Element not Rendering Graphics

[InklingGirl]

Steps to reproduce

1. Where are you starting? What can you see? Open Element as per standard on a GNOME desktop, but the window proceeds to flash & goes on to not render anything but a text cursor at the bottom of it. Even the topbar icon is caught up in this, as it briefly renders on launching the program & then visually disappears (while still being clickable).
2. No more steps, just doesn't work lol.

Outcome

What did you expect?

For Element to render correctly.

What happened instead?

On opening, the window proceeds to flash & go on to not render anything but a text cursor at the bottom of it.

Operating system

Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) OS w/ GNOME 42.5 DE on Wayland window server

Application version

Can't see, but latest

How did you install the app?

https://packages.element.io/debian/ i.e. the first-party Deb repo for Element, via apt

Homeserver

No response

Will you send logs?

Yes

[InklingGirl]

I still need help w/ this, I'm not able to use Element at all until it's resolved. I wonder, would turning off hardware acceleration be a working temporary stopgap? I can't see any of the menus, so I can't change the setting graphically, but is it represented in a config file? Thanks.

[InklingGirl]

In my case at least, using ppa-purge to remove ppa:ernstp/mesarc (the PPA from which I was getting graphics drivers) & downgrade the graphics packages seems to have fixed element-desktop's rendering issues. Still, I would like a response to my above enquiry about switching element-desktop to software mode w/o access to the GUI before I consider closing this issue. Thanks.

[pbsds]

try running with --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu

[InklingGirl]

Thanks for the tip @pbsds, this is no longer an issue for me, but it might be helpful in the future to have that command.

[InklingGirl]

W/ the build of Mesa Canonical ships & also the current build of Mesa from ppa:kisak/kisak-mesa, this issue doesn't persist for me.

[sascha-wi]

--disable-gpu --in-process-gpu

this helped me with my issue, but why is this neccessary now? It worked fine before. I am on debian testing.

[pbsds]

I've had issues with multiple electron applications, where the fix was the same. Could be an electron update thing

[InklingGirl]

Is brave-browser Electron? I had the same issue w/ that.

[t3chguy]

@InklingGirl brave is based on Chromium, Electron is also based on Chromium.

[InklingGirl]

Maybe an even upperstream issue then? Who knows, but for reference: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/30180

[InklingGirl]

If anyone is still experiencing, I may reopen

--disable-gpu --in-process-gpu

this helped me with my issue, but why is this neccessary now? It worked fine before. I am on debian testing.

Since @sascha-wi is still experiencing, I'll reopen this.

[fogti]

So uhh did anyone file an Electron/chromium issue for that?

[ailequal]

I can also confirm that with the flag --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu Element is starting fine. I am on Ubuntu 22.04. I remember that I recently got a new update for Element, but I have no idea if the issue is somehow related. My GPU is a RX 580.

[MiquelRForgeFlow]

I can confirm getting the same issue in the last update (flag --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu temporarily solves it, but it's a pain having to maintain a terminal opened). Hope it's solved soon. I have Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS with AMD Ryzen 7 Graphics (Renoir).

[ailequal]

I can confirm getting the same issue in the last update (flag --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu temporarily solves it, but it's a pain having to maintain a terminal opened). Hope it's solved soon. I have Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS with AMD Ryzen 7 Graphics (Renoir).

You can use the following alias which won't hang your terminal (it works with bash). alias element-desktop-gpu="element-desktop --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu &> /dev/null &"

[pbsds]

On nixos i modify the desktop entry with an override:

  nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    element-desktop = pkgs.element-desktop.overrideAttrs (old: {
      desktopItem = old.desktopItem.override (old: {
        exec = "element-desktop --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu %u";
      });
    });
  };

[Taranchul]

I found a solution in another issue that fixed the white screen for me: Delete the contents of ~/.config/Element/GPUCache (or ~/.config/Riot/GPUCache if you upgraded to Element from Riot).

edit: Ah, I just saw that this is also mentioned in joepie91's link to nixpkgs.

[sascha-wi]

I found a solution in another issue that fixed the white screen for me: Delete the contents of ~/.config/Element/GPUCache (or ~/.config/Riot/GPUCache if you upgraded to Element from Riot).

edit: Ah, I just saw that this is also mentioned in joepie91's link to nixpkgs.

Worked for me aswell.

[NOFUNEVER]

Was using Element last night without issue, this morning Element started showing this issue, additionally chrome wasn't rendering correctly. Reinstalling chrome would fix the problem with chrome but as soon as I opened element up it would return. removing the contents of ~/.config/Element/GPUCache as recommend above seems to have fixed both the issue with element and it's strange interaction with my browser.

[Taranchul]

Same here. Yesterday's update from https://packages.element.io/debian caused the white window again, removal of GPUCache/* fixed it again.

Maybe Element should empty that directory on startup or after an update as a temporary solution until the real reason is found and fixed?

[Taranchul]

Reinstalling chrome would fix the problem with chrome

Chrome has its own cache directories. You could try to empty them or at least GPUCache the next time (maybe after a backup):

~/.config/google-chrome/GrShaderCache
~/.config/google-chrome/ShaderCache
~/.config/google-chrome/Default/GPUCache

(Source)

[sascha-wi]

So today nothing works anymore? regardless how I start element-desktop it shows basically just black background?

Edit: https://github.com/vector-im/element-desktop/issues/1074#issue-1799450013 same issue, deleting GPUCache and starting it with --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu makes it work again.

can we finally get a fix for this mess?

[progserega]

With AMD videocard element-nightly not started on wayland. With --disable-gpu --in-process-gpu element-desktop-nightly was started success.

log not success start was:

element-desktop-nightly --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland  --ozone-platform-hint=auto                                 
/home/progserega/.config/Element-Nightly exists: yes
/home/progserega/.config/Riot-Nightly exists: no
Enabling Sentry with dsn=https://029a0eb289f942508ae0fb17935bd8c5@sentry.matrix.org/6 environment=nightly
Starting auto update with base URL: https://packages.element.io/nightly/update/
Auto update not supported on this platform
Fetching translation json for locale: en_EN
Changing application language to ru
Fetching translation json for locale: ru
Resetting the UI components after locale change
Resetting the UI components after locale change
[43757:1208/061947.412899:ERROR:gbm_wrapper.cc(253)] Failed to export buffer to dma_buf: Нет такого файла или каталога (2)
[43757:1208/061947.413015:ERROR:gbm_pixmap_wayland.cc(82)] Cannot create bo with format= RGBA_8888 and usage=SCANOUT
[43757:1208/061947.413092:ERROR:gbm_wrapper.cc(253)] Failed to export buffer to dma_buf: Нет такого файла или каталога (2)
[43757:1208/061947.413153:ERROR:gbm_pixmap_wayland.cc(82)] Cannot create bo with format= RGBA_8888 and usage=GPU_READ
[43757:1208/061947.413204:ERROR:shared_image_factory.cc(926)] CreateSharedImage: could not create backing.
[43757:1208/061947.413258:ERROR:shared_image_factory.cc(758)] DestroySharedImage: Could not find shared image mailbox
[43757:1208/061947.413378:ERROR:gpu_service_impl.cc(1089)] Exiting GPU process because some drivers can't recover from errors. GPU process will restart shortly.
[43774:1208/061947.421130:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(127)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuControl.CreateCommandBuffer.
[43690:1208/061947.423233:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(991)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=8704
[43794:1208/061947.572526:ERROR:gbm_wrapper.cc(253)] Failed to export buffer to dma_buf: Нет такого файла или каталога (2)
[43794:1208/061947.572744:ERROR:gbm_pixmap_wayland.cc(82)] Cannot create bo with format= RGBA_8888 and usage=SCANOUT
[43794:1208/061947.572892:ERROR:gbm_wrapper.cc(253)] Failed to export buffer to dma_buf: Нет такого файла или каталога (2)
[43794:1208/061947.573056:ERROR:gbm_pixmap_wayland.cc(82)] Cannot create bo with format= RGBA_8888 and usage=GPU_READ
[43794:1208/061947.573169:ERROR:shared_image_factory.cc(926)] CreateSharedImage: could not create backing.
[43794:1208/061947.573259:ERROR:shared_image_factory.cc(758)] DestroySharedImage: Could not find shared image mailbox
[43794:1208/061947.573402:ERROR:gpu_service_impl.cc(1089)] Exiting GPU process because some drivers can't recover from errors. GPU process will restart shortly.
[43774:1208/061947.580940:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(319)] GPU state invalid after WaitForGetOffsetInRange.
[43690:1208/061947.581876:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(991)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=8704
[43806:1208/061947.721218:ERROR:gbm_wrapper.cc(253)] Failed to export buffer to dma_buf: Нет такого файла или каталога (2)
[43806:1208/061947.721376:ERROR:gbm_pixmap_wayland.cc(82)] Cannot create bo with format= RGBA_8888 and usage=SCANOUT
[43806:1208/061947.721459:ERROR:gbm_wrapper.cc(253)] Failed to export buffer to dma_buf: Нет такого файла или каталога (2)
[43806:1208/061947.721519:ERROR:gbm_pixmap_wayland.cc(82)] Cannot create bo with format= RGBA_8888 and usage=GPU_READ
[43806:1208/061947.721594:ERROR:shared_image_factory.cc(926)] CreateSharedImage: could not create backing.
[43806:1208/061947.721652:ERROR:shared_image_factory.cc(758)] DestroySharedImage: Could not find shared image mailbox
[43806:1208/061947.721849:ERROR:gpu_service_impl.cc(1089)] Exiting GPU process because some drivers can't recover from errors. GPU process will restart shortly.
[43774:1208/061947.729367:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(127)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuControl.CreateCommandBuffer.
[43690:1208/061947.730242:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(991)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=8704
[43690:1208/061947.757581:ERROR:nss_util.cc(357)] After loading Root Certs, loaded==false: NSS error code: -8018
[43774:1208/061947.867456:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(127)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuControl.CreateCommandBuffer.
[43690:1208/061948.258750:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(577)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.StartServiceByName: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
Changing application language to ru
Fetching translation json for locale: ru
Resetting the UI components after locale change

[pbsds]

For the record, i've switched to the following electron flag, which at least give be a smidgen of performance:

element-desktop --use-gl=desktop 

[pbsds]

FTR, this is not an issue on nixos 23.11: no workaround needed and i get hardware acceleration finally.

This can maybe be closed

[sascha-wi]

FTR, this is not an issue on nixos 23.11: no workaround needed and i get hardware acceleration finally.

This can maybe be closed

Just because you have no issues on your OS doesn't mean the issue can be closed.