[SWAY] Zed window flashes rapidly on Sway/wlroots

[gabvigano]

Summary

When launching Zed under Sway the window flashes rapidly. It works fine on Plasma Wayland.

Description

I recently updated Sway, Vulkan and Zed. It was working fine until I suspended my system with 'systemctl suspend'. When I resumed, Zed's window started flashing. The issue persisted after reboot. I tried to downgrade Zed to 0.189.5 but it didn't solve the problem. I then downgraded Sway to 1.10.1 and now it works again.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Boot Arch.
2. Update Sway/wlroots to latest version.
3. Suspend ('systemctl suspend') and resume.
4. Launch Zed.
5. Observe flashing UI.

Expected Behavior: Zed should open normally and be readable with a steady display. Actual Behavior: Zed's window flashes very quickly and it is unusable.

Zed Version and System Specs

Zed: v0.190.6 (Zed) OS: Linux Wayland arch unknown Memory: 15.5 GiB Architecture: x86_64 GPU: Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (KBL GT2) || Intel open-source Mesa driver || Mesa 25.1.3-arch1.3

Update: I just noticed #14101 which seems related. I hadn't seen it before opening this one. Someone with similar specs commented recently as well.

[prirai]

Same issue here with sway in wayland. Forcing Xwayland solves it.

Command for the same is: env -u WAYLAND_DISPLAY zeditor

[dbrgn]

I can confirm this, with Sway 1.11, both with Zed 0.190.4 and 0.190.6.

Zed: v0.190.6 (Zed) 
OS: Linux Wayland, Arch Linux
Memory: 30.9 GiB
Architecture: x86_64
GPU: Intel(R) Arc(tm) Graphics (MTL) || Intel open-source Mesa driver || Mesa 25.1.3-arch1.3

[dancek]

Same here. Installed Arch packages extra/sway 1:1.11-1 + extra/wlroots0.18 0.18.2-1 and rebooted, then Zed started flickering. I also have an Intel GPU, but a different one.

Suspend doesn't seem to be related to the issue. I haven't suspended the system recently.

Zed: v0.190.6 (Zed) 
OS: Linux Wayland arch unknown
Memory: 31 GiB
Architecture: x86_64
GPU: Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics (RPL-U) || Intel open-source Mesa driver || Mesa 25.1.3-arch1.3

[akrram09]

Same issue

[tufo09]

I have the same issue, problem started after one of the later updates i did, seems to not happen if i force xwayland. Specs for me are:

Zed: 0.190.6-1
OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Kernel: Linux 6.15.2-arch1-1
GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Mesa: 1:25.1.3-3
Memory: 7.55 GiB

[ossdesign]

I'm new at doing this issues thing on GitHub (so bare with me), but I started searching into because also have the same issue, seems like started with Sway 1.11 as for as well. Possibly an explicit sync related issue, I know that Sway 1.11 did something with this. More info on this Sway issue:

https://github.com/swaywm/sway/issues/8755

[npeeples]

i see it too, specs.

Zed: v0.199.6 (Zed) OS: Linux Wayland arch unknown Memory: 15.6 GiB Architecture: x86_64 GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB || NVIDIA || 575.64.05

[l-mb]

I'm seeing the same (on Intel Arrow Lake-P, or the Arc 140T as it is also known).

xwayland force did not fix the issue.

As noted on the sway issue, export WLR_RENDER_NO_EXPLICIT_SYNC=1 before starting sway (in my case, via my .profile, which is loaded by greetd/tuigreet before starting sway) works.

Maybe this really is a sway issue more than a Zed one?

[SomeoneToIgnore]

Maybe this really is a sway issue more than a Zed one?

Looks very much so, given https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/32792#issuecomment-2993890415. I'm not sure why this issue is open still.

[npeeples]

I flubbed the reading test, apologies.

https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/32792#issuecomment-2993890415

export WLR_RENDER_NO_EXPLICIT_SYNC=1 does indeed fix it for me as well. Sorry for the noise.

[sins621]

I flubbed the reading test, apologies.

#32792 (comment)

export WLR_RENDER_NO_EXPLICIT_SYNC=1 does indeed fix it for me as well. Sorry for the noise.

Stupid question but where do you place this export?

[severindupouy]

I put it in the /etc/environment (no need to export, just add WLR_RENDER_NO_EXPLICIT_SYNC=1 in the file).

[TIAcode]

Same problem, WLR_RENDER_NO_EXPLICIT_SYNC=1 didn't help. Intel Core Ultra 265k iGPU. env -u WAYLAND_DISPLAY zeditor did work.

[bool3max]

Same issue:

Zed: 0.207.4
OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Kernel: Linux 6.17.1-arch1-1
GPU: AMD RX 6600
Mesa: 1:25.2.4-1
Sway: 1.11-1
Wlroots: 0.19-1

... but not caused by the suspend-resume cycle.

I'd been using Zed with an RX 580 without any issue up until recently, when I switched the graphics card to an RX 6600 the issue started manifesting. I run two displays, a 60Hz and a 160Hz one, and the green flickering is much more frantic on the high refresh-rate one, but present on both.

[Drive4Code]

Same issue here on fedora 43 sway spin, zed 0.213.3, on Lenovo X1. Installed zed both by the bash script and flatpak and both have the glitches. As suggested by @TIAcode env -u WAYLAND_DISPLAY zed does work as a temporary workaround.