Blank window on Linux when X11 forwarding over ssh

[drscotthawley]

Do you want to ask a question? Are you looking for support? The Atom message board is the best place for getting support: https://discuss.atom.io

Tried that link but it 404's.

Prerequisites

• [x ] Put an X between the brackets on this line if you have done all of the following:
  • Reproduced the problem in Safe Mode: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/#using-safe-mode
  • Followed all applicable steps in the debugging guide: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/
  • Checked the FAQs on the message board for common solutions: https://discuss.atom.io/c/faq
  • Checked that your issue isn't already filed: https://github.com/issues?utf8=✓&q=is%3Aissue+user%3Aatom
  • Checked that there is not already an Atom package that provides the described functionality: https://atom.io/packages

Description

Trying to open a window over a tunneled ssh connection results in a completely blank screen. On Linux.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create another user account on your local machine ($ adduser newuser) where you have atom installed
2. Copy the ssh key from your regular account into ~newuser/.ssh/authorized keys.
3. Login as the new user: ssh -Y newuser@localhost. (Say "yes" to RSA fingerprint question)
4. Verify that other X11 applications appear properly on the local monitor: try running xeyes, xclock etc with no problems. Note that other apps such as firefox also work as expected with no display problems.
5. Try to run atom. Observe that you get the "welcome screen" but it's totally blank. Moving the mouse around clicking on things still works, but you can't see what you're clicking on.
6. Try running in safe mode (--safe) or disabling the gpu (--disable-gpu) to no effect.
7. Try moving or removing the ~/.atom directory for this new user. No effect.
8. Try mutliple versions of atom (1.56, 1.57, 1.58) and see they all produce the same effect.
9. Try uninstalling & reinstalling different distributions of atom (from FlatPak, Pop!_Shop, official .deb from Atom website) and see they all produce the same blank screen.
10. Notice that atom works fine when NOT tunneled; i.e., just running "atom" from original user account produces a welcome screen that you can read. This problem is limited to X forwarding.
11. Notice that similar issues (Atom Opens blank screen & frozen JUST after fresh install of Atom app in my OS X Yosemite #9812, AtomEditor always opens on default display when X11 Forwarding #9533) are not the same or are reporting no issues on Linux, but have been blocked to new comments so you can't report the problem on Linux without opening a new issue. Note that https://discuss.atom.io 404's so you can't post there.

Expected behavior:

That we would see the text of the welcome screen on startup instead of blankness.

Actual behavior:

The screen is blank

Reproduces how often:

Every time.

Versions

1.56, 1.57, and latest:

$ atom --version
Atom    : 1.58.0
Electron: 9.4.4
Chrome  : 83.0.4103.122
Node    : 12.14.1

Additional Information

$ uname -a
Linux oryxpro 5.13.0-7614-generic #14~1631647151~21.04~930e87c-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 17 00:24:58 UTC  x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[revco8]

Having exactly the same issue here but on Debian 11.1

[keskival]

Same problem here with Atom running on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS, and X forwarded to same, Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS.
Showing only grey dialog box with the title of "Welcome Guide -- Atom (on Curie)"

[enrh]

Also having this issue, for several versions now. Unfortunately I'm having to switch to another editor.

[phhoc]

Having exactly the same issue with atom on Debian 5.10.92-1 which is X forwarded to an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS machine.

$ atom --version
Atom    : 1.59.0
Electron: 9.4.4
Chrome  : 83.0.4103.122
Node    : 12.14.1