Random checkerboard around outside of windows

Desktop Environments Plasma
1

Recently have been having an issue where, somewhat randomly, I’ll get a weird checkerboard pattern flashing around the outside of a window. This usually only happens when I mouse over them. I don’t know if it’s some kind of effect that is freaking out. Of all the windows that I’ve had this issue with, it doesn’t seem to happen with stuff like System Settings. It only appears to happen with stuff like Steam and any game I’m running. I doubt it has anything to do with my GPU since, again, it only happens around the outside of windows and not all of them.

inxi -Fxxc0z
System:
  Kernel: 6.17.8-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.5.3 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
    Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C02) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.J1
    date: 05/06/2023
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3+
    rev: 2 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 3 MiB L3: 32 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 4445 min/max: 566/4471 boost: enabled cores: 1: 4445
    2: 4445 3: 4445 4: 4445 5: 4445 6: 4445 7: 4445 8: 4445 9: 4445 10: 4445
    11: 4445 12: 4445 bogomips: 84002
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
    ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 22 [Radeon RX 6700/6700
    XT/6750 XT / 6800M/6850M XT] vendor: ASRock driver: amdgpu v: kernel
    arch: RDNA-2 pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-1,DP-3
    empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-1,Writeback-1 bus-ID: 28:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73df
  Device-2: webcamvendor NexiGo N60 FHD Webcam Audio
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 3443:60bb
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.20 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: modesetting,radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi
    gpu: amdgpu d-rect: 5120x1440 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: DP-1 pos: primary,left model: E2721F res: 2560x1440 hz: 100
    dpi: 108 diag: 685mm (27")
  Monitor-2: DP-3 pos: right model: Acer CB272U res: 2560x1440 hz: 75
    dpi: 109 diag: 685mm (27")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi wayland: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.2.7-arch1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (radeonsi
    navi22 LLVM 21.1.5 DRM 3.64 6.17.8-arch1-1) device-ID: 1002:73df
    display-ID: :1.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.328 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: discrete-gpu
    driver: mesa radv device-ID: 1002:73df
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 28:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 2a:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487
  Device-3: webcamvendor NexiGo N60 FHD Webcam Audio
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 3443:60bb
  API: ALSA v: k6.17.8-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.9 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 22:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp34s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: TP-Link UB500 Adapter driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-4:2 chip-ID: 2357:0604
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.1
    lmp-v: 10
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 8.21 TiB used: 4.79 TiB (58.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Sabrent model: N/A size: 953.87 GiB
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 28.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2CV104 size: 3.64 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2CV104 size: 3.64 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 936.83 GiB used: 314.59 GiB (33.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 52.1 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 57.0 C
    mem: 58.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.26 GiB used: 15.92 GiB (50.9%)
  Processes: 436 Power: uptime: 14h 31m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 258
    default: graphical
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1288 Compilers: clang: 21.1.6 gcc: 15.2.1
    Shell: Bash v: 5.3.3 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.39
2

hey! Good to have you with us!

That looks like a possibile compositing error, can you try a couple of things ; turn compositing on and off.

kcmshell6 kwincompositing

Alternatively, clear down ~/.cache/plasma*

3

Trying to turn compositing on and off just gives me “Could not find plugin kwincompositing” which might be the issue?

And what do you mean by “clear down”? Delete the folder (and run an update)?

4

That potentially points to a driver issue.

For the cache, delete everything in ~/.cache/plasma and restart, - I literally have the same GPU and resolution scale as you and I’m not having these issues.

Can you check you have the following packages installed ;
local/lib32-vulkan-radeon 1:25.2.2-2
Open-source Vulkan driver for AMD GPUs - 32-bit
local/vulkan-radeon 1:25.2.2-2
Open-source Vulkan driver for AMD GPUs

5

Currently, the versions installed for the drivers I have are:
lib32-vulkan-radeon 1:25.2.7-1
and
vulkan-radeon 1:25.2.7-1

I also do not have a folder that’s just called plasma in my .config folder. I have plasma-sysstemmonitor and plasmashell. But nothing called just plasma.

6

No, there is no manual compositor control in plasma 6 anymore. This plugin doesn’t exist in plasma 6, it was removed and is handled automatically.

7

I’m going to try running both my monitors at the same refresh rate and see if that glitch happens again.

It also only seems to happen when a window first starts/opens?

Update: Swapped the cables between my monitors to see if it might be a hardware issue. Will post any possible followup.

8

Can confirm it’s not an issue with my cables.

Update: Having installed Xfce, I have gotten the checkerboard to flash on a Youtube video. At this point, I can only assume it’s an issue with my graphics card. I am going to swap it out with another and see if the issue persists.

It’s most likely the video card