[Fixed] Issue with mesa-git (Manjaro ARM Stable Update 2020-09-22))

[JasonG-FR]

Hi,

Updating to mesa-git-20.3.0_devel.128278.20a4235c4c9-1 caused a kwin_x11 crash, preventing it to use OpenGL as the compositor engine which resulted in a sluggish device (even after rebooting it).

After rebooting, the crash didn’t happen again, but it appeared that I’d lost transparency (during animations like moving windows, using the drop-down terminal, moving the mouse cursor, even the shutdown menu background was completely black) and the system felt sluggish when it used to display transparency before the update (like it was dropping frames and it kinda felt like it was using the CPU instead of the GPU to render the desktop).

To fix this, downgrade mesa-git to the previous version (mesa-git-20.3.0_devel.127750.ac6b8e42ce2-1), then go to System Settings > Hardware > Display and Monitor > Compositor. There should be a message on top saying that OpenGL detection was turned off because it caused crashes in the past and asking to re-enable it. Re-enabling it and rebooting fixed the issue for me.

[MtnSk8]

Thanks! I too got the kwin crash after today's update. Downgrading mesa-git fixed it, thanks for posting.
Next is to figure out how to remove the update notification for it

[carlosqueso]

Thanks! I too got the kwin crash after today's update. Downgrading mesa-git fixed it, thanks for posting.
Next is to figure out how to remove the update notification for it

You need to add mesa-git to your list of ignored packages.  Just edit /etc/pacman.conf with your favorite text editor,

uncomment the line with "IgnorePkg"

and add mesa-git to it.

You'll get reminded when you do an upgrade in the terminal, but that's just a reminder to check if it's fixed.

[MtnSk8]

Thanks @carlosqueso!

[gabeeg]

Just an FYI for anybody coming to this thread later, for an easy way to downgrade the package and set it to ignore, download the "downgrade" bash script package from AUR. Once downloaded, run it from shell such as:

downgrade mesa-git

It will list the downgradeable Mesa-git packages in a numbered list, enter the number of the one you want, verify if you want ignorepkg set and it does the rest.

[icecream95]

Does kwin_wayland also crash?

[pinningaway]

Just an FYI for anybody coming to this thread later, for an easy way to downgrade the package and set it to ignore, download the "downgrade" bash script package from AUR.  Once downloaded, run it from shell such as:

downgrade mesa-git 

It will list the downgradeable Mesa-git packages in a numbered list, enter the number of the one you want, verify if you want ignorepkg set and it does the rest.

Yes, This has worked for me. Thanks!

[MeLikeyTacos]

Just an FYI for anybody coming to this thread later, for an easy way to downgrade the package and set it to ignore, download the "downgrade" bash script package from AUR. Once downloaded, run it from shell such as:

downgrade mesa-git

It will list the downgradeable Mesa-git packages in a numbered list, enter the number of the one you want, verify if you want ignorepkg set and it does the rest.

In my case, I just recently get my PBP and only two of the newer versions of mesa-git showing up with downgrade, not the working "mesa-git-20.3.0_devel.127750.ac6b8e42ce2-1" version; and I wasn't able to figure out how to install that version. So I just installed the mesa package, removing mesa-git in the process, re-enabled the OpenGL detection and rebooted.

I will re-install mesa-git later when it gets fixed, but how will I know when it's fixed? Following this thread in the meantime.

[JasonG-FR]

I will re-install mesa-git later when it gets fixed, but how will I know when it's fixed? Following this thread in the meantime.

The current version of mesa (20.2.0-2) in the repository fixed the glitches and suspend on my PBP, so I switched back to it too.

A Manjaro ARM developer told me that mesa-git is unstable and untested (it's compiled automatically from git) and that they don't recommend to use it on a stable system because bugs and crashes are to be expected.

You don't necessary need to switch back to mesa-git if you're happy with the current mesa.

However, if you still want to be on the bleeding edge, I guess you'll have to install the mesa-git updates to see if it gets fixed.

[icecream95]

Hint to everyone here: This issue isn't going to automatically fix itself.

I haven't been able to reproduce this myself, so someone here who has the problem will have to help find the problem by bisecting.

You'll have to use git bisect on Mesa, with a "good" commit of ac6b8e42ce2 and a "bad" commit of 20a4235c4c9 (man git-bisect for docs).

Configure Mesa from the build directory like this:

Code:

meson -Dgallium-drivers=panfrost,kmsro -Dvulkan-drivers= -Db_ndebug=false --buildtype=plain

Compile and install with `ninja; sudo ninja install`

Install ccache beforehand to speed up the bisect process significantly.



Once an issue is narrowed down to a specific commit, it's usually pretty easy to find what the problem is and fix it.