Linux+Wayland OpenGL Issues

[sirjuddington]

Linux users have been experiencing various issues with OpenGL graphical displays on Wayland. I'm creating this issue to keep all related discussion in one place, and I'll update this issue description with extra info/fixes as necessary.

The Issue(s)

The issue(s) manifest in multiple ways depending on the system, drivers and SLADE build:

• Graphics areas show up as all black, one colour or are not drawn at all (causing a 'hall of mirrors' effect when resizing or dragging a window over it)
• An exception window pops up with an error similar to "Unable to create EGL surface"
• Attempting to view any graphics results in a crash

Cause(s)

• Some SLADE builds use older versions of wxWidgets, which do not properly support Wayland
• Some newer nvidia drivers appear to have issues with EGL on x11
  • The flatpak version of SLADE forces x11, so these nvidia drivers will not currently work with it

Possible Solutions

• If running a non-flatpak version of SLADE from the terminal, try forcing the x11 backend using an environment variable by running SLADE like: GDK_BACKEND=x11 slade
  • If you are already doing this to run SLADE and have issues, try again without it
• Ensure graphics drivers are up to date

SLADE v3.3.0 (alpha)

If issues persist, another option for those who are able, is to build v3.3.0 alpha from the 3.3.0 branch. This version uses modern OpenGL to render instead of the old fixed pipeline stuff, which may work. Failing that, it also has backup software rendering for all graphical displays except for the map editor, which can be forced on by setting the use_gl_canvas cvar to 0.

Related Issues

Previous discussion can be found in the following issues:

• TEXTUREx editor multiple issues both on Linux and Windows #1672
• Map editor mostly does not work on linux with wayland. #1799
• Crash when opening map editor: "Failed to setup the OpenGL context" #1816
• "Assertion failed: Unable to create EGL surface" when trying to view graphics in .wad files #1884

[jmfergeau]

The related problems actually don't occur on the AppImage version of SLADE. Everything works like a charm on that version. So the temporary workaround is to use the AppImage version only in the meantime.

[Eonfge]

@sirjuddington @jmfergeau As mentioned elsewhere; We could deprecate the Flatpak. It's less convenient then the new App Image and if it solves most technical issues, all the better.