Scrambled dialogues in Zorin 16 with AMD Radeon RX Vega 10

Hardware Support
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#1

Hi all,
I'm am a new user of Zorin and Linux. I recently installed Zorin-16 Core and run into a strange phenomenon. Everything appears to be running smoothly, but every now and then a dialogue or submenu of a program (in this case both Thunderbird as well as BlueMail) appears as totally scrambled.
Like in:
Screenshot from 2022-04-02 14-22-05
As far as I can see, it only happens in dialogues or submenus, not in the main programs.
My laptop is an ASUS M712D, Ryzen 7, Radeon RX Vega 10 system with 20GB Internal memory.

After the first couple of appearances I tried several installs (either with and without propriety drivers), no difference. I also installed the latest amdgpu-install package, which also did not make any difference.
Has anybody encountered this likewise and knows how I can/should progress to solve this? Thanks for your help in advance!

#2

I agree with you- This looks like graphics driver issue.
What kernel are you running?

uname -r

#3

Thank you Aravisian for your quick reply!
The Kernel I'm running is: 5.13.0-37-generic

#4

Hmmm...
Can you install inxi

sudo apt inxi

Then run

inxi -Fxzd

and post the output here?

#5

Yes I can indeed. Thanks for your help!

System:
Kernel: 5.13.0-37-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A
Desktop: Gnome 3.38.4 Distro: Zorin OS 16.1 base: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: VivoBook_ASUSLaptop X712DA_M712DA
v: 1.0 serial:
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X712DA v: 1.0 serial:
UEFI: American Megatrends v: X712DA.303 date: 03/31/2020
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 23.5 Wh condition: 26.3/32.1 Wh (82%)
model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery status: Discharging
CPU:
Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 3700U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx
bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
bogomips: 36730
Speed: 1221 MHz min/max: 1400/2300 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1222 2: 1221
3: 1282 4: 1218 5: 1222 6: 1222 7: 1308 8: 1246
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel
bus ID: 03:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: amdgpu
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon Vega 10 Graphics (RAVEN DRM 3.41.0
5.13.0-37-generic LLVM 12.0.0)
v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.6 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.1
Device-2: AMD Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor
driver: snd_pci_acp3x v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.5
Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.6
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.13.0-37-generic
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Lite-On driver: rtw_8822ce v: N/A port: f000 bus ID: 01:00.0
IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac:
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 242.53 GiB (20.7%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLQ256HAJD-00000
size: 238.47 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MQ04ABF100 size: 931.51 GiB
Message: No Optical or Floppy data was found.
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 47.81 GiB used: 14.97 GiB (31.3%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 46.1 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 46 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Info:
Processes: 292 Uptime: 6m Memory: 17.52 GiB used: 1.25 GiB (7.1%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17
inxi: 3.0.38

#6

Everything looks fine...:expressionless:

The only thing I can think to test would be trying a different kernel.
You might roll back to a previous version. Or install a newer kernel than is currently offered by Zorin.
I wouldn't worry too much about locking the working kernel in, as the next update probably will not have the same issue.

#7

Oops, there you really need to help me :blush:
Being quite new to Linux and relatively little experience with installing anything other than Zorin and some light Terminal work, I do need some explanation on installing older/newer kernels.
I'm willing to have a go with it. My current Zorin install will be replaced with the Pro-version soon anyhow, and for the sake of maybe finding some useful info for people who might experience the same thing later, I'd like to help and see what happens.
Therefore: where should I look for a newer version of the kernel and what do I need to do to install that?
Thanks again for your help Aravisian, much appreciated. :+1:

#8

There are many methods and they all safely work.
Let's keep it simple for the moment...
Installing an older kernel:
This is easier, since you likely already have the older kernel in the repositories added to your system.
For example, straight out from terminal:

sudo apt install linux-headers-5.8.0-63-generic linux-modules-5.8.0-63-generic linux-modules-extra-5.8.0-63-generic linux-image-5.8.0-63-generic

Or

sudo apt install linux-headers-5.11.0-27-generic linux-modules-5.11.0-27-generic linux-modules-extra-5.11.0-27-generic linux-image-5.11.0-27-generic

sudo apt install linux-headers-5.13.0-28-generic linux-modules-5.13.0-28-generic linux-modules-extra-5.13.0-28-generic linux-image-5.13.0-28-generic

You can also download the four needed packages from the Mainline kernel webpage and install all of them at once using dpkg. I can detail this method, if needed.

Installing a newer kernel:

To boot from a different kernel than the one you are using:
At boot, tap on the esc or tab key to bring up the Advanced Options for Zorin grub menu - arrow key to the kernel you wish to boot into and enter to select it.
You can verify that it worked by reaching the desktop, then running

uname -r

in terminal.