Constant Screen Flickering

[vscodenpa]

Type: Bug

Our computer system was recently upgraded from Ubuntu to AlmaLinux 9.4 using KDE Plasma 5.27.11. I am currently using VSCode 1.91.1 together with the C/C++, Modern Fortran, and vscode-pdf extensions (but this bug occurs even using code --disable-extension).

The bug is simply that the screen flickers more or less constantly between frames. When scrolling, the screen will flick back up or down. When typing, the most recently entered/deleted characters will rapidly appear and disappear. This occurs even when using the "find and replace" feature; entering characters in the search field will still result in characters appearing and disappearing randomly.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Launch VSCode
2. Navigate to any text/.py/.f90/.sh file (the bug occurs with all of these; I haven't tested other file types, but I have no reason to think it wouldn't occur there as well)
3. Scroll up and down, click a few times, begin typing. The bug sometimes starts immediately, sometimes after a few seconds. It will invariably occur within 30 seconds of starting to work on a file.

Attempts to resolve

1. Disabling hardware acceleration: I have seen many other users who have found this to be a solution to their screen flickering problems. Unfortunately, it has not worked for me.
2. Disabling extensions: No effect

I was unable to include a video here due to the file size. Here's a link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MkucKbT0teEirPom3XE13s_dZv6UtDoP/view?usp=sharing

The bug begins approximately 13 seconds into the video. I apologize for the poor video quality and low framerate. The flickering actually happens much more rapidly than is shown in the video, I suspect because the built-in screen capture software I was using (Spectacle) records at a much lower framerate than my monitor refresh rate. Please let me know if you are unable to access the video, or if it is necessary to embed it in GitHub (in which case I will try to find a way to truncate it to reduce the file size).

Example code repository for reproduction: https://github-com/benaplus1/rams_postprocess/releases/tag/post-processing
Opening any file from the repository leads to the bug (this even occurs with the .gitignore and LICENSE files).

I apologize if this issue has been reported elsewhere. I have seen other screen flickering - being raised, but all of those appeared to be solved by disabling hardware acceleration, while my issue has not.

Thanks so much for your help! Please let me know if you need any more information!

VS Code version: Code 1.91.1 (f1e16e1e6214d7c44d078b1f0607b2388f29d729, 2024-07-09T22:08:12.169Z)
OS version: Linux x64 5.14.0-427.26.1.el9_4.x86_64
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Xeon(R) Silver 4114 CPU - 2.20GHz (20 x 800)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: unavailable_software canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: disabled_software multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: disabled_off rasterization: disabled_software raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: disabled_software video_encode: disabled_software vulkan: disabled_off webgl: unavailable_software webgl2: unavailable_software webgpu: disabled_off
Load (avg)	2, 1, 1
Memory (System)	46.05GB (30.59GB free)
Process Argv	--new-window --crash-reporter-id b603a65a-f42a-437e-a199-998d329772a5
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%
DESKTOP_SESSION	plasma
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP	KDE
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP	plasma
XDG_SESSION_TYPE	wayland

Extensions (3)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
linter-gfortran	for	3.4.2024061901
cpptools	ms-	1.21.4
pdf	tom	1.2.2

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