Severe graphical corruption in gnome-shell with nouveau [Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS]

[Alex Jones]

When running gnome-shell on Ubuntu 17.10, text is visible only as white blocks (or sometimes not visible at all), and some graphics, such as the icons on the launcher menu, are corrupt. Only objects drawn by the gnome-shell and related programs seem to be affected. Software which is not part of the gnome-shell, such as LibreOffice, calculator, terminal, etc displays without corruption.
---
ApportVersion: 2.20.6-0ubuntu6
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
DisplayManager: gdm3
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
GsettingsChanges: org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-im-module 'gtk-im-context-simple'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-08-20 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Alpha amd64 (20170818)
Package: linux
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.12.0-11.12-generic 4.12.5
Tags: artful wayland-session
Uname: Linux 4.12.0-11-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True

[Amr Ibrahim (amribrahim1987)]

Thanks for filing a bug to help improve Ubuntu.

In the future, please use 'ubuntu-bug package-name' to report Ubuntu bugs.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

[Amr Ibrahim (amribrahim1987)]

Please type this in Alt+F2:

apport-collect 1711936

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

This is on a Dell XPS M1330 laptop with Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS, 8 GB RAM, and 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo T9500. I'm adding the kernel package to this bug report as it could be a kernel issue. This happens only on Wayland. This issue, however, is not present under Fedora 25 or 26 when running Wayland.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1711936

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.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

I've replaced Ubuntu with Fedora on this machine for now. I'll reinstall Ubuntu to an external drive and run the command when it finishes installing.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

apport information

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

apport information

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

apport information

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

I just tested on two more machines, one of which has a GTX 970 and the other of which has a GTX 1050 TI. The machine with the GTX 970 boots and displays the desktop correctly, and I confirmed it's running under Wayland. The machine with the 1050 TI fails to boot at all.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

On Fedora 26, this same issue occurs when the screen is locked (although it doesn't prevent unlocking the screen), but it doesn't affect the desktop on Fedora.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Your JournalErrors.txt seems to show a lot of nouveau kernel messages, which might be the problem...

Could you please try installing the proprietary nvidia driver? I think the latest Nvidia driver supporting your GPU is version 340:

  sudo apt install nvidia-340

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

Proprietary driver (as well as simply disabling Wayland and using X with Nouveau) fixes this issue. Perhaps for now Wayland should be blacklisted for this card (and other cards that have this same issue).

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1711936

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.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

This seems to be specific to gnome-shell, not to Wayland in general. This bug does not occur in Weston, the reference Wayland compositor.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

Additionally, if gnome-shell on Wayland is started from sddm instead of gdm, it loads correctly.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

I've added gdm3 as affected. The fact that sddm launches a working Wayland gnome-shell is a good sign that this is a GDM bug.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

Well, now that I say that, I tried again after a reboot and sddm loaded a corrupt session, same as gdm3. I'll remove gdm3 as affected.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

This bug appears to be fixed in the released version of Ubuntu 17.10. Haven't seen any corruption yet, although I've only had Ubuntu installed for a few minutes.

[Alex Jones (blenheimears)]

There is still corruption when coming out of suspend. It doesn't affect anything other than the desktop background though.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks Alex. Please update the bug description to cover what you see in the 17.10 release.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (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.]

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1711936

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.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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