I recently had a big update to my system. Ever since, I've been having issues with my graphics, especially when the machine is under a heavier workload. I have a fast processor and lots of RAM and had no performance issues before the update. I can still work on huge music files, so the issue seems confined to graphics... although once when it got really bad my whole system froze up and I had to force shutdown with the power button.
The Problem
The issue is icons, menu items, tops of windows, and a few other things scrambling, usually when I move the cursor over them or the object itself is moving, as well as text while typing (in both Libre Office and the terminal). It's especially bad when Jack audio server is running and when opening/closing programs. When I let the system sit idle for a bit, the problem mostly goes away until I fire it up again.
Booting from earlier kernels, I get the same problem. Windows works fine, so I don't think it's a hardware issue. Video works fine, whether streaming or playing from a hard drive (i.e. via SMPlayer).
I'm too new to the site to upload photos to my post, but here are some links to pics of examples. Speaking of which, one odd thing is that the problem goes away the instant I press the screenshot button. I had to take these with my phone.
My Setup
Operating System: Kubuntu 20.04 (with current Ubuntu Studio 20.04 LTS installed overtop of it)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.8
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68.0
Qt Version: 5.12.8
Kernel Version: 5.4.0-99-lowlatency (the low-latency kernel was added by Ubuntu Studio when I installed it over the original Kubuntu with generic kernel. I have access to both and they get updated at the same time.)
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i5-1035G1 CPU @ 1.00GHz
Memory: 19.3 GiB of RAM
QjackCtl version 0.5.0
Graphics info:
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 8a56 (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 1429
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 129
Region 0: Memory at 6000000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Region 2: Memory at 4000000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [virtual] [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915
Fernando posted a workaround below that worked for him (which I might try), but I was hoping to get to the root of the problem. Could one of these updates have messed with my graphics? If so, can it be fixed, and how? (I would need specific instructions - I'm a lot better at driving Linux than understanding what goes on under the hood.)
Thanks in advance.
