[i915][snb] Icons and text corrupted and/or missing in 20.04

[Druid]

This is a fresh install of 2020.04.
Issue is that the display routinely gets corrupted and flickers with blocks of previously open windows.
If left without a restart, the system menu text will get replaced by odd characters and system dialog boxes will not display, buttons for the dialog boxes will briefly appear with no text when cursor is over them.
Very occasionally, the system will stop responding to the mouse and keyboard after clicking an icon on the dash.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.36.1-5ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-40.44-generic 5.4.44
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-40-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Jul 5 15:24:13 2020
DisplayManager: gdm3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-05-03 (63 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
RelatedPackageVersions: mutter-common 3.36.2-1ubuntu1~20.04.1
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please run these commands:

  lspci -k > lspcik.txt
  journalctl -b0 > journal.txt

and attach the resulting text files here.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks. Can you also provide a screenshot or photo of the problem?

Also when the problem is happening please run:

  free -h > free.txt
  ps auxw > ps.txt

and attach the resulting text files here.

[Druid (druid99999)]

Attached a photo of the right click menu and the dash.

Attached the results of
free -h > free.txt
  ps auxw > ps.txt

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please run a memory test to check for physical RAM corruption using either:

  https://www.memtest86.com/
  https://www.memtest.org/

That will take several hours.

Please also try adding a line to your /etc/environment of the form:

  CLUTTER_PAINT=disable-offscreen-redirect

and then reboot.

[Druid (druid99999)]

Added CLUTTER_PAINT=disable-offscreen-redirect, still seeing corruption

Ran Memtest86+ v5.31b for 8 hours, no errors detected.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Maybe related to bug 1910938.

[Druid (druid99999)]

Corruption regressed to the point that system would become unresponsive as the display flickered back and forth between an old and current state. If the system monitor app was running you could see the plots progress in an odd stop motion.

Tried a number of other distributions but kept getting corruption.

Reverted the system back to Ubuntu 18.04, which was the last release that didn't have video corruption.
Have been running 18.04 for a week with no evidence of display issues.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Sorry to hear that. Also if the corruption regressed further then that was probably a different bug.

If you can still reproduce the regressed behaviour on a 20.04 machine then please open a new bug about it with photos or video.

If you are not able to keep using 20.04 then no future fixes would be verifiable and this bug will automatically close after 60 days.

If such problems ever happen again then instead of downgrading the OS you should try just installing an older kernel from https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=M;O=D

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for mutter (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-shell (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]