cursor duplicated, and everything below cursor level on my screen is entirely grayed out. It’s flickering so the gray color and duplicated cursor are not always visible and it also seems to be less frequent if I don’t use the mouse.

My specs are as follows:

  • Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
  • KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.0
  • KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
  • Qt Version: 6.9.1
  • Kernel Version: 6.15.3-200.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
  • Graphics Platform: Wayland
  • Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor
  • Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30,5 GiB usable)
  • Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
  • Graphics Processor 2: AMD Radeon Graphics

I am using a Dell G3223Q screen if that makes any difference.

I have experienced a few minor flicker issues in the past but those were more long the lines of screen tearing or similar. I am not certain if this is an issue with my installation of Fedora and/or Wayland or if my GPU (or maybe the screen itself) is to blame. I am also unsure of how to diagnose the issue or what to do about it. I am not experienced enough with Linux to understand much of the journalctl logs. I hope there’s someone here who can help me find a solution. If there’s anything more I can do to clarify, please let me know!

EDIT:
My monitor is also connected via DisplayPort, just as deafhobbit, and is using a high refresh rate ( 143.96 hz).

Changing the screen to 59.94 hz makes the flicker go away. Likewise, if I turn on my XPPen display tablet (using HDMI, 59.94 hz) the flicker stops even if I keep my main screen at 143.93 hz.

EDIT 2:
Updating to kernel version 6.15.4-200.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit) seems to have fixed the issue.

Did you update your system just before the flickering started?

It is very unlikely to be the screen itself if it is only the cursor.

Created an account to note that i’m also having this same issue in Fedora KDE since the recent Plasma update. Did not experience anything like it before. Here’s my system info.

Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.3-200.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-12600K
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.4 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
Manufacturer: ASRock
Product Name: Z690 Phantom Gaming 4

A few notes.

  1. It’s happening on a monitor connected to my linux desktop with DisplayPort. It’s not happening on that same monitor connected to a different computer via HDMI, or on a different monitor connected to my linux desktop via HDMI.

  2. I also get the double mouse cursor + flat color flickering on the display below the mouse cursor as OP described. However, the “flicker” is not consistently grey for me. It seems to depend on the color under my mouse cursor. For example, when i was trying things in display settings to fixed this, and clicked into a dropdown, the “flicker” would be the background color of the drop down. likewise, it sometimes happens just when i’m moving my mouse on an empty desktop, and the flicker would be a color from my wallpaper.

  3. The flicker only happens when i am moving and clicking my mouse on the impacted display. It doesn’t happen if i am not using my mouse, or if I’m using it on the other display. It also doesn’t happen if i do something with my keyboard alone on the impacted display.

  4. EDIT - scrolling with my mouse wheel on this page VERY consistently triggers it. I’ll get the double mouse cursor immediately when i start scrolling the wheel, it’ll stay there as long as a keep scrolling, and when i stop it’ll flicker a few times.

  5. EDIT 2 - Seems to be related to high refresh rates. It happens when i run the display at 144 or 120 hz, but not at 60 hz.

1 Like

Same issue - Also created an account so I could respond to this.

Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.3-200.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 24 × 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13700KF
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31.2 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: Z790 AORUS ELITE AX

Only appears to happen on second monitor. When mouse is steady and no movement, the second cursor stays solid. Happened after updating yesterday morning to framework 6.15.

Yep, this seems to mirror my experience. My monitor is also connected via DisplayPort and is using a high refresh rate ( 143.96 hz).

Changing the screen to 59.94 hz makes the flicker go away. Likewise, if I turn on my XPPen display tablet (using HDMI, 59.94 hz) the flicker stops even if I keep my main screen at 143.93 hz.

I tried changing the refresh rate and that didn’t change anything but when I closed the fullscreen application I was running (Hearthstone via Lutris) the double cursor went away. So it seems there could be multiple causes.

I played around with the frame-rate setting in Hearthstone and that did seem to impact the flicker rate of the second cursor on the second monitor, so the issue does appear to be linked to refresh/frame-rate based on our two experiences.

hearing you say changing your HDMI display’s refresh rate fixed problems on the DP one is interesting.

my HDMI display was running at 75 hz, without issue. i tried dropping it to 60 or 59.95 to see if that let me bring the main one’s refresh rate back up, but it didn’t work. it kinds feels like the double cursors and flickers happen less often, but they still happen often enough to make using it unpleasant.

I had this same issue, as others have stated it seems to be related to higher refresh rates, as the highest I can go without this issue is 99.95Hz.

Operating System: Fedora Linux 41
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.8.3
Kernel Version: 6.15.3-100.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6-Core Processor
Memory: 34 GB of RAM (32.7 GB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
Graphics Processor 2: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: ASRock
Product Name: B650 PG Lightning

Also, no I haven’t updated to Fedora 42 yet because I’m lazy.

Hey folks, this was identified as an issue with the AMD GPU firmware and there’s a bug that y’all can track for the resolution on this issue.

See: 2374585 – Duplicated cursor and gray flickering on AMD GPUs

4 Likes

Signed up to report the exact same issue. I am experiencing all the issues the poster describes. I should note though, that it is not a symmetrical flicker on the screen and it appears to only affect the left half of the screen, cut down the center of the monitor. Havent noticed anything wrong on the right side. The “duplicated” cursor appears only to the right of the actual cursor.

It seems that the glitching/flickering primary occurs when i do mouse inputs. When the glitch occurs, it doesnt go away unless the mouse is moved or something else updates the area, like popping up the application launcher using the keyboard or “interrupting” the glitch with other inputs.

Notably, i also see horizontal cuts in text in the browser about a pixel thick, that are less frequent but they persist longer, even when scrolling or resizing the page. The cut seems to persist in the same line of text, and stays in place in the line of text when scrolling. Randomly goes away for a bit, but appears again in the same line - unless the page has to be rendered again.

The issue started only today after my first boot since yesterday, where i did multiple updates and package upgrades in the system. I did update kde framework 6.14->6.15,

It seems that the issue is only present at 144 hz and 120 hz refresh rates - but it goes away with 100 and 60 hz refresh rates. EDIT: i do notice minor glitches occasionally in text at 100 hz, but not at 60 hz.

Things and changes that had no impact on the issue: Enabling/disabling HDR, color accuracy, color resolution, brightness, adaptive sync, scale or resolution.

Some specs:
3440x1440, 144hz display.

Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.3-200.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30.6 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
Graphics Processor 2: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: ASRock
Product Name: PRIME-B650M-A-II-10DE

‘lshw -C display’:

*-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Navi 32 [Radeon RX 7700 XT / 7800 XT]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: c8
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: iomemory:f80-f7f iomemory:fc0-fbf irq:90 memory:f800000000-fbffffffff memory:fc00000000-fc0fffffff ioport:f000(size=256) memory:fcb00000-fcbfffff memory:fcc00000-fcc1ffff
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Raphael
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0e:00.0
       version: cb
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi msix vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: iomemory:fc0-fbf iomemory:fc0-fbf irq:60 memory:fc20000000-fc2fffffff memory:fc30000000-fc301fffff ioport:d000(size=256) memory:fc700000-fc77ffff

glxinfo | egrep -i ‘device|memory’:

Device: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (radeonsi, navi32, LLVM 20.1.6, DRM 3.63, 6.15.3-200.fc42.x86_64) (0x747e)
    Video memory: 16384MB
    Unified memory: no
Memory info (GL_ATI_meminfo):
    VBO free memory - total: 6892 MB, largest block: 6892 MB
    VBO free aux. memory - total: 15419 MB, largest block: 15419 MB
    Texture free memory - total: 6892 MB, largest block: 6892 MB
    Texture free aux. memory - total: 15419 MB, largest block: 15419 MB
    Renderbuffer free memory - total: 6892 MB, largest block: 6892 MB
    Renderbuffer free aux. memory - total: 15419 MB, largest block: 15419 MB
Memory info (GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info):
    Dedicated video memory: 16384 MB
    Total available memory: 32030 MB
    Currently available dedicated video memory: 6892 MB
    GL_AMD_multi_draw_indirect, GL_AMD_pinned_memory, 
    GL_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB, GL_EXT_memory_object, GL_EXT_memory_object_fd, 
    GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info, GL_NV_alpha_to_coverage_dither_control, 
    GL_AMD_pinned_memory, GL_AMD_query_buffer_object, 
    GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters, GL_EXT_gpu_shader4, GL_EXT_memory_object, 
    GL_EXT_memory_object_fd, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, 
    GL_MESA_window_pos, GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info, GL_NV_ES1_1_compatibility, 
    GL_EXT_instanced_arrays, GL_EXT_map_buffer_range, GL_EXT_memory_object, 
    GL_EXT_memory_object_fd, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays,

I am having the same issue. The following workarounds work for me:

  1. Try turning your monitor off and back on.
  2. If using KDE and multiple monitors, try right clicking your desktop, then click “Display Configuration” on the context menu, then select the affected display, then uncheck “Device: Enabled” > “Apply.” Then in the dialog box that appears asking you to keep the settings, click “Revert.”

The issue disappears until the next restart. Edit: Correction, the issue still appears before restarting. But it definitely improves the situation for a while for me. I’ve also noticed that if I use the turning the monitor off and back on method, it’s important to make sure that I’m at the desktop and not at the login manager. If I do the workaround while at the login manager screen, the issue appears once at the desktop after login.

Having the same issue here, but updating the kernel to 6.15.4-200 did not fix the issue. Currently set my display to 60 Herz and all works as normal. But I’d rather have my display at 120 herz.

  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Navi 33 [Radeon RX 7600/7600 XT/7600M XT/7600S/7700S / PRO W7600]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: cf
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: iomemory:fa0-f9f iomemory:fc0-fbf irq:148 memory:fa00000000-fbffffffff memory:fc00000000-fc0fffffff ioport:f000(size=256) memory:f6a00000-f6afffff memory:f6b00000-f6b1ffff
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Raphael
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0f:00.0
       version: c1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: iomemory:fc0-fbf iomemory:fc0-fbf irq:61 memory:fc20000000-fc2fffffff memory:fc30000000-fc301fffff ioport:d000(size=256) memory:f6500000-f657ffff

Any suggestions here?

The advisory in the bugzilla that was linked by @ngompa worked for me. However I see you added a note to that bug report that you’re still having issues. Here’s the output of sudo lshw -C display for me for comparison:

  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Navi 31 [Radeon RX 7900 XT/7900 XTX/7900 GRE/7900M]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: cc
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: iomemory:f00-eff iomemory:f80-f7f irq:89 memory:f000000000-f7ffffffff memory:f800000000-f80fffffff ioport:f000(size=256) memory:f6b00000-f6bfffff memory:f6c00000-f6c1ffff
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Raphael
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0e:00.0
       version: c2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi msix vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=amdgpu latency=0
       resources: iomemory:f80-f7f iomemory:f80-f7f irq:60 memory:f820000000-f82fffffff memory:f830000000-f8301fffff ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f6600000-f667ffff

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer. But maybe someone else can chime in.