Dunst notifications flicker after unpausing (X11 + compositor)

[madalu]

Issue description

With the upgrade to 1.9.1, I find that dunst notifications flicker occastionally. But they flicker repeatedly and reliably after pausing and unpausing. This behavior occurs on X11 when running a compositor (picom). It does not occur with 1.9.0. My guess is that it has to do with the recent patches substituting timestamps for time in seconds.

Steps to reproduce:

• Run an X session with a compositor (I'm using picom with default setttings and no user config).
• Start dunst with default settings (I deleted my user config to ensure minimal config)
• Create a notification (e.g., notify-send "test")
• Pause and unpause dunst (dunstctl set-paused true; sleep 5s; dunstctl set-paused false)
• Notice that the notification flickers

Installation info

• Version: dunst 1.9.1
• Install type: package
• Window manager / Desktop environment: dwm + picom
• Distro: Arch Linux

[madalu]

An update: I tested this with xcompmgr and did not experience the same problem. So it seems to be picom specific and perhaps a bug there. Apologies for the noise.

[rcbellN51]

I don't know if this is helpful but dunst notifications are flickering for me as well. There is also high cpu usage when it does flicker. I have noticed that the flicker and high cpu usage only seems to happen for me when there is a timeout of zero set ("dunstify --timeout=0" or "notify-send --expire-time=0"). I use Compton but whether or not it's running doesn't seem to matter.

Also, when I use "dunstctl history-pop" the notification will flicker, even if the original notification didn't. I'm guessing it sets a zero value for the timeout since the notification remains onscreen until manually dismissed?

Installation info

Version: dunst 1.9.1
Install type: pkg
Window manager / Desktop environment: xmonad + compton
OS: FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6

[musjj]

I'm also experiencing occasional flickering on bspwm+picom too. I can't reproduce the issue with the steps OP provided, though.
I've tried to observe when it flickers throughout a couple of weeks, but I still can't figure out any consistent condition that would trigger it.

[rgerardi]

I'm also experiencing flickering and high CPU utilization on Arch Linux with DWM + Picom.

I can reproduce with notify-send and set-paused and it happens consistently when I get browser notifications (emails, message, etc)

[rcbellN51]

I believe this might be related to #1102, and possibly #1163, at least in my case. I've temporarily worked around the issue by using "dunstify --timeout=30000" or "notify-send --expire-time=30000" in my scripts and setting "idle_threshold = 0" in $HOME/.config/dunst/dunstrc for system generated notifications. This does mean notifications are automatically dismissed after 30 seconds in my scripts and whatever "timeout" is set to in critical/normal/low urgency sections in dunstrc, even when the PC is idle.

I still get high CPU usage and flickering when using "dunstctl history-pop", but I'm not using that when the PC is unattended, so less of a concern for the moment.

[fwsmit]

Could you try to see if the issue persists on the current dunst master with #1164 merged. If not, please provide a minimal dunstrc that still reproduces the issue

[fwsmit]

You might also try if #1158 fixes the issue

[rgerardi]

@fwsmit I've been running out of master all day and I can no longer reproduce the issue. Looks good, thanks.

[musjj]

Unfortunately, I'm still experiencing this even on master. I've managed to capture it on video:

2023-04-18T10.03.17.mp4

Still no solid reproduction steps though, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.