Scrambled UI: Text in the Unity windows disappears/mixed after the resume from the screen idle state

[Artem V L]

What happens in Ubuntu 16.04 is that in Unity the text of windows are scrambled including terminal, nautilus. Java apps aren't affected (browsers and LibreOffice).

This happens typically when resuming from suspend via GUI or closing and reopening the lid. It happens after ~1 of 20 wakeups. The probability seems to be higher when there are more opened windows and external monitor is plugging. In fact, the last 2 issues appeared on plugging the external monitor after the sleep mode. However the bug sometimes (about twice during 4 months) reproduced even on pure laptop without any external devices plugged in.

This bug occurs in linux-image-generic 4.4.0.53. It does not appear with linux-image-extra-4.4.0-51-generic 4.4.0-51.72 amd64.

---
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.4
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: lav 2950 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: lav 2950 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-10-25 (801 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
MachineType: LENOVO 20A8S28400
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-57-generic root=UUID=daa4b3a5-47b3-4c16-a1de-2dde0c540c4a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-57.78-generic 4.4.35
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-57-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-4.4.0-57-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.157.6
Tags: xenial
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-57-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-09-11 (114 days ago)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip docker libvirtd lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 06/06/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: GRET39WW (1.16 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20A8S28400
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Defined
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrGRET39WW(1.16):bd06/06/2014:svnLENOVO:pn20A8S28400:pvrThinkPadX1Carbon2nd:rvnLENOVO:rn20A8S28400:rvrNotDefined:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 20A8S28400
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2nd
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1651520

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Artem V L, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

To see if this is already resolved in Ubuntu, could you please test http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the results?

In the daily environment please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 1651520

[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

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[Artem V L (artvl)]

Screenshot of the Bug.
All windows of the native system apps are damaged (have scrumbled text) and only Java-based windows are not affected (the browser works fine).

[Artem V L (artvl)]

Stack traces for the latest official update of Ubuntu 16.04 x64 (4.4.0-57-generic) made via the apt-get update.
As it was outlined, this bug occurs also for the linux-image-generic 4.4.0.53 and some versions before 4.4.0-51, but does not occur in linux-image-extra-4.4.0-51-generic 4.4.0-51.72 amd64.

Detailed versions of the kernels:
$ dpkg --list | grep linux-image
...
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-47-generic 4.4.0-47.68 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
[ !!! NO BUG !!! ] ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-51-generic 4.4.0-51.72 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-53-generic 4.4.0-53.74 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-57-generic 4.4.0-57.78 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-extra-virtual 4.4.0.57.60 amd64 Transitional package.
ii linux-image-generic 4.4.0.57.60 amd64 Generic Linux kernel image

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Artem V L, to clarify https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1651520/comments/18 was this screenshot captured from the latest release of Ubuntu?

[Artem V L (artvl)]

Yes, that screenshot was taken for the latest official update of Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS via the Software updater made ~ 3rd of Jan, 2017, which has kernel 4.4.0-57.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Artem V L, to see if this is already resolved in Ubuntu, could you please test http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ (not 16.04.1 or anything else) and advise to the results?

[Artem V L (artvl)]

I can not install another version of Ubuntu on my laptop, because it would affect my work, but I will install the latest build of the kernel before the next reboot (which is done approximately once per a month).

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Artem V L, one could test a live environment (i.e. not install it) to see if it is reproducible.

[nico (nicolas-pourcelot)]

Same issue for me.

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Release: 16.04
Codename: xenial

Linux nicolas-MS-7808 4.4.0-59-generic #80-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 6 17:47:47 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Seems to appear randomly and not so frequently.

I tried several times to launch apport-collect 1651520 but it fails everytime.

The authorization page:
 (https://launchpad.net/+authorize-token?oauth_token=Xp4CFWJ01GvW7QPhMfq8&allow_permission=DESKTOP_INTEGRATION)
should be opening in your browser. Use your browser to authorize
this program to access Launchpad on your behalf.
Waiting to hear from Launchpad about your decision...
ERROR: connecting to Launchpad failed: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/nicolas/.cache/apport/launchpad.credentials'
You can reset the credentials by removing the file "/home/nicolas/.cache/apport/launchpad.credentials"

I've tried successively to "Allow nicolas-MS-7808 to access my Launchpad account:" "for an hour", "for a week", "until I disable it", apport-collect fails everytime with the same message.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

nico (nicolas-pourcelot), it will help immensely if you filed a new report with Ubuntu, using the default repository kernel (not mainline/upstream/3rd party) via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

For more on why this is helpful, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Artem V L (artvl)]

Christopher, I've installed the latest mainline kernel (4.9.3-040903-generic #201701120631) and performed quick stress testing. At the moment everything works fine, but as me and nico mentioned, this bug is not always reproducable even on the kernels where it definitely exists. I will work on this latest kernel and notify in case of any related issues.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Artem V L, the latest mainline kernel is presently 4.10-rc3 (not 4.9.x).

Despite this, regarding your hardware specifically, how often would it be reproducible on average when using the Ubuntu kernel (ex. linux-image-generic 4.4.0.53)?

[Artem V L (artvl)]

Christopher, *-rc versions are the release Candidates, once I installed it (http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.9-rc5) to check the same bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1641152) in November and ended up without WiFi. I can't work on *-rc.

The bug reproduced after the idle state, laptop lid closing or waking up from the sleeping mode with frequency about once per ~20-30 such actions. The probability seems to be higher when there are more opened windows and external monitor is plugging. In fact, the last 2 issues appeared on plugging the external monitor after the sleep mode. However the bug sometimes (about twice during 4 months) reproduced even on pure laptop without any external devices.

I think that you don't have many reports about this bug only because the reporting should be done manually. Moreover, it's extremely hard for an ordinary user to perform such reporting when the UI is totally broken and apport-collect doesn't always success to report even if it was called (as nico mentioned, and I also had the same issue with the apport-collect).

---

Info about the kernels:

[a few older kernels (< 4.4.0-50) have the UI scrambling issue]

-4.4.0-51 - OK: UI scrambling has never occurred, but sometimes (when UI scrambling occurs on another kernels) on this kernel system windows become non-sensitive to the mouse clicks: shortcuts on the desktop are clicked behind the foreground window instead of it. This can be fixed by closing and reopening the window (which does not help on another kernels with the UI scrambling issue). On this kernel the windows can always be moved using the title panel (the top bar of the window) even when the remained part of the [foreground] window is not sensitive (transparent for the mouse clicks).

-4.4.0-53, 4.4.0-57, 4.4.0-59 - UI scrambling issue

- 4.9.3-040903 - under the evaluation. It survived the stress testing without any issues: intentional subsequent lid closing, laptop suspending and external monitor plugging (up to 20 times). Now is under the "working" testing as my default working kernel.

[nico (nicolas-pourcelot)]

"nico (nicolas-pourcelot), it will help immensely if you filed a new report with Ubuntu, using the default repository kernel (not mainline/upstream/3rd party) via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux"

Thanks for your answer, but I'm not sure how to interpret it.

I've opened a new bug report concerning apport itself here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1656504

Is it what you wanted me to do ?

[Artem V L (artvl)]

This issue has only a minor appearance (not affects the OS usability so much) on the latest kernel (4.9.3-040903): the windows redrawing is dirty, but the UI is functional. See https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=192671.