Visual artifacts in popup menus (GTK & Qt) [Git Bisect Included]

[joelmathewthomas]

I've been experiencing visual artifacts when moving the cursor through popup menus (like those that appear on right-click) across both GTK and Qt applications. Initially, the issue was minor and tolerable, so I ignored it, expecting it might get resolved in future updates since I track the Git branch.

However, the problem has worsened significantly as of recent commits.

Steps to reproduce:

• Set popups = true in hyprland config with blur section.

• Launch any GTK or Qt app (e.g., Thunar, Dolphin).

• Right-click to open a context menu (popup).

• Move the cursor across the menu items.

Expected behavior:

• No visual artifacts should occur while hovering through menu items.

Actual behavior:

• Visible graphical glitches/artifacts appear on the popup as the cursor moves through it.

Bisect analysis:

I ran a git bisect to identify the bad commit and noticed that the artifacts were getting worse after each while since the first bad commit.

Here are the key commits I tested:

• Good commit (no visible artifacts): bba2d9a:

• Moderate (issue present but less severe): aa1bd64

• Worsened (noticeably worse than earlier commits): 382f0f2

• First bad commit (according to bisect): 465cf66

465cf66df14c28427ba30580253be6e3908bd28c is the first bad commit
commit 465cf66df14c28427ba30580253be6e3908bd28c (HEAD)
Author: outfoxxed <outfoxxed@outfoxxed.me>
Date:   Thu Jan 23 13:57:33 2025 -0800

    protocols: add hyprland_surface_v1.set_visible_region implementation (#9120)

 src/desktop/WLSurface.hpp              |  3 ++-
 src/managers/ProtocolManager.cpp       |  2 +-
 src/protocols/HyprlandSurface.cpp      | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++++-
 src/protocols/HyprlandSurface.hpp      |  5 ++++-
 src/render/OpenGL.cpp                  | 17 ++++++++++++++---
 src/render/OpenGL.hpp                  |  1 +
 src/render/pass/SurfacePassElement.cpp | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/render/pass/SurfacePassElement.hpp |  1 +
 subprojects/hyprland-protocols         |  2 +-
 9 files changed, 96 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

I’ve recorded short videos showing the behavior for each commit stage mentioned:

I would recommend downloading the videos before viewing, since low video bitrate or compression might make it hard to spot the artifacts.

• Bad (382f0f2) – Heavy artifacts

• Moderate (aa1bd64) – Slight artifacts

• Good (bba2d9a) – No issues

• First Bad Commit (465cf66) : Warning: Please lower volume. Microphone Static

These are google drive links.

System Info:

Hyprland 0.46.0 built from branch  at commit 465cf66df14c28427ba30580253be6e3908bd28c dirty (protocols: add hyprland_surface_v1.set_visible_region implementation (9120)).
Date: Fri Jan 24 03:27:33 2025
Tag: v0.46.0-151-g465cf66d, commits: 5706
built against:
 aquamarine 0.8.0
 hyprlang 0.6.0
 hyprutils 0.6.0
 hyprcursor 0.1.12
 hyprgraphics 0.1.3


no flags were set


System Information:
System name: Linux
Node name: void
Release: 6.14.1-arch1-1
Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon, 07 Apr 2025 19:59:13 +0000


GPU information: 
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation AD107M [GeForce RTX 4050 Max-Q / Mobile] [10de:28e1] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
35:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt [Radeon 680M] [1002:1681] (rev 0a) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX Open Kernel Module for x86_64  570.133.07  Release Build  (archlinux-builder@)  


os-release: NAME="Arch Linux"
PRETTY_NAME="Arch Linux"
ID=arch
BUILD_ID=rolling
ANSI_COLOR="38;2;23;147;209"
HOME_URL="https://archlinux.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://bbs.archlinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://gitlab.archlinux.org/groups/archlinux/-/issues"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://terms.archlinux.org/docs/privacy-policy/"
LOGO=archlinux-logo


plugins:

[joelmathewthomas]

Can someone please confirm, if they have this issue?

[RichAyotte]

Confirmed. https://youtu.be/sWAaBi3mOLU

Hyprland 0.48.0 built from branch main at commit adbae0f74d951e06c575bad3c81a944027dfe413  (protocols: refactor class member vars (a-m) (10265)).
Date: Sat May 3 18:13:29 2025
Tag: v0.48.0-150-gadbae0f7, commits: 6072
built against:
 aquamarine 0.8.0
 hyprlang 0.6.1
 hyprutils 0.7.0
 hyprcursor 0.1.12
 hyprgraphics 0.1.3

no flags were set

[vaxerski]

I think that looks like a different issue

[RichAyotte]

You're right, after watch the videos, this looks like a different issue.

[RichAyotte]

#10297 looks like the issue that I'm experiencing.

[joelmathewthomas]

#10297 looks like the issue that I'm experiencing.

Could you please check to see if you have the issue I'm experiencing?

It most visible in qt and gtk apps.

[vaxerski]

does reverting that one commit on main fix it?

[joelmathewthomas]

can't repro in dolphin

How about in thunar ?

[joelmathewthomas]

I kindly request you to take a closer look. The artifacts can be subtle and is especially difficult to notice with certain wallpapers—particularly darker ones.

I'm using the default configuration:

blur {
    enabled = true
    size = 5
    passes = 2
    popups = true
    ignore_opacity = true
}

Please refer to the screenshots below.

Pay close attention to the boxed outlines around each menu item in the popup—especially within subpopups when hovering the cursor over them. The issue becomes more visible depending on the wallpaper used.

Video Preview: Please download video to avoid compression.

[LiveLM]

can't repro in dolphin

Dolphin doesn't come with dialog menu transparency enabled by default, try this:

• Create a file at ~/.config/breezerc
• Paste this inside:

[Style]
MenuOpacity=25

• Close all Dolphin Windows
• Open Dolphin, right click, mouse over the options a couple of times

Here's what that looks like on my end:

blur.mp4

[joelmathewthomas]

This is the issue I'm talking about. I use kvantum themes to get transparency.

[joelmathewthomas]

@vaxerski

I've run another git bisect and this time I pinpointed the issue to commit e536b02248f370971716b744968776f6880528be.

However, as I mentioned earlier, the problem either worsens or becomes barely noticeable with minor artifacts as I go further down the commit tree, with no clear pattern of whether it gets better or worse.

I’ve tried to bisect it to a commit where no issue was visible, but when I attempted to revert it, I ran into conflicts.

If you could provide a revert patch, I’d be happy to test it out.

[ibrokemypie]

I wonder if this is the same thing I reported against specifically firefox? #10197

[Yilmaz4]

I believe I have a similar issue, however it only happens when the window is not floating and blur:new_optimizations is enabled (don't mind the incorrect mouse position in the recording)

bug.mp4

[joelmathewthomas]

I believe I have a similar issue, however it only happens when the window is not floating and blur:new_optimizations is enabled (don't mind the incorrect mouse position in the recording)
bug.mp4

Unfortunately, it happens for me regardless of whether the window is floating or not.

[vaxerski]

hm, I tried on my laptop and I still can't repro this. There has to be something else here that's causing this. Does this happen on the default config?

What I tried is in kv settings I decreased menus opacity and enabled popup blur

[joelmathewthomas]

Does this happen on the default config?

Yes, it happens on the default config.
Here's what i did.

• Used the default config by deleting ~/.config
• set popups = true and ignore_popups = true in blur section in the config.
• artifacts not properly visible in light themes, so used dark themes.
• Used kvantum theme kvdark, and environment var QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME = qt6ct.
• Artifacts visible in popups of QT based app : Okular.

[Azazel55605]

I can add myself to the list.

bug

Date: Thu May 8 20:15:18 2025
Tag: v0.49.0, commits: 6098
built against:
 aquamarine 0.8.0
 hyprlang 0.6.3
 hyprutils 0.7.1
 hyprcursor 0.1.12
 hyprgraphics 0.1.3


no flags were set

[vaxerski]

managed to repro #10535

[joelmathewthomas]

I was able to confirm that 2347050 fixed the issue.