Bug 2386657 - kernels 6.16/6.17 have display issues in the D.E. when using vmwgfx driver
Summary: kernels 6.16/6.17 have display issues in the D.E. when using vmwgfx driver
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: kernel
Version: rawhide
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Kernel Maintainer List
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-08-05 23:42 UTC by Ian Laurie
Modified: 2025-12-20 22:03 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2025-12-20 22:03:38 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
Kernel logs (76.34 KB, text/plain)
2025-08-05 23:44 UTC, Ian Laurie
no flags Details

Description Ian Laurie 2025-08-05 23:42:50 UTC
1. Please describe the problem:
I've got an issue with VirtualBox guests using kernel 6.16 & 6.17.  In Rawhide I've lost the window corner drag mark icon in Xfce making it very hard to resize windows.  I can resize without the drag marks but it is a hit & miss thing. 

I can fix the issue by booting into kernel-6.15.0-61.fc43.x86_64.

I can also fix the problem by setting the display mode to VBoxSVGA which I believe doesn't use the vmwgfx driver in the guest.


2. What is the Version-Release number of the kernel:
I believe this began with 6.16.0-rc0.  It persists up to and including kernel-6.17.0-0.rc0.250804gd2eedaa3909b.10.fc43.x86_64.


3. Did it work previously in Fedora? If so, what kernel version did the issue
I think kernel-6.6.16.0-rc0 was the start of it.  Certainly it was there by rc3.


4. Can you reproduce this issue? If so, please provide the steps to reproduce
   the issue below:
Just boot 6.16/6.17 and enter Xfce in a VirtualBox guest using the VMSVGA setting that uses the vmwgfx driver.


5. Does this problem occur with the latest Rawhide kernel? 
Yes, kernel-6.17.0-0.rc0.250804gd2eedaa3909b.10.fc43.x86_64.


6. Are you running any modules that not shipped with directly Fedora's kernel?:
No.


7. Please attach the kernel logs. You can get the complete kernel log
   for a boot with ``journalctl --no-hostname -k > dmesg.txt``. If the
   issue occurred on a previous boot, use the journalctl ``-b`` flag.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Ian Laurie 2025-08-05 23:44:57 UTC
Created attachment 2102741 [details]
Kernel logs

Comment 2 anotheruser 2025-08-30 11:09:24 UTC
Can reproduce on GNOME wayland (F42 / F43  ). The problem seems to be that, for some reason, the compositor can no longer change the mouse pointer.   
KDE Plasma  ( F42 ) does not have that issue, though.

Comment 3 anotheruser 2025-08-30 12:07:06 UTC
same problem with a 'KDE Plasma (x11)'  session.

Comment 4 Ian Laurie 2025-08-31 02:08:51 UTC
(In reply to anotheruser from comment #2)
> Can reproduce on GNOME wayland (F42 / F43  ). 

Out of curiosity are you are you running VirtualBox or VMWare?

Comment 5 anotheruser 2025-08-31 09:25:36 UTC
(In reply to Ian Laurie from comment #4)
> > Can reproduce on GNOME wayland (F42 / F43  ). 
> Out of curiosity are you are you running VirtualBox or VMWare?

VirtualBox 7.1.12  on a Win10 host

Comment 6 Ian Laurie 2025-09-02 21:18:52 UTC
It is worth mentioning that Debian Testing (forky) has updated to kernel-6.16.3+deb14-amd64 and now suffers from the same problem.  Up to now I've only seen this in Fedora guests.

Comment 7 John Obaterspok 2025-09-05 07:46:08 UTC
Ian, can you check if it was working with 6.16.0?

Comment 8 Ian Laurie 2025-09-05 09:12:33 UTC
(In reply to John Obaterspok from comment #7)
> Ian, can you check if it was working with 6.16.0?

Easy to do as my non-standard config for DNF is "installonly_limit=6" and it so happens kernel-6.16.0-200.fc42.x86_64 is still on the list to boot :)

So host is Fedora 42 (updated as of today) and booting 6.16.0 I can confirm it has the problem.  As stated in my original post, I can say with certainty it was there (in Rawhide) by rc3 but I *think* it was there from rc0.

In your question I am presuming you mean the final release of 6.16.0 and you are not referring to the release candidate rc0 right?  I have this kernel on 42 because (Justin probably) built it for (or leading up to) kernel test week.  This kernel version was on koji and never made it to testing.

Comment 9 BJ 2025-09-05 19:06:04 UTC
Hello,

I am experiencing similar symptoms to the point where I think it might be related.

Running Fedora 42 XFCE on VMWare Player 15 on Windows 10. Everything was normal with kernel 6.15.10-200 and works when I boot back into it.

Updated to 6.16.3-200, and suddenly upon booting and starting the display manager, my mouse cursor is gone/invisible. Still invisible after logging into the XFCE desktop. The mouse still works - when I mouse over things I can tell my mouse is there and I can click on items, but I cannot see where I am about to click unless the item being moused over reacts. 

Tried updating to 6.16.4-200 - same behavior.

An interesting tidbit - before I figured out the problem was the kernel, I managed to find a workaround with 6.16 once I was logged into my XFCE desktop. If I went to Settings -> Mouse and Touchpad and went to the Theme tab, if I increased my "Cursor Size" up to a value of 61, my cursor appeared again. It was gigantic and by no means a feasible solution, but it allowed me to continue troubleshooting until I realized the kernel was the culprit. As soon as I dropped it to 60 or lower on 6.16, the cursor disappeared. On 6.15 the cursor was visible at any size. Hoping this information is helpful in tracking down the possible cause and finding a fix.

Hope this was helpful - thanks!

Comment 10 Chad Sawatzky 2025-09-11 22:27:42 UTC
(In reply to BJ from comment #9)
> Hello,
> 
> I am experiencing similar symptoms to the point where I think it might be
> related.
> 
> Running Fedora 42 XFCE on VMWare Player 15 on Windows 10. Everything was
> normal with kernel 6.15.10-200 and works when I boot back into it.
> 
> Updated to 6.16.3-200, and suddenly upon booting and starting the display
> manager, my mouse cursor is gone/invisible. Still invisible after logging
> into the XFCE desktop. The mouse still works - when I mouse over things I
> can tell my mouse is there and I can click on items, but I cannot see where
> I am about to click unless the item being moused over reacts. 
> 
> Tried updating to 6.16.4-200 - same behavior.
> 

This matches the behavior I'm seeing too, just didn't try the cursor size.

Fedora 42 in VMware Workstation Pro 15 on Windows 11.  Gnome 48.

First saw the issue updating from kernel 6.15.10-200 to 6.16.3-200 and also tried 6.16.4.  Falling back to 6.15.10 restores the pointer.

Comment 11 Ian Laurie 2025-09-11 23:10:22 UTC
This issue applies to any 6.16.x and 6.17-rcx kernels. 

The fix may need to be in the vmwgfx driver.  If you have an active account with VMWare would you be able to log a bug with them?  I spent a lot of time going around in circles on their web site trying to work out how to file a bug against the driver but I suspect you need an account to do that.

Comment 12 Chad Sawatzky 2025-09-12 17:03:49 UTC
These perhaps are interesting commit comments for the vmwgfx driver: 
- Refactor cursor handling: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/965544150d1cadf0e8f5bb6c13c19697e46e1429
- Bump the minor version ... cursor ...: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/171e3a45f42593b74434d740936d1d0dc80ed332
- FD Series - Fix native cursors with vmwgfx: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/series/143540/

Comparing versions:
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/v6.15/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/v6.16/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx

Look like this patch was committed to the 6.16 version and not the 6.15.  Based on the description it seems possible its related.

Comment 13 BJ 2025-09-12 17:32:29 UTC
(In reply to Chad Sawatzky from comment #12)
> These perhaps are interesting commit comments for the vmwgfx driver: 
> - Refactor cursor handling:
> https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/
> 965544150d1cadf0e8f5bb6c13c19697e46e1429
> - Bump the minor version ... cursor ...:
> https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/
> 171e3a45f42593b74434d740936d1d0dc80ed332
> - FD Series - Fix native cursors with vmwgfx:
> https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/series/143540/
> 
> Comparing versions:
> - https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/v6.15/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx
> - https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/v6.16/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx
> 
> Look like this patch was committed to the 6.16 version and not the 6.15. 
> Based on the description it seems possible its related.

That's a good catch, Chad. Looks like the cursor stuff was committed to 6.16 on March 10 - last commit for 6.15 was on April 2 and the cursor change was never included.

Ian, I don't have a VMWare account, but it looks like Chad may have found the possible culprit.

I'm fairly new to all this - what's the next step?

Comment 14 Chad Sawatzky 2025-09-12 20:26:18 UTC
I don't have a VMware account either.  Perhaps a report could be submitted here by a registered user?  I think this is where the original commits were managed.  I don't, yet, have an account on this GitLab.  Short of that maybe reaching out to Zack directly?

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/misc/kernel
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/misc/kernel/-/commit/965544150d1cadf0e8f5bb6c13c19697e46e1429

Comment 15 Ian Laurie 2025-09-13 08:36:29 UTC
I have created an account and reported it upstream:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/misc/kernel/-/issues/78

I've linked back to here.

Comment 16 Ian Laurie 2025-11-24 22:26:06 UTC
Looks like this has been fixed, but not sure when it will show up in a Rawhide kernel.

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/misc/kernel/-/commit/eef295a8508202e750e4f103a97447f3c9d5e3d0

Comment 17 Chad Sawatzky 2025-12-19 20:01:04 UTC
I noticed the fix has been included in kernel 6.17.12.  I am current running on 6.17.12-300.fc43.x86_64 and my cursor is working.

The upstream source with included fix.
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx?h=v6.17.12&id=e59e0099d067474d1025bd6c4846e57159d9d93d

Freedesktop.org referenced commit linked to issue created by Ian.
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/misc/kernel/-/commit/eef295a8508202e750e4f103a97447f3c9d5e3d0

Comment 18 BJ 2025-12-19 20:48:02 UTC
I can confirm - I just installed 6.17.12-200.fc42.x86_64 on Fedora 42 and my cursor is still working as well.

Thanks to Ian, Chad, and everyone else for getting this fixed. Ian, if you can confirm the issue is resolved, I guess this bug can be closed!

Comment 19 Ian Laurie 2025-12-20 22:03:38 UTC
Yes it's more or less fixed for me also, although there is a weird cursor offset so that you need to be a bit below and to the right of what you want to click, but it's certainly better than it was.  The offset may be a VirtualBox thing though, and may not be present in VMWare. Still, it wasn't a problem in the older kernels.


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