VS Code 1.54.x fails to redraw window contents after switching between virtual desktops in i3 window manager

[zambal]

• VS Code Version: 1.54.1
• OS Version: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS with i3 window manager
• Hardware: Lenovo Thinkpad T480, using Intel integrated GPU.

This issue seems to occur only when using the i3 window manager. Other than using i3, my Ubuntu install is pretty standard. I just upgraded totday from 1.52.1 to 1.54.1, so this issue may have been introduced before 1.54.1.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open a vscode instance
2. Open a new window in vscode (Ctrl + x Ctrl + n)
3. Navigate to another virtual desktop in i3
4. Navigate back to the virtual desktop with the two vscode windows.
5. If the issue occurs, you should see the contents of the previous virtual desktop, instead of the contents of the vs code windows.

As a workaround, you can switch the i3 container layout to stacked or tabbed and back again to force a redraw.

This is how it looks on my desktop:

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

[vscodebot]

(Experimental duplicate detection)
Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• Windows 10 multi-desktop support (#111376)
• Windows: support to restore windows to virtual desktops (#116358)
• Forced desktop switch on Windows when opening with a path argument (#108074)

[deepak1556]

Does launching with --disable-gpu help ?

[zambal]

@deepak1556 Just tried this, but using --disable-gpu doesn't seem to make a difference unfortunately.

If it helps, it's not the first time I have seen this behavior using an application with i3 as a window manager, but that was a long time ago (maybe even a different laptop, I'm not sure). One of those applications was Bitwig Studio (DAW/Music production software), but that was fixed a long time ago and they are using Java for the GUI.

[zambal]

I see this is labeled as an upstream issue, so I assume it'll take a while before this is tackled. Could someone give a broad estimate when this is addressed (days, weeks, or maybe even months)?

[Spikatrix]

--disable-gpu does fix the issue for me