Chrome only works with --disable-gpu

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My google chrome only works if I call with --disable-gpu. It was working before, and it suddenly got this weird behavior. If I call without the tag above, the window opens, but not responsive.

Could it be due to a recent update?

The only other major change is that I’ve added an extra HDD and mounted it to /home/user/Data. But I’m storing there only backups and it is not within the baloo search database.

I don’t know what to check to understand why chrome got into trouble.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, running kernel 6.116.7 and default nvidia drivers.

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A reminder that Chrome has frequent recent updates, which may or may not be reflected when sourcing it via the AUR. It’s possible any issue is with the Chromium/Chrome codebase.

I dare say, without more specific information, your question may be difficult to answer. I’m not aware of anything similar that might apply to what you describe, and there’s nothing mentioned in recent Known Issues and Solutions.

You may wish to create a new User account to determine whether ot not it’s limited only to your account. That would help narrow the possibilities.

Regards.

Edit:- This is likely related…

This is not the official word but a good indicator nonetheless.

You might not necessarily have the same symptoms, but the issue presumedly still exists; likely across all platforms;

According to the same article:

The workaround leads to --disable-gpu.

This also is also suggestive of the issue remaining in current versions of Google Chrome, and potentially all Chromium-based browsers.

See these quotes in context:

From other sources:

You’ll notice from a quick Internet search that these reports are all current, and quite widespread.

An obvious workaround is to use another (non-Chromium-based) browser until whatever the issue may be is fixed upstream.

I personally recommend Firefox, but it might be worth your effort to try a major Chromium-based alternative such as Vivaldi, in case they have already dealt with the issue.

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google-chrome is in the AUR, and you don’t say what sort of update you did. If you have not already tried, a re-build might help (pamac build google-chrome).

Alternatively, the more-or-less equivalent chromium is in the extra repo and you could try installing and running that.

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I’m aware that my description is vague. I’ve tried searching around for this issue a lot on the internet and got no luck. So, posting here, even if vague, was a last line of defense move.

The ANGLE bug is on Chrome 139, and I’m running 140.0.7339.127. In my version the ANGLE flag is already different. There’s two flags: Default ANGLE Vulkan and Vulkan from ANGLE. I’ve tried changing these and it didn’t solve my issue. The description of this ANGLE bug does not fit perfectly my bug. In my case, when chrome opens, I can see the window, but it is kind of translucent and not gray.

I’ll try with a new user to see what happens. Someone suggested me to delete de ~/.cache/google-chrome, but it didn’t fix it. I can also delete (or move) the ~/.config/google-chrome. I’ll try this during my break later today.

PS: I have Firefox installed, but in my work I use extensions available only on Chrome. So, switching browsers is not a solution.

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Since they share the same code-base I would expect any chrome extension to work in chromium, so trying that is still an option.

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Since they share the same code-base I would expect any chrome extension to work in chromium, so trying that is still an option.

I believe he is correct. Chrome extensions should work on Chromium, Brave, Vivaldi, and even Edge.

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Those browsers that feature their own “addon store” usually have a setting to also allow addons from the Google counterpart.

If you would share a quick list of those extensions, it would be easy enough to verify which browsers will support them.

The workaround would at least help minimise disruption of your workflow until the actual cause and solution is discovered.

On man’s “translucent” is another man’s “grey”.

Regards.

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I can simply use --disable-gpu as temporary workaround. I don’t need to change browsers. But I understand and appreciate you all positioning towards open-source browsers. Chrome is the only app that takes my soul, everything else I use is open-source. I’ve tried to abandon Chrome in the past and use many others (chromium, firefox, vivaldi, opera, brave, …) but in the end I want something smooth on desktop + mobile, and I always go back to chrome.

But anyway… just to register here, I’ve tried:

  • deleting ~/.cache and ~/.config/google-chrome
  • starting chrome from a fresh new user

It didn’t work. As a new user the frozen screen resembles the “gray” screen described in recent bugs. So, indeed, it might be the same.

So I’ll just use --disable-gpu for a while until the next update.

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Thank you for this and your original post. I have had a similar issue with the recent Brave browser version 1.82.166 (Official Build), on an old but wonderful Toshiba netbook NB550D, eventually causing the system to freeze. Brave had always worked fine until this version.

Using the --disable-gpu option has enabled a temporary fix and allowed accessing the settings to disable graphics acceleration.

Update 2025-09-22: The issue was fixed in the next release of Brave version 1.82.170 and I was able to re-enable the graphics acceleration setting.

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