Graphical glitches & lightdm blackscreen when updating packages

General system Kernel, boot, graphics & hardware
1

I recently decided to update my system packages (yay -Syu) and after the reboot, lightdm decided to not work, when I checked the status, it gave me this error:

Failed to enable unit: File ‘/etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service’ already exists and is a symlink to /usr/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service

So I went and disabled that service and ran the lightdm.service . It worked fine, but when I started using i3, i kept getting these weird screen tearing/glitches when opening apps and terminals ( see image)

20251226_184051
20251226_1840511920×1080 261 KB

I couldn’t get a screenshot of it because it kept resetting, but the background is supposed to be the terminal with some ls outputs, and the small app is the eos-welcome..
It could be a driver issue, but I am updated to the lasted drivers for nvidia (580-112-xx i believe).
Does anyone have a fix or suggestion for this? Thanks in advance.

2

It seems like your system is configured to use sddm and not lightdm.

Do you have both installed? Are you using both?

3

I am currently using lightdm. I have disabled the ssdm service, and im currently not using it.
heres the output of systemctl:

sddm.service - Simple Desktop Display ManagerLoaded: 
loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sddm.service; disabled; 
preset: disabled)Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:sddm(1)man:sddm.conf(5)

I can log into my system using lightdm just fine, but when using the i3 manager, I get the glitches seen above..

Edit: jesus I cant seem to get the codeblocks to work ._.

4

To fix lightdm not starting, enable it with --force.

As for your graphical issues. There are bugs that impact X11 in one of the 580.xx nvidia drivers. Either upgrade to 590.xx or downgrade to a previous version.

Keep in mind that Maxwell & Pascal support were dropping in 590.xx so be sure you have a 16xx card or newer before upgrading to the latest drivers.

5

cant seem to find the 590.xx driver versions, at least for my card ( GeForce 3060 laptop).
Gonna try and downgrade to 570.xx and see if it helps

6

Update: changed driver version from 580.xx to 575.xx…

Still get the graphical errors.

I think, since i am on a laptop, I am using the AMD drivers on my built-in screen, and not the Nvidia ones…Dont know how to upgrade/downgrade those, but ill try with those and see if i make any progress

7

What do you mean? You don’t need to look for it? You just update your system.

When you update, it should ask you to replace nvidia with nvidia-open and you answer Y

8

Hi, sorry for the late response, I used nvidia-open, which just upgraded me to nvidia-open-580.xx, dont know how you can get the 590.xx one, perhaps my repos aren’t updated properly

9

This is an AUR package. It isn’t in the repos. This locks you to 580.xx forever.

Are you using some 3rd party repo that did that? You should switch to nvidia-open

10

when upgrading, it lists it as:
extra/nvidia-open 580.119.02….
So I think it’s a 3rd party repo.

I also just noticed that when installing them, i get this message:

:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/5) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
(2/5) Updating module dependencies...
(3/5) Updating linux initcpios...
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Starting build: '6.18.1-arch1-2'
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [systemd]
==> ERROR: file not found: '/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-validatefs'
  -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
  -> Running build hook: [microcode]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [kms]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
  -> Running build hook: [keymap]
  -> Running build hook: [sd-vconsole]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux.img'
==> WARNING: errors were encountered during the build. The image may not be complete.
error: command failed to execute correctly

this also happened with the previous drivers. After rebooting, nothing seemed to change, and it did show the correct driver number when running nvidia-smi.

11

That isn’t a 3rd party repo. You may be connected to an out of date mirror though. You are also running an older kernel.

Try resorting your Arch mirrors from the welcome app.

12

I updated my mirrors using the eos welcome. Here is my current configuration:

Screenshot_2025-12-26_23-05-06
Screenshot_2025-12-26_23-05-061005×782 77.1 KB

I also thought to disable picom, since it’s related to window transparancy/visibility in general.
After killing it and refreshing i3, I dont seem to get those graphical glitches…I dont know how or why picom decided to bork itself, but it did..gonna have to find a way to fix it.

13

After updating your mirrors and then running sudo pacman -Syu did you get updated to 590.xx?

15

nope, still at 580.119.02-2
But I found a temporary solution to the graphical glitches, you just need to kill picom and the tearing seems to stop. It also works with smaller windows and moving them around looks fine

16

Something is wrong then. Remove the top mirror from /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

You should be at 590.48.01-3

17

I removed it, ran yay -Syu, and it listed the latest nvidia driver (590.48.01-3), along with the other out-of-date packages.
The first entry of the mirrorlist was a Dutch one ( forgot the url, but it was one of the .nl ones),
After rebooting, the driver version is correct.
Thanks for the help : )

18

Temporary solution to the graphical glitches.

For me at least, the main cause was picom , so i just removed it from my i3 configuration and killed any processes related to it. After which, my screen worked fine, but for good measure, I then ran
sudo pacman -R picom
and rebooted.