Changing window size in Linux makes Obsidian unresponsive

Bug graveyard
1

I’m completely new to Obsidian. I’m just trying it out for the first time. I’m using it on Linux (KDE Neon based on Ubuntu 20.04 using Plasma 5.21.4). I’ve tried running Obsidian as an AppImage, a Flatpak, and a Snap and all three have the same problem. They are all usable when I first open the app, but if I resize the the window at all, all of the UI becomes unresponsive. Anyone else have this bug?

2

Ok, it seems this issue goes away if you go into the Obsidian settings and you disable Hardware Acceleration. The problem with that is that you then have no Hardware Acceleration.

If this helps, I am running this on an IBM Thinkpad 440p. It’s a 4th Gen I5 using Intel integrated graphics.

3

This is a problem with your setup not obsidian per se. It might depend on your drivers or even your window manager.

4

I tested on another machine, and I had the same problem. But that machine is also running KDE and also using Intel graphics. I have tried playing with the compositor settings, but it hasn’t helped so far. Only turning off hardware acceleration works. I am going to test running using Wayland instead of X and will report back.

5

Well, good news. This problem doesn’t seem to happen using Wayland. The bad news is that other tools I use are not ready to move over to Wayland, so I’m not sure what I’ll do. KDE seems to be leaving X behind, and it’s buggy for KDE. On the whole this is good since Wayland is certainly the future, but there is still going to be some pain points moving forward.

6

This is a problem of kdm, because we have other users on linux using X and not wayland who don’t have this problem.

7

Yes. I agree. That’s what I was trying to say in the last post though perhaps not with the most clarity. As far as I can tell, KDE is focusing support on Wayland now and not on X. And I am finding bugginess under X in KDE.

8

I use i3 on ubuntu (and sometimes regolith, which is basically the same). Have tried compton and picom and both the glx and xrender backends with various compositor settings adjusted - nothing seems to address the obsidian rendering issues.

The only two things which work for me:

  • No compositor at all (a bummer for the rest of the system)
  • OR: use any compositor AND disable Hardware acceleration in obsidian. This works fine with any compositor setup.