Linux Lite Forums

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When I hit the INSTALL UPDATES icon in the tray I get this for the Fetch Updates List menu:

The bottom right and bottom left of he box are active but blank.

I have no idea what is on the list and what button I am pressing if I click on it.

?

There's a known problem with Nvidia drivers rendering some windows.
Most recently reported here.

https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/showt...ight=blank

The 'GSK_RENDER=gl' hack has been used several times.

[KNOWN ISSUE] Lite Updates (and other apps) open as a blank white window — NVIDIA 470 driver

Affects: Linux Lite 7.x (based on Ubuntu 24.04) on machines using the NVIDIA 470 legacy graphics driver - typically older GeForce cards such as the GT 730.

THE SYMPTOM

After updating, Lite Updates — and possibly other applications - open as a blank white window with nothing drawn in them. The apps are actually running; they just aren't being painted on screen.

WHY IT HAPPENS

This is an upstream NVIDIA + GTK issue, not a Linux Lite bug. The newer GTK4 toolkit in Ubuntu 24.04 defaults to a graphics renderer that the NVIDIA 470 legacy driver does not handle correctly, so the windows never repaint. Switching GTK4 back to its older "gl" renderer fixes it. Background reading: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/mu...-04/291106

HOW TO CHECK IF THIS AFFECTS YOU

Open a terminal (Menu > System > Terminal, or right-click the desktop > Open Terminal Here) and run:

Code:
nvidia-smi

If the "Driver Version" shown begins with 470, this applies to you. If you use a different driver (or an AMD Intel GPU), you are not affected and should not apply the workaround below.

THE FIX

Option 1:

Quick manual fix (works immediately)
Run this single command in a terminal to add the setting, then reboot:

Code:
echo 'GSK_RENDERER=gl' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment

Reboot your PC. Lite Updates and the other apps will now display correctly.

Option 2:

Permanent automatic fix (recommended)

A Linux Lite update applies this for you automatically, but ONLY on machines that are actually running the 470 driver - so other systems are unaffected. Because the updater window itself may be one of the blank apps, install the update from a terminal:

Code:
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

Then reboot (or log out and back in). Once the update is installed, the fix is applied at every login automatically. If you ever move to a newer driver or GPU, it switches itself off again - no further action needed.

IF YOU ADDED THE MANUAL FIX BUT ARE NOT ON A 470 CARD

The automatic update only acts on real 470 systems, but a manual line in /etc/environment stays until you remove it. If you added the line earlier and you are NOT using the 470 driver, you can remove it to get the newer renderer back: run "sudo nano /etc/environment", delete the line "GSK_RENDERER=gl", save
(Ctrl+O, Enter) and exit (Ctrl+X), then reboot.

Moved to Security & Bug Fixes.

Here are my results:

Code:
 nvidia-smi
Sat Jun 20 10:01:17 2026       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 470.256.02   Driver Version: 470.256.02   CUDA Version: 11.4     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce ...  Off  | 00000000:01:00.0 N/A |                  N/A |
| 50%   36C    P0    N/A /  N/A |    772MiB /  2001MiB |     N/A      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Looks like I have a version of 470 so I guess this is the one I need to run:

Code:
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

?

That isn't going to restore the Nouveau drivers will it? They were really buggy.

Thank you.

A1 Yes
A2 No

Thank you!

Applied the suggested code

Code:
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

and then rebooted the computer.

Problem still not fixed. Updates list box still blank.

So then I just tried this code

Code:
echo 'GSK_RENDERER=gl' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment

We'll see if it worked. But is it permanent?

Please return the output of:

Code:
apt-cache policy lite-patch

Code:
cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version

Code:
ls -l /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90linuxlite-gsk-renderer

Code:
apt-cache policy lite-patch
lite-patch:
  Installed: 7.0-0030-linuxlite
  Candidate: 7.0-0040-linuxlite
  Version table:
    7.0-0040-linuxlite 500
        500 http://repo.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite galena/main amd64 Packages
 *** 7.0-0030-linuxlite 500
        500 http://repo.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite galena/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Code:
cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  470.256.02  Thu May  2 14:37:44 UTC 2024
GCC version:  gcc version 13.3.0 (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04.1)

Code:
ls -l /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90linuxlite-gsk-renderer
ls: cannot access '/etc/X11/Xsession.d/90linuxlite-gsk-renderer': No such file or directory

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