Mainmenu crashes / loses fonts after a while

Question

Running 22.04.1 LTS.

My main menu "loses" its fonts/glyphs(?) after some time. Without any recognizable trigger, the clock, calendar, app finder and main menu don't show (most) text anymore:

The same goes for the notification window, weirdly, some characters remain here:

The only workaround I could find is logging out and back in or rebooting the whole machine which is unfeasible.

I realize this won't be an easy fix, but I would already appreciate pointers to relevant log or config files, I don't even know where to start with this one.

Edit: inxi -G:

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP HD Camera type: USB
    driver: uvcvideo
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5

Edit 2 It happened again, here is the tail of /var/log/syslog at the time:

Jan 12 10:30:52 rtkit-daemon[1928]: Supervising 8 threads of 5 processes of 1 users.
Jan 12 10:30:52 rtkit-daemon[1928]: Supervising 8 threads of 5 processes of 1 users.
Jan 12 10:33:06 gnome-shell[9630]: y Wnck::Screen=HASH(0x5629c2906490)
Jan 12 10:33:06 gnome-shell[9630]: fct_update_tray_menu was called by Wnck::Screen=HASH(0x5629c2906490)
Jan 12 10:33:06 gnome-shell[9630]: message repeated 13 times: [ fct_update_tray_menu was called by Wnck::Screen=HASH(0x5629c2906490)]
Jan 12 10:33:44 systemd[1]: Started Run anacron jobs. 
Jan 12 10:33:44 anacron[102424]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2023-01-12
Jan 12 10:33:44 systemd[1]: anacron.service: Deactivated successfully.
Jan 12 10:33:44 anacron[102424]: Normal exit (0 jobs run)
Jan 12 10:33:53 rtkit-daemon[1928]: Supervising 8 threads of 5 processes of 1 users.
Jan 12 10:33:53 rtkit-daemon[1928]: Supervising 8 threads of 5 processes of 1 users.
Jan 12 10:34:25 gnome-shell[9630]: fct_upd
Jan 12 10:34:25 gnome-shell[5567]: Window manager warning: WM_TRANSIENT_FOR window 0x3c14a41 for 0x3c14a4f window override-redirect is an override-redirect window and this is not correct according to the standard, so we'll fallback to the first non-override-redirect window 0x3c14457.
Jan 12 10:35:19 gnome-shell[5567]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowGroup>:0x555bfb8b8680] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 12 10:35:19 gnome-shell[5567]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowActorX11>:0x555bfe103ee0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 12 10:35:19 gnome-shell[5567]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaSurfaceActorX11>:0x555bfb9b5140] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 12 10:35:54 rtkit-daemon[1928]: Supervising 8 threads of 5 processes of 1 users.
Jan 12 10:35:54 rtkit-daemon[1928]: Supervising 8 threads of 5 processes of 1 users.
Jan 12 10:35:54 gnome-shell[9630]: ate_tray_menu was called by Wnck::Screen=HASH(0x5629c2906490)
Jan 12 10:35:54 gnome-shell[9630]: fct_update_tray_menu was called by Wnck::Screen=HASH(0x5629c2906490)
Jan 12 10:35:54 gnome-shell[9630]: message repeated 12 times: [ fct_update_tray_menu was called by Wnck::Screen=HASH(0x5629c2906490)]
Jan 12 10:36:53 rtkit-daemon[1928]: Supervising 8 threads of 5 processes of 1 users.

Edit 3 Possible Workaround

I found this comment on gnome bugtracker and disabled the font hinting via gnome-tweaks. As it is discussed in the other thread and might be relevant: I have no gnome extensions enabled (or even installed).

Edit 4 Actual Workaround / Mitigation

The best way I found to get the fonts back without rebooting is resetting the GUI by pressing [Alt]+[F2], typing r into the command box and pressing [Enter]. This brings all the fonts back.

Edit 5 More syslog info from a recent crash:

Jan 18 20:16:04 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowGroup>:0x55e3f2a0c680] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:04 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowActorX11>:0x55e3f779db10] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:04 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaSurfaceActorX11>:0x55e3f3fdadd0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:04 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowGroup>:0x55e3f2a0c680] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:04 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowActorX11>:0x55e3f779db10] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:04 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaSurfaceActorX11>:0x55e3f3fdadd0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowGroup>:0x55e3f2a0c680] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowActorX11>:0x55e3f779d330] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaSurfaceActorX11>:0x55e3f3fdb4d0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowGroup>:0x55e3f2a0c680] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowActorX11>:0x55e3f779d330] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaSurfaceActorX11>:0x55e3f3fdb4d0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowGroup>:0x55e3f2a0c680] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowActorX11>:0x55e3f779d330] is on because it needs an allocation.
Jan 18 20:16:06 nb01 gnome-shell[5692]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaSurfaceActorX11>:0x55e3f3fdb4d0] is on because it needs an allocation

.

kanehekili · Answer 1 · 2023-01-19T09:08:02.613

Usually, the intel driver works out of box. However, the "modesetting" driver might not be as good as the intel driver.

The following instructions work only with an XSession - not with Wayland! See how to change

My suggestion is to create the following file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Add

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Intel Graphics"
  Driver "intel"
  #Option      "DRI"  "iris"
  #Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

You'll need to reboot after a change, so the drivers are updated.

More changes: (Try one after the other)

For Intel GPUs starting from Gen8 (Broadwell), the Iris Mesa driver is needed:

Option      "DRI"  "iris"

If you experience issues with default SNA (e.g. pixelated graphics, corrupt text, etc.), try using UXA instead

Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"

Sorry, but this is trial & error. the # is a comment - so it will not be read. To activate the line just remove that sign.

In case of problems during startup, you can always remove or rename that file and reboot.

Font rendering

In some cases the fonts you are using can't be handled by the intel drivers (not Linux specific). You might try to change your fonts and/or your theme.

An example of a working font configuration can be found here

Update

Considering the new logs it seems this Bug is responsible for the spam.

This describes the problem more clearly and is a driver problem in conjunction with mesa.Fix in mesa 22.2.0-2

Mainmenu crashes / loses fonts after a while

1 Answers1