Fix for ExoStriker GUI Issues on Ubuntu 22.04 (Wayland) – Xorg & PyQt6 Required

[ezaharieva]

Description of the Issue

When running ExoStriker on Ubuntu 22.04 with Wayland, there are severe visualization issues, including:

Flickering UI
Misaligned and duplicated interface elements
Unresponsive buttons

Here is a screenshot demonstrating the visualization issues on Ubuntu 22.04 (Wayland):

As seen in the screenshot, the UI elements are misaligned, flickering, and duplicated, making the interface difficult to use.

-- After testing on multiple different laptops, we found that the issue is directly related to Wayland and Qt compatibility.

Cause of the Issue

Qt applications have known rendering issues in Wayland, leading to graphical glitches.
PyQt6 versions above 6.5 require a newer Qt version, which is not officially supported in Ubuntu 22.04.
GNOME Flashback (which runs on Xorg) was tested as a workaround, but some modern applications relying on Wayland had issues.

Solution / Fix

The solution that worked across all tested systems was:

Switching from Wayland to Xorg by installing Xorg and the required dependencies:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y xorg libxcb-cursor-dev

Downgrading PyQt6 to a compatible version (if needed):

python3.10 -m pip uninstall -y PyQt6 PyQt6-sip
python3.10 -m pip install --no-cache-dir PyQt6==6.4.2 PyQt6-sip

    PyQt6 versions above 6.5 require newer Qt libraries, which are not available in Ubuntu 22.04. Using PyQt6==6.4.2 resolves the issue.

Additional Notes

GNOME Flashback (which also runs on Xorg) was tested, but some newer applications that rely on Wayland for full functionality experienced issues.
Using Xorg directly instead of relying on GNOME Flashback ensures full compatibility with GNOME and newer applications.

[EduardoSR8]

Hello there,
Thank you very much, this worked for me really well.

I used "sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y xorg libxcb-cursor-dev" and then restarted the computer to login with xorg (bottom right button when you are about to type your password).

For me it wasn't necessary to downgrade PyQt6, and I didn't need to use GNOME flashback.

Have a nice day!

[Astrocyy]

Hi All,

I‘m using the Ubuntu 22.04 (Wayland) as well. However, the latest version of ES still has the exactly same display issue after I tried the following solutions:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y xorg libxcb-cursor-dev
python3.10 -m pip uninstall -y PyQt6 PyQt6-sip python3.10 -m pip install --no-cache-dir PyQt6==6.4.2 PyQt6-sip

I wonder if there is other better ideas to fix this? Thanks so much!!! @ezaharieva @EduardoSR8

[ezaharieva]

@Astrocyy Could you please check whether you’re actually logged in with Xorg instead of Wayland?

You can verify this by running:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

It should return x11.
If it says wayland, please log out, click the ⚙️ icon at the login screen, and choose “Ubuntu on Xorg” before logging in again.

ExoStriker’s interface issues disappear only when running under Xorg.

[Astrocyy]

@Astrocyy Could you please check whether you’re actually logged in with Xorg instead of Wayland?

You can verify this by running:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

It should return x11.
If it says wayland, please log out, click the ⚙️ icon at the login screen, and choose “Ubuntu on Xorg” before logging in again.

ExoStriker’s interface issues disappear only when running under Xorg.

Thank you so much!!! @ezaharieva it finally fixed this problem!
However, the screen now is becoming so strangely bright and yellow that I can barely see a thing. Luckily, the remote control function still works perfectly, so it shouldn't impact my work on ES.
Thanks again!