tl;dr - I'm having weird graphics issues with my Dell XPS 9350 running NixOS and I am not sure how to debug them.
- 2016
- purchased a Dell XPS 9350
- setup NixOS /w Gnome
- did some tweaks to get the hardware working smoothly
- 2016-2020
- mostly didn't change these tweaks as far as I remember
- no real issues with graphics as far as I remember
- lots of refactoring of config files including merging of repos
- experimented a little with xmonad
- August 2020
- started to get minor intermittent issues
- sometimes screen flashes in a bright color
- sometimes graphics freezes completely -> hard reboot required
- last week
- I purchased a 2019 Wacom Intuos Pro M
- Tried to run it in Gnome (Wayland) but ran into issues
- fiddled with available options / packages to get it going
- didn't have luck getting my tablet properly detected (although libinput got me basic support)
- noticed the Wacom driver package was outdated by a few years
- made an overlay to update to latest version
- successfully got the tablet detected by Wacom packages
- also tried on X11 Gnome and discovered known limitations
- then discovered KDE offers more configuration options for Wacom
- this week
- tried to install plasma5 (in parallel to Gnome/Xmonad)
- plasma5 runs but the compositor doesn't
- In practice this means windows cannot open: glitchy artifacts appear instead
- the only way to make Plasma usable is disabling the compositor
- all attempts to fiddle with compositor settings fail
- frequency of graphics issues / freezes significantly increases
Probably unrelated but maybe worth mentioning:
- I noticed some theme settings from Plasma seem to bleed into Gnome for some reason (cursor / window styles)
- Resolve graphics issues and stabilize system
- Get my tablet configured properly so I can use it with Krita
- Debugging strategies?
- Resolution strategies?
Many thanks for even taking the time to read this!
Yours desperately, Ixxie
- 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6600U (4M Cache, up to 3.4 GHz)
- 13.3 inch FHD AG (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display, Silver
- 8GB LPDDR3 1866MHz
- 256GB PCIe Solid State Drive
- Intel Core i7 vPRO Processor Label
- Intel(R) HD Graphics
- Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8620 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.2
- Intel 8260 Driver