[System] Micro-freezes on Kubuntu (Wayland + NVIDIA / Nouveau, GTX 960)

[Shiroyama]

Hey everyone, (I don't know why my previous submit got declined, I am sorry, new here)

I’ve been fighting an issue on my setup where Kubuntu keeps micro-freezing (~1 sec stutters) when moving windows around, dragging the mouse to select on desktop, or sometimes even just using panels/applets. That's honestly making me crazy, I loved Kubuntu but I can't use it the way it is now.

CPU: Intel i5-4460
RAM: 8GB
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 960
Motherboard: ASUS (updated to latest BIOS)
OS: Kubuntu (latest, clean install tested on live USB too)
Tried drivers: Nouveau, NVIDIA 550, NVIDIA 580

Symptoms:

With Nouveau → no freezes, but window dragging and desktop selection feels laggy / not smooth.
With NVIDIA proprietary (550/580) → system runs faster but I get random 1 sec freezes constantly.

It happens on both installed system and live USB.

Things I tried already:

Disabled blur/contrast/animations in KWin
Disabled tearing, strict binding, smooth scaling in KWin config
Forced XRender backend instead of OpenGL
Tried both Wayland and X11 sessions
Updated motherboard BIOS
Clean NVIDIA installs (nvidia-driver-550 and nvidia-driver-580)
Tested only with HDMI (unplugged VGA to rule out dual-monitor issue)

=== Kubuntu GPU Debug Info ===

## System
Linux shiroyama-allseries 6.14.0-32-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Aug 29 14:21:26 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

## GPU (nvidia-smi)
nvidia-smi not available (maybe Nouveau active)

## KWin supportInformation
KWin Support Information:
The following information should be used when requesting support on e.g. https://discuss.kde.org.
It provides information about the currently running instance, which options are used,
what OpenGL driver and which effects are running.
Please post the information provided underneath this introductory text to a paste bin service
like https://paste.kde.org instead of pasting into support threads.

==========================

Version
=======
KWin version: 6.3.4
Qt Version: 6.8.3
Qt compile version: 6.8.3
XCB compile version: 1.17.0

Operation Mode: Wayland

Build Options
=============
KWIN_BUILD_DECORATIONS: yes
KWIN_BUILD_TABBOX: yes
KWIN_BUILD_ACTIVITIES: yes
HAVE_X11_XCB: yes
HAVE_GLX: yes

X11
===
Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
Vendor Release: 12401006
Protocol Version/Revision: 11/0
SHAPE: yes; Version: 0x11
RANDR: yes; Version: 0x14
DAMAGE: yes; Version: 0x11
Composite: yes; Version: 0x4
RENDER: yes; Version: 0xb
XFIXES: yes; Version: 0x50
SYNC: yes; Version: 0x31
GLX: yes; Version: 0x0

Decoration
==========
Plugin: org.kde.breeze
Theme:
Plugin recommends border size: None
onAllDesktopsAvailable: false
alphaChannelSupported: true
closeOnDoubleClickOnMenu: false
decorationButtonsLeft: 0, 2
decorationButtonsRight: 6, 3, 4, 5
borderSize: 0
gridUnit: 10
font: Noto Sans,10,-1,0,400,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1
smallSpacing: 2
largeSpacing: 10

Output backend
==============
Name: DRM
Atomic Mode Setting on GPU 0: false

Cursor
======
themeName: breeze_cursors
themeSize: 24

Options
=======
focusPolicy: ClickToFocus
xwaylandCrashPolicy: 1
xwaylandMaxCrashCount: 3
nextFocusPrefersMouse: false
clickRaise: true
autoRaise: false
autoRaiseInterval: 0
delayFocusInterval: 0
shadeHover: false
shadeHoverInterval: 250
separateScreenFocus: true
placement: 5
activationDesktopPolicy: SwitchToOtherDesktop
focusPolicyIsReasonable: true
borderSnapZone: 10
windowSnapZone: 10
centerSnapZone: 0
snapOnlyWhenOverlapping: false
edgeBarrier: 100
cornerBarrier: 1
rollOverDesktops: false
focusStealingPreventionLevel: 1
operationTitlebarDblClick: 5000
operationMaxButtonLeftClick: 5000
operationMaxButtonMiddleClick: 5015
operationMaxButtonRightClick: 5014
commandActiveTitlebar1: MouseRaise
commandActiveTitlebar2: MouseNothing
commandActiveTitlebar3: MouseOperationsMenu
commandInactiveTitlebar1: MouseActivateAndRaise
commandInactiveTitlebar2: MouseNothing
commandInactiveTitlebar3: MouseOperationsMenu
commandWindow1: MouseActivateRaiseOnReleaseAndPassClick
commandWindow2: MouseActivateAndPassClick
commandWindow3: MouseActivateAndPassClick
commandWindowWheel: MouseNothing
commandAll1: MouseUnrestrictedMove
commandAll2: MouseToggleRaiseAndLower
commandAll3: MouseUnrestrictedResize
keyCmdAllModKey: 16777250
doubleClickBorderToMaximize: true
condensedTitle: false
electricBorderMaximize: true
electricBorderTiling: true
electricBorderCornerRatio: 0.25
borderlessMaximizedWindows: false
killPingTimeout: 5000
compositingMode: 1
useCompositing: true
hiddenPreviews: 1
glSmoothScale: 2
glStrictBinding: true
glStrictBindingFollowsDriver: true
glPreferBufferSwap: AutoSwapStrategy
glPlatformInterface: 2
windowsBlockCompositing: true
allowTearing: true
interactiveWindowMoveEnabled: true

Screen Edges
============
desktopSwitching: false
desktopSwitchingMovingClients: false
cursorPushBackDistance: 1x1
actionTopLeft: 0
actionTop: 0
actionTopRight: 0
actionRight: 0
actionBottomRight: 0
actionBottom: 0
actionBottomLeft: 0
actionLeft: 0

Screens
=======
Number of Screens: 1

Screen 0:
---------
Name: VGA-2
Enabled: 1
Geometry: 0,0,1920x1080
Physical size: 820x460mm
Scale: 1
Refresh Rate: 60000
Adaptive Sync: incapable

Compositing
===========
Compositing is active
Compositing Type: OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa
OpenGL renderer string: NV126
OpenGL version string: 4.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.25.04.2
OpenGL platform interface: EGL
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.30
Driver: Unknown
GPU class: Unknown
OpenGL version: 4.3
GLSL version: 4.30
Mesa version: 25.0.7
X server version: 1.24.1
Linux kernel version: 6.14
Direct rendering: Requires strict binding: no
Virtual Machine: no
OpenGL 2 Shaders are used

Loaded Effects:
---------------
shakecursor
screenshot
outputlocator
colorpicker
zoom
screenedge
sessionquit
login
logout
slidingpopups
windowaperture
slide
fullscreen
scale
squash
fadingpopups
maximize
frozenapp
dialogparent
windowview
tileseditor
overview
highlightwindow
blendchanges
startupfeedback
systembell
screentransform
kscreen

Currently Active Effects:
-------------------------
fadingpopups

Effect Settings:
----------------
shakecursor:

screenshot:

outputlocator:

colorpicker:

zoom:
zoomFactor: 1.2
mousePointer: 0
mouseTracking: 0
focusTrackingEnabled: false
textCaretTrackingEnabled: false
focusDelay: 350
moveFactor: 20
targetZoom: 1

screenedge:

sessionquit:
pluginId: sessionquit
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

login:
pluginId: login
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

logout:
pluginId: logout
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

slidingpopups:
slideInDuration: 141
slideOutDuration: 141

windowaperture:
pluginId: windowaperture
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

slide:
horizontalGap: 45
verticalGap: 20
slideBackground: true

fullscreen:
pluginId: fullscreen
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

scale:
pluginId: scale
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

squash:
pluginId: squash
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

fadingpopups:
pluginId: fadingpopups
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

maximize:
pluginId: maximize
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

frozenapp:
pluginId: frozenapp
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

dialogparent:
pluginId: dialogparent
isActiveFullScreenEffect: false

windowview:
activeView:
delegate:
animationDuration: 212
ignoreMinimized: false
mode: ModeAllDesktops
partialActivationFactor: 0
gestureInProgress: false
searchText:
selectedIds:

tileseditor:
activeView:
delegate:
animationDuration: 200

overview:
activeView:
delegate:
animationDuration: 212
ignoreMinimized: false
filterWindows: true
organizedGrid: true
overviewPartialActivationFactor: 0
overviewGestureInProgress: false
transitionPartialActivationFactor: 0
transitionGestureInProgress: false
gridPartialActivationFactor: 0
gridGestureInProgress: false
desktopOffset:
searchText:

highlightwindow:

blendchanges:

startupfeedback:
type: 1

systembell:

screentransform:

kscreen:


Loaded Plugins:
---------------
BounceKeysPlugin
KeyNotificationPlugin
StickyKeysPlugin
buttonsrebind
eis
krunnerintegration
nightlight
screencast

Available Plugins:
------------------
BounceKeysPlugin
KeyNotificationPlugin
StickyKeysPlugin
buttonsrebind
eis
krunnerintegration
nightlight
screencast

Best regards,
Shiroyama

[claydoh]

Often, a user's first post needs approval. And most of the admins are still asleep

I am on the other side of the planet, so I am still up.


Have you tried logging in to an x11 session? 10 year old cards and Nvidia's closed drivers are unfortunately not the best combo for Wayland, it seems.
There may be tweaks or settings that can be used, but I have no idea what they might be.

If you haven't, try disabling secure boot if you dual-boot Windows.

Hopefully others can chime in, though.


Welcome to KFN!

[Shiroyama]

Often, a user's first post needs approval. And most of the admins are still asleep

I am on the other side of the planet, so I am still up.


Have you tried logging in to an x11 session? 10 year old cards and Nvidia's closed drivers are unfortunately not the best combo for Wayland, it seems.
There may be tweaks or settings that can be used, but I have no idea what they might be.

If you haven't, try disabling secure boot if you dual-boot Windows.

Hopefully others can chime in, though.


Welcome to KFN!

Hello! First of all, I am sorry, I didn't know it needed manual approval for new users. Yes, I also tried x11 and security boot off, but still no luck here. Oh, also dual booting windows 10