Bug 1912378

Summary: workspaces flickering due to a Fedora patch
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Kamil Páral <kparal>
Component: gnome-shellAssignee: Florian Müllner <fmuellner>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 33CC: ajtbecool, fmuellner, gnome-sig, jadahl, mcatanza, otaylor, philip.wyett
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Last Closed: 2021-01-15 14:58:18 UTC Type: Bug
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phone video capture none

Description Kamil Páral 2021-01-04 10:16:11 UTC 
Description of problem:
gnome-shell-3.38.2-4.fc33 introduced a regression which causes workspaces to flicker (except the first workspace!) when transitioning between the desktop screen and the overview screen. gnome-shell-3.38.2-3.fc33 worked fine.

Unfortunately I can't capture it with a screencast, because the problem doesn't show up in the video. But it's very visible in daily usage.

Every time you're on a non-first workspace and hit Win key or press the Activities button, you briefly see your desktop flicker through all the application windows.

These seem to be the commits that caused it:
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/gnome-shell/c/0d8c68ee4dbfdfbdf70762d9dacfd4b81ae0a574?branch=f33
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/gnome-shell/c/3420499733505bf43f9da3ebb16c051f1a2ce138?branch=f33

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gnome-shell-3.38.2-3.fc33 -- works
gnome-shell-3.38.2-4.fc33 -- broken
gnome-shell-3.38.2-5.fc33 -- broken

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. open an application (e.g. gedit) on the first workspace
2. open another application (e.g. a second gedit window) on the second workspace
3. repeatedly press Win key while being on the first workspace, no flickering
4. repeatedly press Win key while being on the first workspace, the desktop flickers through the windows during transitions

Additional info:
I tested this on two different computers, one having a Radeon GPU, another having an Intel GPU. Same problem.
Comment 1 Kamil Páral 2021-01-04 10:20:15 UTC 
Needinfo Michael Catanzaro, because he committed the patches.
Comment 2 Kamil Páral 2021-01-04 10:40:08 UTC 
Created attachment 1744266 [details]
phone video capture

Here's at least a video from my phone to illustrate the problem.
Comment 3 Jonas Ådahl 2021-01-04 11:00:03 UTC 
Probably https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/3507 which should be fixed by https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/1545.
Comment 4 Andrew Thurman 2021-01-04 15:19:51 UTC 
*** Bug 1910787 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Kamil Páral 2021-01-11 17:05:26 UTC 
Now that https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/3507 is closed, can we please get an update in Fedora? I'm susceptible to flickering and the current behavior makes me physically sick. Thank you.
Comment 6 Jonas Ådahl 2021-01-11 17:10:12 UTC 
(In reply to Kamil Páral from comment #5)
> Now that https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/3507 is closed,
> can we please get an update in Fedora? I'm susceptible to flickering and the
> current behavior makes me physically sick. Thank you.

It was backported to gnome-3-38, and a new release from that branch is planned today, so it will be included.
Comment 7 Kamil Páral 2021-01-12 07:57:04 UTC 
Thanks, Jonas!
Comment 8 Kamil Páral 2021-01-15 11:02:19 UTC 
The update is here:
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-fda52ec905