Blank page when using Nvidia

[flandriai]

Describe the bug

After upgrading Foliate on Linux Mint 21.2 via the update manager (which successfully installed the latest version from the Flatpak repository) one is unable to read ebooks anymore. The software seemingly works fine, however after trying to open a file, you can see the spinning circle for a long time (indicating that Foliate is loading the book) and after it disappears one can only see a completely "white box" where normally the contents of the book should be. On the top of the window you can read the book's title, the navigation panel is there too on the side (with the table of contents), but you cannot read the book. It does not help changing the theme from light to dark (or vice versa). When selecting dark mode everything changes according to the theme but the book cannot be seen. Activating developer tools does not help to find out what causes the problem, because you cannot see that either.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Update Foliate to the latest version.
2. Open the program.
3. Try to open a file.
4. See error.

Expected behavior

I expect (after a short loading period) to see and be able to read the book.

Version:

• Foliate version: 3.0
• OS/Distribution and version: [e.g. Ubuntu 18.04] Linux Mint 21.2 (Victoria)
• Desktop environment: [e.g. GNOME 3.36]: XFCE
• Installation method: [e.g. Flatpak]: Flatpak

Additional context
I also tried to completely delete and reinstall the software without any success.

[johnfactotum]

Nvidia?

[flandriai]

Yes, my GPU is an Nvidia card.

[johnfactotum]

Probably the same as #1085 and #1093. Try setting WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1.

[flandriai]

Probably the same as #1085 and #1093. Try setting WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1.

Thank you for the quick answer. I've also searched for the "Use the publisher's font" option but I did not find it in the new version. As I regularly used it first I guessed it has something to do with the problem.

[meysampg]

meysam@freedom-zenbook:~ 
$ WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 foliate

(com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate:321188): com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate-WARNING **: 18:38:23.078: Error: Requiring Tracker, version none: Typelib file for namespace 'Tracker' (any version) not found
getURIFromTracker@resource:///com/github/johnfactotum/Foliate/library.js:16:24
get@resource:///com/github/johnfactotum/Foliate/library.js:56:42
getBookFromIdentifier@resource:///com/github/johnfactotum/Foliate/library.js:105:36
getBook@resource:///com/github/johnfactotum/Foliate/library.js:101:21
activate@resource:///com/github/johnfactotum/Foliate/library.js:394:63
activate@resource:///com/github/johnfactotum/Foliate/library.js:322:18
_init/GLib.MainLoop.prototype.runAsync/</<@resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/overrides/GLib.js:266:34
  

** (com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate:321188): WARNING **: 18:38:23.091: Could not open /sys/class/dmi/id/chassis_type: Failed to open file “/sys/class/dmi/id/chassis_type”: Permission denied

** (com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate:321188): WARNING **: 18:38:23.091: Could not open /sys/firmware/acpi/pm_profile: Failed to open file “/sys/firmware/acpi/pm_profile”: Permission denied

** (com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate:321188): ERROR **: 18:38:23.094: Unable to spawn a new child process: Failed to spawn child process “/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/webkitgtk-6.0/WebKitNetworkProcess” (No such file or directory)
[1]    321188 trace trap (core dumped)  WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 foliate

meysam@freedom-zenbook:~ 
$ screenfetch                                   
                          ./+o+-       meysam@freedom-zenbook
                  yyyyy- -yyyyyy+      OS: Ubuntu 23.10 mantic
               ://+//////-yyyyyyo      Kernel: x86_64 Linux 6.5.0-10-generic
           .++ .:/++++++/-.+sss/`      Uptime: 10d 21h 54m
         .:++o:  /++++++++/:--:/-      Packages: 1958
        o:+o+:++.`..```.-/oo+++++/     Shell: zsh 5.9
       .:+o:+o/.          `+sssoo+/    Resolution: 2880x1800
  .++/+:+oo+o:`             /sssooo.   DE: GNOME 45.0
 /+++//+:`oo+o               /::--:.   WM: Mutter
 \+/+o+++`o++o               ++////.   WM Theme: Adwaita
  .++.o+++oo+:`             /dddhhh.   GTK Theme: Yaru-prussiangreen-dark [GTK2/3]
       .+.o+oo:.          `oddhhhh+    Icon Theme: Yaru-prussiangreen
        \+.++o+o``-````.:ohdhhhhh+     Font: Ubuntu 11
         `:o+++ `ohhhhhhhhyo++os:      Disk: 35G / 938G (4%)
           .o:`.syhhhhhhh/.oo++o`      CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H @ 20x 4.6GHz [45.0°C]
               /osyyyyyyo++ooo+++/     GPU: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-P Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
                   ````` +oo+++o\:     RAM: 8333MiB / 15673MiB
                          `oo++.     

[johnfactotum]

@flandriai There's currently no "Use publisher font" option. Publisher fonts are always used, with no way to disable them (except for overriding them with userstyle).

@meysampg That looks like #1102.

[iandoug]

WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 foliate

thanks

[catnapster]

Probably the same as #1085 and #1093. Try setting WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1.

Hi - I'm sorry, I don't understand. What am I setting here? Where is this found?

[iandoug]

[catnapster]

Hi iandoug. I appreciate the assistance, but... what is that a picture of? I've just installed it via flatpak. This looks like a very handy menu, but I've never seen it before. Where is this found?

[iandoug]

That's part of KDE's MenuEdit. I don't know how to set environment variables in flatpack things ... I installed Foliate via my system package manager.

Strictly speaking I don't know why it is necessary to set environment variables like this ... should the app not handle it?

It used to work fine without it until recently.

The original suggestion above was for use on the command line, like

WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 foliate some-file-name.epub

[taniki]

Flatseal is a convenient GTK app to add some environment variables into flatpack apps. This comment documents a walkthrough #1115 (comment)

[zmazanv]

Arch Wiki: Window does not appear in Flatpak on Nvidia

This is a known issue with Nvidia in Flatpak environments.

The linked Arch Wiki page includes a band-aid fix which does solve the issue, although inconvenient and not really a long-term solution. This could be made easier with a script if it this isn't resolved any time soon and it becomes too much of a headache to have to update the variable at each driver update.

The advantage over the other proposed "solution" of setting WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 is that you don't lose hardware acceleration. WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 makes the app noticeably sluggish due to this. The app runs perfectly fine with the linked "solution".

The environment variable to set for Nvidia driver version 545.29.06 would be:
GBM_BACKENDS_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/GL/nvidia-545-29-06/extra/gbm

The driver version number would need to be updated to match the running Nvidia driver version.

You could then set this with an override with flatpak override --env=GBM_BACKENDS_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/GL/nvidia-XXX-YY-ZZ/extra/gbm com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate or through setting the environment variable in Flatseal, which does the same thing.

[iandoug]

I am not using flatpak, but standard Gentoo package install. It used to work fine in the past. I need to update my Nvidia driver but need to update kernel first, don't know if this is all related.

[zmazanv]

It likely is unrelated. I just left this here in case someone running the Flatpak version comes across this thread to point them to what the actual issue is. It's related to the containerized environment that the Flatpak apps run in which don't play nicely with Nvidia drivers for certain applications at the moment.

Normal unisolated binaries should work just fine as they don't have these limitations.

Your issue likely lies elsewhere. Best of luck 🫡

[Alexey104]

Same issue. I am not using neither snap nor flatpak, I use version 3.1.0 from arch repos:

KMS: DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB failed: Permission denied
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1550x1166: Permission denied
KMS: DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB failed: Permission denied
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1550x1166: Permission denied
KMS: DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB failed: Permission denied
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1550x1166: Permission denied
Failed to create EGL images for DMABufs with file descriptors -1, -1 and -1

I have nvidia_drm.modeset=1 kernel parameter set, but it doesn't make a difference. Setting WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 environment variable solves the problem but leads to awful scrolling performance.

[soumyaDghosh]

@johnfactotum I can add a script that will set the env variable when using with Nvidia. Do you want that?

[johnfactotum]

No, I think it'd be better to follow the upstream.

[MahouShoujoMivutilde]

Just a quick note in case somebody on Arch runs into this:

I have nvidia_drm.modeset=1, and foliate from the repos. It used to work fine (including 3.x version), but I didn't use it for some time, and now it shows a blank page, with Failed to create GBM buffer of size 0x0: Invalid argument in terminal.

WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE and WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER are both indeed help but lead to awful performance.

I can't set GBM_BACKENDS_PATH because I don't have a gbm there (probably because I use nvidia-dkms). Setting it to /usr/lib/gbm/nvidia-drm_gbm.so (found it by looking for similar sounding things in /usr/lib) didn't help.

However, I've installed flatpak version and it just worked. No performance problems.