• Support

  • System can only run Firefox OR a steam game, but not both

I have also noticed that there a number of other apps that are affected. It was especially odd because not all are media based. I ran eopkg info <package> and grabbed the dependencies and reverse deps to see if there was a through line between all apps. The image lists the number of times the package was dependent on the 7 apps tested.

Apps Tested:
eopkg info firefox
eopkg info gnome-calculator
eopkg info gnome-calendar
eopkg info celluloid
eopkg info obs-studio
eopkg info kdenlive
eopkg info vlc


*Reverse deps not listed - didn't seem to provide any insight

I don't know if this helps but it seemed worthy of sharing 🤷

    Matt_Nico I would prob install Gpu-viewer (flatpak) and take a look at (vulkan)
    and see if anything jumps out maybe in queues and swapchains setting.
    Just an Idea. It shows alot alot of stuff on video.

    (Just info)

        MorningCoffeeZombie I also would have thought that there would be a common dependency between all of those apps which you tested (other than glibc). I too think this must be something with the nvidia drivers but I do not know what.
        I know Gnome wayland sessions have been having issues from it being mentioned on the forums, and that Budgie and Gnome share components, so I would also wonder if it has something to do with DE packages.

          Axios I ran gpu-viewer and honestly have no clue what I am looking at, it gives a ton of information but I do not know what could be "bad" so I can't find any issues.

          It does show that I have two available devices; my main GPU and "llvmpipe" which from my understanding uses the CPU to render things. It also confirmed that this system is running in x11 (I already knew that but I think it rules out the wayland issues others have faced).

            I just discovered something new about this issue. It appears that the vulkan driver is just flat out missing. This makes it extremely confusing that games are able to be run and the same with vkcube. But nonetheless when you check the output of inxi -G there are seemingly no vulkan drivers present

            inxi -G
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070 Ti] driver: nvidia v: 560.35.03
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.2 driver: X:
    loaded: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: nouveau
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 2560x1440~165Hz 2: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 560.35.03
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.290 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib

            So this is clearly a much deeper issue

              I had tried this across two kernels 6.10.9-302 and 6.10.8-301, and the same issue of the Vulkan driver not being present and affecting the behaviour of games and video rendering apps continued. Both kernels show inxi -G listing no Vulkan drivers.

              So I did as @ReillyBrogan suggested in the update thread and installed the linux-lts kernel (6.6.50-254) to do more testing. However this created an entirely new set of issues with my system. After installing the lts kernel and running clr-boot-manager update I restarted my system. Selecting the lts kernel results in a black screen and the system never booting but also never throwing an error, it just sits on a blank black screen in perpetuity. But the more glaring issue is the effects this had on the current kernel. After attempting to start using the lts kernel and that not working I went to switch back to the most current kernel (6.10.9.302), but the system would no longer boot immediately throwing an initrd: device error. This error is very reminiscent of other issues involving clr-boot-manager and being unable to mount boot devices where I have run into seemingly "random" initrd errors which sometimes disappear overnight.

              So as of right now I am running things off of the 6.10.8-301 kernel which is the last remaining working kernel on my system. Really not sure where to go from here or how to address such glaring issues.

                Matt_Nico additionally running sudo eopkg check | grep Broken | awk '{print $4}' | xargs sudo eopkg it --reinstall to check for broken packages results in both linux-lts and linux-current being replaced. This happens no matter how many times I attempt to run the command so it appears to be replacing the broken packages with broken packages.

                  Matt_Nico Make sure vulkan-tools is installed
                  Then run (vkcubepp) it will show what gpu it is using and the cube vkcube should run to.
                  If that works I would say its installed if not then you have issues.

                  Mine runs like this just built in intel graphics
                  ~ $ vkcubepp
                  Selected GPU 0: llvmpipe (LLVM 18.1.8, 256 bits), type: Cpu
                  But would think yours should show the nvidia Gpu

                  I couldnt get inserted properly so below is a screenshot you have type addy in...Sorry

                  Note: Note not all what that is saying is true and current because it is 6yr old and Solus has grown since then
                  and evolved.

                  Also this is from Vulkan download appimage and mark as exec and run.
                  Mostly duplicates Gpu-viewer but just for Vulkan.
                  https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/download.php

                  I am by no means as expert on Graphics just stuff I see may be a use.

                      Axios looking at the thread history you can see that I have been testing with vkcube and that it will run normally when it is the only program running. Again the problem is if you are to open firefox, or celluloid, or a game which uses vulkan. It is only when multiple programs are being utilized. Two instances of the same program or game do not cause this issue.

                      I can see what gpu my system is using whenever I use vkcube or inxi, my Firefox pastebins also reflect the utilization of my nvidia gpu. It is always using my nvidia gpu.

                      I have stated that I am not sure what the contents of gpu-viewer really indicate and I cannot change anything within that program so I don't see how that vulkan appimage could assist me. vulkaninfo provides this warning message prior to its readout:

                      WARNING: [Loader Message] Code 0 : terminator_CreateInstance: Received return code -3 from call to vkCreateInstance in ICD /usr/lib64/libvulkan_virtio.so. Skipping this driver.

                      These drivers were just reinstalled so it appears the ones my system downloaded are broken or somehow permissions are missing

                        I have 2 laptops 1 with vulkan 1 without
                        The Vulkan one Runs Furmark (Benchmark for Vulkan) and firefox and whatever I want without issues.

                        Both when I run (Vulkaninfo) have errors and the same warning you have so I am going say
                        those are prob normal. (Unless Dev says different)

                        At this point I tend to lean towards what MorningCoffee said that it might be a Nvidia issue
                        or maybe steam?

                        I Hope this help some.

                        Matt_Nico But nonetheless when you check the output of inxi -G there are seemingly no vulkan drivers present

                        This is probably a red herring as it looks the same for me, and Vulkan works fine
                        (on Xorg, and on Wayland after first logging in to an Xorg session at least ^^)

                          Sorry for late responses; been out of town

                          The most recent update has not changed anything regarding this situation, at least on my rig.
                          My inxi -G is similar to @Matt_Nico 's with the exception of what's loaded.
                          I always run the LTS kernel so I don't specifically think the lts/current is the issue. (Usually the black screen is the result of not having -current or -lts packages in pull replacement parity)

                          inxi -G
                          Graphics:
                          Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070 Ti] driver: nvidia v: 560.35.03
                          Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.2 driver: X:
                          loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 1920x1080
                          2: 1440x900
                          API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,swrast
                          platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
                          API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 560.35.03
                          renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
                          API: Vulkan v: 1.3.290 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib

                          This Might be handy to have it tests vulkan memory.
                          I ran and tested mine seems to work the verbose mode gives extra stuff that I have not digested yet.
                          (Had no errors)
                          Just download the linux and extract and run from terminal CTRL+C kills it or it will continue to run when you close
                          terminal.

                          14 days later

                          I had completely given up on this topic and ended up installing Fedora as a workaround to just get a system that was functional again. When running an X11 session the same issue with Firefox and a game would arise (albeit after a longer period of time 20-30sec rather than instantly, making me think its a memory leak issue).

                          However I did find a solution to this problem (at least in Fedora). Which is to either disable hardware acceleration in Firefox, or to change the Firefox about:config entry gfx.webrender.software from false to true.

                          This should at least work to allow Firefox to run while another program is utilizing the gpu.

                          I will be back to check out Solus with the new iso release if this issue persists in Fedora, as in that case I might as well use Solus.

                          @MorningCoffeeZombie I really hope this works for you even though it doesn't completely solve the problem