Fuzzy graphics after upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04

Question

I have recently upgraded Ubuntu 19.10 to latest LTS Ubuntu 20.04. After updating, I get serious artifacts on my screen. Every time I reboot (or log-in), my screen is fuzzy or scrambled (picture attached):

This is temporary. The fuzzy screen goes away when I change the background. But it reappears the moment I reboot or log back in.

I have Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2).

The output of lspci -nn |grep -E 'VGA|Display' is:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] [8086:1916] (rev 07)

Update:

On enabling Wayland in Ubuntu 20.04 and logging in to, these artifacts are however cured.

This is okay for now, but I am not sure about Wayland as I have not yet used it before.

Is there a way to correct the graphic issue with normal Ubuntu startup?

Solution 1

I solved my fuzzy graphics issue which is related to Intel Drivers. A bug is also reported on Intel driver artifacts. Following the answer provided here this command line solved the issue:

sudo apt purge xserver-xorg-video-intel

Reboot and everything is back being normal.

Solution 2

Same problem here with an Intel UHD Graphics 630 (Desktop) after upgrading from 19.10 to 20.04.

Completely solved by deleting a custom Intel Xorg configuration file I had created in the past ― on my setup it was /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf, and contained:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Intel Graphics"
 Driver "Intel"
 Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
 Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

Comments

[Tanvir]

I have tried the solution. Even tried Option "AccelMethod" "uxa". But the results are same as before. There are glitches after reboot.

[Stavros Korokithakis]

This solves the problem, thanks! Though I wonder if it forces the laptop to always use the nVidia GPU instead of the power-saving Intel one.

[S.S. Anne]

In general, Wayland is newer and more secure. It stops apps from interfering with your cursor if it's not hovering over them and it doesn't allow apps to interfere with other apps. It's probably a good idea to use it instead of Xorg, and there's always Xwayland if you still need X for some reason.

[Jaakko]

This solved my issue with Intel UHD 620 in Ubuntu 20.04. The best part is that I can keep my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf with Option "TearFree" "true" to enable "vsync" and remove video tearing.

[FantomX1]

thanks, I caused mine by askubuntu.com/questions/453109/…

[Artur Meinild]

It might not be a proper solution to everybody to upgrade to a non-LTS release.

[hosford42]

I have the same cards and custom config, but commenting it out made my system unable to boot. With that change undone, sudo apt purge xserver-xorg-video-intel did the trick.