Xfce Forum

Omnimaxus

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 36

Question about XFCE 4.22 and a potential bugfix ...

Hi to everyone.  I am on MX Linux KDE now after having used MX Linux XFCE for close to a year.  The reason why I switched desktop environments is because I was getting a little tired of the inconsistent compositing across XFCE.  For example, Okular would pop up with the window frame but not the actual body of the program - at least not right away.  There'd be an two or three second delay before the rest of the window was filled in.  Same for Thunar sometimes (although with Thunar, the delay wasn't horrible - but it was like for a split-second).  Firefox, too (split-second delay).  Chrome, too (sometimes one or two seconds).  You get the idea.  And my system isn't exactly a slouch, too (i7-9700 CPU with 32 GB of RAM and a RX 7600).  Is XFCE 4.22 planning on fixing this type of thing?  Please advise; thanks.  Hopefully one of the developers will see this, and reply with a definitive answer (or even a helpful solution to the problem itself).  Thanks again.

Added later 03 min 32 s:
Update:

After posting here, I asked Gemini AI my question (same as what I posted above), and it had the following to say:

Yes, Xfce 4.22 addresses this rendering lag by transitioning to xfwl4, a brand-new Wayland compositor built to replace the aging xfwm4 X11 window manager. The delay you experienced—where Okular or Chrome loaded a window frame before populating the body—was caused by asynchronous buffer synchronization stalls in xfwm4 when coordinating frame handoffs across different toolkit engines (Qt vs. GTK/Chromium) on modern GPUs. In Xfce 4.22, xfwl4 enforces atomic frame submission via Wayland, forcing application contents and window decorations to draw simultaneously in a single, synchronized pipeline, which eliminates the blank window "flash" and border delay entirely.

Is Gemini AI correct?  What if I want to stay with X11?  Will the problem persist in X11?  Wouldn't seem "right" if it did ...

Omnimaxus

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 36

Re: Question about XFCE 4.22 and a potential bugfix ...

Follow-up: I'm a bit surprised no one has replied here.  Would really appreciate hearing something from one of the developers, at least.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,735

Re: Question about XFCE 4.22 and a potential bugfix ...

Xfce developers don't regularly visit this forum. Your best bet to address the issue is to file a bug report against xfwm4.

---

Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

Omnimaxus

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 36

Re: Question about XFCE 4.22 and a potential bugfix ...

Xfce developers don't regularly visit this forum. Your best bet to address the issue is to file a bug report against xfwm4.

That is a real shame about the developers not visiting this forum much (or at all).  Kinda unfortunate.

I wish they did, though, because then they'd get to see real-world feedback instead of only bug reports.

Don't get me wrong.  Bug reports are fine and all, but they can't replace actual user feedback and posts.

In any case, thanks for replying.

Omnimaxus

Member

Registered: 2024-12-02

Posts: 36

Re: Question about XFCE 4.22 and a potential bugfix ...

Quick update:

I have reported the problem here.  Link: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/-/work_items/925.

Unfortunately, the developers will likely shrug their shoulders at it, but whatever.  Least I said something.

burgess_m

Member

Registered: 2025-03-10

Posts: 7

Re: Question about XFCE 4.22 and a potential bugfix ...

the developers will likely shrug their shoulders at it

With the very limited information you have posted in the bug report, pretty much any developer would shrug their shoulders.

In your original post above you included some brief information about your hardware - which you have not included at all in your bug report.

I would suggest running

inxi -Fxxxrza

in the terminal, and then copy/paste the output of that command as an update to the bug report.