• Bug#1101967: firefox: webrender acceleration creates UI and rendering b

    From tv.debian@21:1/5 to All on Thu Apr 3 09:40:01 2025
    Package: firefox
    Version: 137.0-1
    Severity: normal

    Dear beloved and much esteemed Maintainer,


    forcing webrender material acceleration used to work fine on my AMD
    hardware, but since latest update it creates large transparent blocks in webpages on scrolling, disables some elements ( like drop-down menus on https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages ), and renders UI element broken
    or very unresponsive (like the main pancakes menu).
    Disabling webrender material acceleration fixes the problems. So while
    the forced acceleration is not standard, it looks like a regression in
    that area from previous versions.

    I am running a Wayland session in Plasma KDE, the GPU is an AMD Radeon
    7900XT.

    Thank you for your attention.

    -- System Information:
    Debian Release: trixie/sid
    APT prefers testing
    APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (101, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
    Foreign Architectures: i386

    Kernel: Linux 6.14.0-deb64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
    Kernel taint flags: TAINT_CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
    Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=fr:en_US
    Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
    Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
    LSM: AppArmor: enabled

    Versions of packages firefox depends on:
    ii debianutils 5.21
    ii fontconfig 2.15.0-2.2
    ii libasound2t64 1.2.13-1+b1
    ii libatk1.0-0t64 2.56.1-2
    ii libc6 2.41-6
    ii libcairo-gobject2 1.18.4-1+b1
    ii libcairo2 1.18.4-1+b1
    ii libdbus-1-3 1.16.2-2
    ii libevent-2.1-7t64 2.1.12-stable-10+b1
    ii libffi8 3.4.7-1
    ii libfontconfig1 2.15.0-2.2
    ii libfreetype6 2.13.3+dfsg-1
    ii libgcc-s1 14.2.0-19
    ii libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0 2.42.12+dfsg-2
    ii libglib2.0-0t64 2.84.0-2
    ii libgtk-3-0t64 3.24.49-3
    ii libnspr4 2:4.36-1
    ii libnss3 2:3.110-1
    ii libpango-1.0-0 1.56.3-1
    ii libstdc++6 14.2.0-19
    ii libvpx9 1.15.0-2
    ii libx11-6 2:1.8.12-1
    ii libx11-xcb1 2:1.8.12-1
    ii libxcb-shm0 1.17.0-2+b1
    ii libxcb1 1.17.0-2+b1
    ii libxcomposite1 1:0.4.6-1
    ii libxdamage1 1:1.1.6-1+b2
    ii libxext6 2:1.3.4-1+b3
    ii libxfixes3 1:6.0.0-2+b4
    ii libxrandr2 2:1.5.4-1+b3
    ii procps 2:4.0.4-7
    ii zlib1g 1:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-1+b1

    Versions of packages firefox recommends:
    ii libavcodec-extra61 [libavcodec61] 7:7.1.1-1+b1

    Versions of packages firefox suggests:
    ii fonts-lmodern 2.005-1
    ii fonts-stix [otf-stix] 1.1.1-5
    ii libcanberra0 0.30-17+b1
    ii libgssapi-krb5-2 1.21.3-5
    pn pulseaudio <none>

    -- no debconf information

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Geoff@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 8 02:40:01 2025
    Package: firefox
    Version: 137.0-1
    Followup-For: Bug #1101967
    X-Debbugs-Cc: unit735@bigpond.com

    Hi, I have the exact problem described. How do you disable "webrender material acceleration" actually?

    I've tried turning off "Use hardware acceleration when available" under advanced preferences and also set gfx.webrender.software to true and restarted the browser but still have the issue.

    Thanks.

    -- System Information:
    Debian Release: trixie/sid
    APT prefers unstable
    APT policy: (700, 'unstable'), (650, 'testing'), (600, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
    Foreign Architectures: i386

    Kernel: Linux 6.13-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
    Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
    Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
    LSM: AppArmor: enabled

    Versions of packages firefox depends on:
    ii debianutils 5.21
    ii fontconfig 2.15.0-2.2
    ii libasound2t64 1.2.13-1+b1
    ii libatk1.0-0t64 2.56.1-2
    ii libc6 2.41-6
    ii libcairo-gobject2 1.18.4-1+b1
    ii libcairo2 1.18.4-1+b1
    ii libdbus-1-3 1.16.2-2
    ii libevent-2.1-7t64 2.1.12-stable-10+b1
    ii libffi8 3.4.7-1
    ii libfontconfig1 2.15.0-2.2
    ii libfreetype6 2.13.3+dfsg-1
    ii libgcc-s1 14.2.0-19
    ii libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0 2.42.12+dfsg-2
    ii libglib2.0-0t64 2.84.1-1
    ii libgtk-3-0t64 3.24.49-3
    ii libnspr4 2:4.36-1
    ii libnss3 2:3.110-1
    ii libpango-1.0-0 1.56.3-1
    ii libstdc++6 14.2.0-19
    ii libvpx9 1.15.0-2
    ii libx11-6 2:1.8.12-1
    ii libx11-xcb1 2:1.8.12-1
    ii libxcb-shm0 1.17.0-2+b1
    ii libxcb1 1.17.0-2+b1
    ii libxcomposite1 1:0.4.6-1
    ii libxdamage1 1:1.1.6-1+b2
    ii libxext6 2:1.3.4-1+b3
    ii libxfixes3 1:6.0.0-2+b4
    ii libxrandr2 2:1.5.4-1+b3
    ii procps 2:4.0.4-7
    ii zlib1g 1:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-1+b1

    Versions of packages firefox recommends:
    ii libavcodec61 7:7.1.1-1+b1

    Versions of packages firefox suggests:
    ii fonts-lmodern 2.005-1
    pn fonts-stix | otf-stix <none>
    ii libcanberra0 0.30-17+b1
    ii libgssapi-krb5-2 1.21.3-5
    pn pulseaudio <none>

    -- no debconf information

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From tv.debian@21:1/5 to unit735@bigpond.com on Wed Apr 9 12:50:01 2025
    On Tue, 08 Apr 2025 10:37:39 +1000 Geoff <unit735@bigpond.com> wrote:
    Package: firefox
    Version: 137.0-1
    Followup-For: Bug #1101967
    X-Debbugs-Cc: unit735@bigpond.com

    Hi, I have the exact problem described. How do you disable "webrender material acceleration" actually?

    I've tried turning off "Use hardware acceleration when available" under advanced preferences and also set gfx.webrender.software to true and restarted the browser but still have the issue.

    Thanks.

    -- System Information:
    Debian Release: trixie/sid
    APT prefers unstable
    APT policy: (700, 'unstable'), (650, 'testing'), (600, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
    Foreign Architectures: i386

    Kernel: Linux 6.13-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
    Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB
    Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
    Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
    LSM: AppArmor: enabled

    Versions of packages firefox depends on:
    ii debianutils 5.21
    ii fontconfig 2.15.0-2.2
    ii libasound2t64 1.2.13-1+b1
    ii libatk1.0-0t64 2.56.1-2
    ii libc6 2.41-6
    ii libcairo-gobject2 1.18.4-1+b1
    ii libcairo2 1.18.4-1+b1
    ii libdbus-1-3 1.16.2-2
    ii libevent-2.1-7t64 2.1.12-stable-10+b1
    ii libffi8 3.4.7-1
    ii libfontconfig1 2.15.0-2.2
    ii libfreetype6 2.13.3+dfsg-1
    ii libgcc-s1 14.2.0-19
    ii libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0 2.42.12+dfsg-2
    ii libglib2.0-0t64 2.84.1-1
    ii libgtk-3-0t64 3.24.49-3
    ii libnspr4 2:4.36-1
    ii libnss3 2:3.110-1
    ii libpango-1.0-0 1.56.3-1
    ii libstdc++6 14.2.0-19
    ii libvpx9 1.15.0-2
    ii libx11-6 2:1.8.12-1
    ii libx11-xcb1 2:1.8.12-1
    ii libxcb-shm0 1.17.0-2+b1
    ii libxcb1 1.17.0-2+b1
    ii libxcomposite1 1:0.4.6-1
    ii libxdamage1 1:1.1.6-1+b2
    ii libxext6 2:1.3.4-1+b3
    ii libxfixes3 1:6.0.0-2+b4
    ii libxrandr2 2:1.5.4-1+b3
    ii procps 2:4.0.4-7
    ii zlib1g 1:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-1+b1

    Versions of packages firefox recommends:
    ii libavcodec61 7:7.1.1-1+b1


    Hello, there are several settings involved, the "use recommended
    performance settings" and "use hardware acceleration when available"
    from the general settings page are a start. On Linux most of hardware acceleration is blacklisted anyway, so those settings won't do much.

    If you want more fine-grained options you need to open the
    "about:config" advanced settings page, then filter for "webrender".

    "gfx.webrender.all" and "gfx.webrender.compositor" will turn hardware acceleration IF your hardware and software (mesa) are not blacklisted.
    If you want to enable hardware acceleration anyway, to test it at your
    own risk, then flip "gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled" to true,
    and "gfx.webrender.software" to false.

    Conversely if you want to force software rendering turn everything to
    false, and "gfx.webrender.software" to true.

    You need to restart Firefox after making any change.

    I am only talking about webrender here, not to be confused with webgl acceleration which can be enabled only on Firefox development version
    AFAIK, and is very unstable.

    Hope it helps.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Geoff@21:1/5 to All on Thu Apr 10 01:30:01 2025
    Package: firefox
    Version: 137.0.1-1
    Followup-For: Bug #1101967
    X-Debbugs-Cc: unit735@bigpond.com

    I can confirm that gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled was the offending option and was set to true. This as well as the other mentioned options are now default.

    I don't remember changing it but it must have worked ok in previous versions.

    Thanks!

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  • From tv.debian@21:1/5 to unit735@bigpond.com on Thu Apr 10 16:20:01 2025
    On Thu, 10 Apr 2025 09:18:24 +1000 Geoff <unit735@bigpond.com> wrote:
    Package: firefox
    Version: 137.0.1-1
    Followup-For: Bug #1101967
    X-Debbugs-Cc: unit735@bigpond.com

    I can confirm that gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled was the offending option and was set to true. This as well as the other mentioned options are now default.

    I don't remember changing it but it must have worked ok in previous versions.

    Thanks!



    I tested an upstream version of Firefox 137 and there the default is to
    disable hardware acceleration for webrender on Linux with my hardware.
    Despite the general "use default performance settings" being ticked, or
    even when ticking manually "use hardware acceleration when available"
    the result doesn't change, no hw acceleration is enforced, and the
    described bugs don't manifest.
    When manually enabling through the "about:config" page the result is the
    same, the bugs appear. So the regression is either in upstream Firefox,
    or in some other library shipped in Debian Unstable (Mesa comes to mind).
    I humbly admit that I am not familiar with Firefox development and can't
    make a guess as to what broke. Firefox change-log doesn't strike me as obviously suspicious in that area.

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