Gtk-WARNING ... drawing failure for widget ... invalid value (typically too big) [using three 4K monitors]

Thanks for the bug report.

Please run these commands:

  gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.shell > gssettings.txt
  lspci.txt -k > lspcik.txt
  dpkg -l > packages.txt
  journalctl -b0 > journal.txt

and attach the resulting text files here.

Please also choose just one issue for this bug to be about. If you suspect one issue is causing the others then we should focus on that one first.

let's just change it to desktop gnome instability?

Let me know if there is anything else you need me to do thanks!

Two suggestions:

1. Delete all locally installed extensions (like <email address hidden>):

   cd ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/
   rm -rf extensions

   and then log in again.

2. If the problem still isn't solved then try disabling desktop icons:

   gnome-extensions disable <email address hidden>

   and log in again.

I had already disabled all my extensions.

Now I have deleted them and my dock bar is gone (still comes up when i hit the windows key).

logged out and logged back in same issue.

#2:
# gnome-extensions disable <email address hidden>
Failed to connect to GNOME Shell

yet without the extension specified:
# gnome-extensions disable
gnome-extensions: No UUID given

Usage:
  gnome-extensions disable [OPTION…] UUID

Disable an extension

Application Options:
  -q, --quiet Do not print error messages

I should also note that ANY full screen video is extremely slow, sluggish framerate etc.

Ok, I used the extension manager and have disabled the icons.

I now have no icons and no dock, it says my dock is on, but it is no longer visible on the desktop

My desktop is still buggy, I have attached a pic of what the window controls look like on browser, file/folder windows.

some of my logs:

Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:57.974: drawing failure for widget 'GtkBox': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:57.974: drawing failure for widget 'GtkPaned': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:57.974: drawing failure for widget 'GtkBox': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:57.974: drawing failure for widget 'GtkFileChooserWidget': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:57.974: drawing failure for widget 'GtkBox': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:57.974: drawing failure for widget 'GtkFileChooserDialog': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: infinite surface size not supported

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkImage': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkButton': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkPathBar': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkBox': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkStack': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkBox': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkRevealer': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkBox': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkPaned': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkBox': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gtk-WARNING **: 15:40:59.735: drawing failure for widget 'GtkFileChooserWidget': invalid value (typically too big) for the size of the input (surface, pattern, etc.)

(firefox-aurora:221704): Gt...

Interesting Firefox has similar warnings as DING had before. That suggests the bug is either in GTK or the graphics driver. Rather than being a DING or a Firefox problem.

As for the screenshot in comment #12, make sure you're never suspending the system, switching users or even switching VTs. Because all of those can cause the Nvidia driver to lose textures, which is covered by bug 1876632.

The fact that you have 3 x 4K monitors connected makes me think all those GTK warnings are some kind of texture size limit being exceeded. Although even basic GPUs should support textures up to 16K in size. Perhaps this is a GTK-specific problem where it tries to internally allocate something that the full desktop resolution and fails.

It looks like you're using Xorg fractional scaling, so yes that will take the texture requirements past the limit supported by the GPU if you do it across multiple 4K monitors. Some parts of the desktop will cope and other parts (GTK) might not cope.

To confirm this, please run:

  xrandr --verbose > xrandr.txt

and attach the resulting text file here.

Possible workarounds (you only need one):

  * Only use integer scaling
  * Only use Wayland sessions
  * Use fewer monitors

Hi Daniel,

It worked flawlessly for about a year, and only started doing this (immediately) after the update to 22.10. I used fractional scaling for the past year as well with no issues.

I have already tried changing the resolution back to just plain 100% 4k and it's the exact same with all kinds of instabilities and missing icons.

Any other ideas?

Yes this sounds like a GTK-only bug, probably new in Ubuntu 22.10. But potentially related to that, please run:

  xrandr --verbose > xrandr.txt

and attach the resulting text file here.

Also remember one of the issues you mentioned earlier is likely to be bug 1876632 so please read that.

attached

I can also confirm that the problem persists after a fresh boot, turning off 2 screens, and only using the main screen at 100% scale.

I think this is a consequence of your desktop being 18432 pixels wide. Each 4K monitor is 6144 logical pixels wide because of a custom Xrandr scaling factor of 1.6.

Turning off screens wouldn't fix it, only unplugging them might. But still this sounds like a GTK bug because modern Nvidia GPUs like yours should be fine with an 18K desktop.

Tracking upstream in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/3050

To achieve a scaling factor of 1.6 I suspect the logic is to render at 8x resolution (92K!!!) and then downscale 5x (because 8/5 = 1.6). And GTK has internal size limits of 65535 in each dimension, I think. So the maximum window size is 65535 / 8 = 8191. That should be enough to have two 4K (3840 px) monitors scaling 1.6x, but not three. So try unplugging one monitor and positioning the remaining two next to each other.

Another suggestion is to use a scaling factor of 1.5 instead of 1.6. That might simplify the required quotient to 3/2 (initially rendering at 3x resolution instead of 8x), so might be enough to have all three monitors working.

Out of curiosity, how did you configure a scaling factor of 1.6?

Very odd, I'm only using a scale of 1.25

would it be bad to enable developer updates / proposed kinetic updates?

> would it be bad to enable developer updates / proposed kinetic updates?

Yes that would be bad. You would get untested updates across all packages. Doing so usually breaks your system after a while.

> Very odd, I'm only using a scale of 1.25

Ah you are right. Setting 125% I also see Xorg using a transform scale of 1.6x. Perhaps I got my maths wrong or perhaps Xorg fractional scaling is buggy. But the general idea for fixing this is still the same:

  * Turn OFF fractional scaling; or
  * Unplug some monitors

While this is a software bug in GTK 3.x, the developers have moved on to GTK 4.x so I would not expect any significant changes to the design of 3.x that would fix this.

After you turn off fractional scaling you can still adjust font sizes using the gnome-tweaks app.

will gtk4 come with 23.04?

Should I wait or just bite the bullet and reinstall (what a pain) as it worked flawlessly on 22.04?

GTK4 is already in Ubuntu and the GNOME developers are planning GTK5. The bigger issue here is that apps haven't moved away from GTK3 yet. For you that includes Desktop Icons NG, Firefox and Thunderbird.

If 22.04 worked then yes please do go back to that. It's also supported for much longer:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Although this suggests the bug was in 20.04 as well:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/3050

And I just realized the message "invalid value (typically too big)" is from the Cairo library. It's the description for CAIRO_STATUS_INVALID_SIZE.

what does that mean for me?

It doesn't really help. I was just searching the code for an explanation of the message.