X/Wayland issue on a frame.work? [video] Help?

I've posted a link to a video that shows X [or, does Zorin 16 use wayland??] windows doing a few odd things:

Sometimes when I minimize a window, its graphically remains - altho you can't click buttons in it.

Other windows go behind or in front of the 'minimized' window in an odd way.

Sometimes a windows remains over top of another window, but the second window is actually selected - the first window should not be on top.

A side note, this IS on the Frame.work laptop... so hardware could POSSIBLY be at play in some way here... anyone have any ideas???

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe Zorin OS 16 using Gnome, uses Wayland. I believe its X11. Yeah, I see X11 listed on my ABOUT

Default is X11.

A user can select the cog gear icon at GDM login screen and switch to Wayland.

I'm [currently] on X11 - and windows overlap eachother... or, say I'm in firefox [or any application] and I download something... the download box that comes up, asking where I want to save a file, is BEHIND the firefox window.

Or in Discord, if I upload a file, the upload window is BEHIND the Discord window...

Sometimes I'll have a terminal open, and it WON'T come to the forefront - it remains behind all windows on the screen.

Sometimes if I do a four-finger scroll up, the window in question will come to the forefront - but NEVER if its an upload/download window.

I showed some of it in the linked video above... and side note, this is the frame.work laptop, so.... I've been having compatibility issues galore - its a basic Zorin install on my frame.

Any help would be appreciated.... I may switch to Wayland - and I THOUGHT that maybe it was the rendering or... OpenGL vs other options; but couldn't find that in settings..

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

Listen, I'm obviously not a Linux wizard - but... VERY EARLY observations are that this problem is seeming to go away once I turned off secure boot and TPM.

Is there a way that those two could create issues like I described? Its only been 5 minutes, but upload windows are displaying correctly over the Discord window immediately after turning off those two things.

I'll post back if the window issues show up again.

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

1 Like

What is your standpoint on using X11 or Wayland? I now switched to Wayland, to see how it goes. On my Pinebook Pro Wayland and X11 is night and day: Wayland is sooooo much faster.

Wayland can be faster, yes. It cuts out the middleman, allow more direct communication between the drives (kernel) and process, whereas XWindow manager is a middle man which communication must pass through.
Wayland, however, is an incomplete build and currently, some applications do not work on it. A solution often involves disabling Wayland.
It has potential but as it is currently - Use With Caution.

2 Likes

This was NOT a fix. The issue has come back; it must happen after using the system for a bit. :confused: Frustrating, but just back to the drawing board... I'll find the solution.

Any tips are appreciated. :stuck_out_tongue:
To answer other questions, I don't mind using X11 OR Wayland - on Fedora Wayland works really well... and the including screen recorder, Kooha, that comes w/ Zorin supports Wayland, so....

Before I go that route, does anyone think my frame.work/X11 window overlapping issue might be either Xrender or like opengl vs other options? And, where can I find that within Zorin???

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

Hello Paul!

Have you tried looking at your Nvidia X Server Settings?

As you can see, that is where you find your OPENGL Settings config in the Nvidia X Server Settings APP. You will have this APP, if your running your PROPRIETARY Nvidia driver.

The frame.work laptop doesn't use Nvidia, it uses Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2).

I used to find this in KDE Settings, but don't see Xrender or OpenGL type options in GNOME. And, I might need some suggestions at to what to set or look for... but also usually find just enough to fix things- or get into trouble. :stuck_out_tongue:

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

Hello Paul, I was trying to do some research into this, and came up with nothing, in regards to a way to adjust driver configuration for Intel XE graphics. I even looked into Intel XE extensions for Gnome that might bring such functionality, and again, came up with nothing.

Everything extension wise is made for Nvidia and AMD. IMO, there really needs to be a configuration extension for Intel XE graphics. I also searched my Software Store for an APP that specifically does what Nvidia X Server Settings APP does, but for Intel, and I also came up empty handed.

I think the only option you have, is using terminal commands. But I have nowhere near the terminal skill that Aravisian does. So the only person who can help you there, is our terminal wiz Aravisian.

You might try:

sudo apt install linux-oem-20.04

The kernel and headers???

Yes, that is a patched kernel for your intel graphics.

Understood. It will install all of this:

paulie420@frame-work:~$ sudo apt install linux-oem-20.04
[sudo] password for paulie420:           
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  linux-headers-5.10.0-1050-oem linux-headers-oem-20.04b
  linux-image-5.10.0-1050-oem linux-image-oem-20.04b
  linux-modules-5.10.0-1050-oem linux-oem-20.04b
  linux-oem-5.10-headers-5.10.0-1050
Suggested packages:
  fdutils linux-oem-5.10-tools
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-headers-5.10.0-1050-oem linux-headers-oem-20.04b
  linux-image-5.10.0-1050-oem linux-image-oem-20.04b
  linux-modules-5.10.0-1050-oem linux-oem-20.04 linux-oem-20.04b
  linux-oem-5.10-headers-5.10.0-1050
0 upgraded, 8 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 80.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 402 MB of additional disk space will be used.

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

1 Like

Once it completes, reboot and tap the tab key like a tap dancer that fell into a volcano when you see the see the manufacturers splash screen to pull up Advanced Options for Zorin. Enter that and boot from the new Kernel to test its performance. If it works, you can set it to default to that kernel so you do not need to choose it at boot OR remove the 5.11 kernel.

To set the new kernel to default
Boot into the kernel you wish to be Saved.:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Change GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
Hit enter to drop down a line.
Add GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
ctrl+x to exit, then the y key to say yes to save, then the enter key to save as current configuration.

Run

sudo update-grub

to make the changes take effect.

Crosslink.

Understood - I now understand why you suggested it. I've had the best performance on the frame w/ 5.13... I'll try this out and appreciate you taking the time to explain. TY.

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

1 Like

I wonder if that is also an option.
The 5.13 or 5.14 kernel will give a dependency error if you attempt to install them on Zorin.
To this end, I patched a copy of the 5.14 kernel to install on Zorin in order to help members that need it.
So you may try that as well.

TAB doesnt get me into Grub - TBH, I don't even know that I have Grub installed and working. :confused:

This is a [fairly] bone stock Zorin install on a brand new disk.

pAULIE42o
. . . . . . . . . .
/s

Try esc key, instead.