Element desktop shows white screen, no UI

[michaelkaye]

Steps to reproduce

1. Use the app normally
2. Switch away and come back and it displays a white screen instead of the UI
3. No operations inside the UI seem to recover; have to restart the entire app to get access again.

Outcome

What did you expect?

Not to lose my partially inputted data, to be able to keep using the app

What happened instead?

White screen of death?

Operating system

Linux Ubuntu

Application version

1.10.6

How did you install the app?

ubuntu deb repo

Homeserver

EMS

Will you send logs?

Yes

[michaelkaye]

I'm using Xorg, not weyland, for context. Trying to rageshake but getting a CORS error from EMS.

[michaelkaye]

(updated rageshake issue with some system logs at the time)

[michaelkaye]

@gsouquet this is tagged x-needs-info but I'm not sure what information is needed - is there something else I can provide?

[aminomancer]

This started happening to me too, but on Windows 10 v20H2 and now 21H1. The element browser area randomly becomes white. The titlebar and menubar are still visible but none of the commands work (e.g. view > preferences). Closing the window and then reopening it from the tray icon doesn't help. The process has to be killed. And it will happen again eventually. I'm not sure if this is the same thing that's happening to you, it sure sounds the same but I guess it could be an issue with my OS.

[dbkr]

Sounds like a renderer process crash. We'd need to hook up native crash reporting to figure out what's going on, or it might fix itself with an upgrade of electron.

[ara4n]

I have a sneaky suspicion that this might have been #680. I'm going to tentatively close it in the hope that matrix-org/matrix-js-sdk#2392 fixed it; please reopen if otherwise. The process of debugging it will be same as for #680 (although could also benefit from element-hq/element-web#18263)

[michaelkaye]

This occurred with Element version: 1.10.13 to me today; unsure if the 16-day old change got into a release onto desktop though. WIll re-open if it happens again.

[t3chguy]

@michaelkaye it is not yet in a release, will be in .14 releasing today.

[michaelkaye]

Hi there, it's me again; I'm on Element version: 1.11.2 now and it's still occurring - ubuntu just spotted it crashing on me. Is there a useful debugging flag / etc that I can use to catch more details about why it's failing?

[codingshipcaptain]

I am also experiencing an issue that sounds like this, only I never see a UI. Starting up application just shows a white screen.

Steps to reproduce
Install Endeavor OS 22.9
Install Element-Desktop using command 'pacman -S element-desktop'
Start application

Outcome
What did you expect?

• Display of interface to setup or login to existing account

What happened instead?

• Element Desktop window appears but inside window border is white

Operating system
Linux Arch Endeavor OS Artemis Nova (initial install from release 22.9)
(along with all updates as applicable since install)

Application version
Element-Desktop 1.11.10-1
Electron 20.0.3-3

How did you install the app?
pacman

Homeserver
None

Will you send logs?
Yes

[adam4235]

Same thing for me on Linux Mint.
Element version: 1.11.22
Olm version: 3.2.12
If there's a log or something I can send next time it happens, let me know what to send and I'll send it.

[codingshipcaptain]

@adam4235
What version of Mint are you running and what gpu do you have?
I'm running latest Mint (21.1)
Element version: 1.11.22
Olm version: 3.2.12

I'm guessing this is an issue w/ graphics support on a given OS, as I'm running Element on the same hardware in Mint as I was when I ran the Arch distro above.

[adam4235]

adam>cat /etc/issue
Linux Mint 21.1 Vera \n \l

adam>lspci | grep VGA
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kabini [Radeon HD 8330]

My Linux MInt is the XFCE edition.

But my issue is different than yours, you say you always see a white screen, Element normally works for me. I only see a white screen after I leave my computer for a while, after having turned off the monitor but left the computer on, then a few hours later when I turn the monitor back on the window of Element is white and I have to exit and restart. (Show/Hide in the panel doesn't fix it.)

[codingshipcaptain]

I see.
Perhaps DE plays a role as well.

[JeanPaulLucien]

Windows 7 has joined to chat.

2. Switch away...

Process with GUI goes away.
Before that I did steps to reproduce some memory leaks and issues with loops. Maybe after some time these steps break Element.

[t3chguy]

@JeanPaulLucien Windows 7 is not a supported environment https://github.com/vector-im/element-web#supported-environments - Electron explicitly dropped support for it - https://www.electronjs.org/blog/electron-23-0

Additionally, support for Windows 7/8/8.1 has been dropped.

[JeanPaulLucien]

@t3chguy this is Element's team issue. Not Electron. Electron 23 will not help you, just maybe will drop error and warnings where bad code.

[t3chguy]

@JeanPaulLucien as per our support policy https://github.com/vector-im/element-web#supported-environments - reports coming from unsupported environments are closed, so responding to supported issues by saying it happens in an unsupported environment too is entirely moot.

[michaelkaye]

This is still happening to me on a weekly basis - i'm not reporting it each time (happy to start doing that, but it might be noisy) because element desktop crashing is now normalised as part of my daily use. Offer is still open to attempt to gather more information on this as it's a reliable crash on my laptop but i don't know what / how this should be done.

[adam4235]

@michaelkaye Same with me, I get regular white screens and I'm also willing to send data if someone helps me with how to do that. I did find this:

https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/wiki/Getting-a-crash-log-out-of-Element-Desktop

However it seems complicated on Linux and didn't work for me (I got "Failed to start apport.service: Unit apport.service not found." when I tried to start apport).

[stevleibelt]

@michaelkaye thanks for opening this issue, I am also effected to this issue, but only on a Dell Latitude 7420 so far. All is fine on an Lenovo X1 Carbon (2. Gen) and a Lenovo e14 (3. Gen). My setup is the same on all three devices.

 uname -a
Linux zuv-urzva-n004 6.2.5-arch1-1 vector-im/element-web#1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat, 11 Mar 2023 14:28:13 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

cat /etc/issue 
Arch Linux \r (\l)

lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] (rev 01)

Windowmanager is i3wm with xorg.

I am opening elements and do other stuff. After coming back to elements, the whole application is white. When I start it from the console, the following lines are all I get.

 element-desktop 
/home/<string: username>/.config/Element exists: yes
/home/<string: username>/.config/Riot exists: no
No update_base_url is defined: auto update is disabled
Fetching translation json for locale: en_EN
Changing application language to de
Fetching translation json for locale: de
Resetting the UI components after locale change
Resetting the UI components after locale change
Changing application language to de
Fetching translation json for locale: de
Resetting the UI components after locale change
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
^CError sending from webFrameMain:  Error: Render frame was disposed before WebFrameMain could be accessed
    at s.send (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:86358)
    at _.send (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:71969)
    at App.beforeQuit (/usr/lib/element/app.asar/lib/electron-main.js:509:82)

As you see, the line starting with ^CError ... is created when I stop the process from the open shell.

[Taranchul]

I found a solution in another issue that fixed the white screen for me: Delete the contents of ~/.config/Element/GPUCache (or ~/.config/Riot/GPUCache if you upgraded to Element from Riot).

[stevleibelt]

I found a solution in another issue that fixed the white screen for me: Delete the contents of ~/.config/Element/GPUCache (or ~/.config/Riot/GPUCache if you upgraded to Element from Riot).

Thanks @Taranchul for sharing. For my case, I didn't had a migration path behind me. Have you deleted the path while element was running?

[Taranchul]

@stevleibelt: No, I deleted the contents of ~/.config/Element/GPUCache when Element wasn't running. At the next start after that, everything in its window was show correctly again.

[adam4235]

For me the folder is located at ~/.var/app/im.riot.Riot/config/Element/GPUCache.

I'll see whether that workaround works for me after using Element for a while (since the white screen only happens occasionally).

[adam4235]

I got another white screen when starting my computer after I had deleted that folder, but I'm not sure if it was the same issue. The screen was hung with the progress circle in the middle showing it was trying to do something. I had to exit Element and restart it, which required logging in again, to get it to work. I think the logging in again is intentional but I don't know why it was stuck on the white screen, and that may indicate that this issue is still happening even after I deleted GPUCache. Here's a picture of the screen that it was stuck on.

[Taranchul]

I got another white screen when starting my computer after I had deleted that folder, but I'm not sure if it was the same issue. The screen was hung with the progress circle in the middle showing it was trying to do something.

For comparison, when I had the problem the Element window was completely white and empty without even a progress circle.

[adam4235]

OK, then probably that situation was an unrelated bug, and the GPUCache probably did workaround the white screen I was getting before.

[adam4235]

I actually did just get a white screen again (this time without the progress). So it seems deleting the GPUCache does not work around the issue for me, or if it does, then it's only a temporary effect. Perhaps there are a variety of bugs which cause a white screen, or cause some files to become corrupted which leads to a white screen, and deleting the GPUCache refreshes the corrupted files until a bug happens again?\

[Taranchul]

@adam4235 I don't know any technical specifics, but I also guess that the old files in GPUCache are somehow currupted or not compatible with the new renderer version. Apropos, since many people report it happening after an update, can you also connect the bug with updates? Just curious.

One workaround aside from just deleting CPUCache every time the bug happens would be a script that does it every time before it starts Element.

[lqdev]

I've run into this issue as well

• NixOS 23.05
• Element Desktop 1.11.40

Stopping Element and clearing the ~/.config/Element/GPUCache directory resolved it for me.

[Merrit]

• Fedora 38
• KDE 5.27.8
• Wayland
• Flatpak

Thanks to @lqdev - quitting Element, then deleting the folder at ~/.var/app/im.riot.Riot/config/Element/GPUCache/ resolved the issue for the time being.

[michaelkaye]

A new bit of information for this one: I have finally seen it transition to the white screen, while doing so I saw a popup box saying "Database unexpectedly closed" [don't quote me on exact words, it was only up for a moment] flash up before it ended up at the white screen.

[bentolor]

Suddenly experiencing the same issue and tried mentioned workarounds here without success:

• Deleting ~/.config/Element/GPUCache, ~/.config/Element/Cache, ~/.config/Element/Code\ Cache and ~/.config/Element/Dawn\ Cache with no avail
• Temporarily renaming the full ~/.config/Element directory starts successfully with a blank instance.

So the culprit seems to be inside the data directory.

Update: Eventually I started deleted more one-by-one: Deleting via rm -fr Singleton* permanently lost my session (even after recovering the complete directory backup) and reappeared with a blank login screen. Dunno if this helps

[jrejaud]

I deleted ~/Library/Application Support/Element/Cache on Mac (which I assume is analogous to the .config one in Linux and I am still having the white screen issue.

[sadtank]

This started happening to me today on Ubuntu element-desktop. Seems to trigger after about 20 seconds. Uninstalled/rebooted and installed element-nightly - same issue.