Further adventures. From https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=884116#45 : > I am using Kde with a theme that relies heavily on transparency and I guess > this > makes things worse > [...] Enabling > a theme with less transparency effects makes the system work longer before > crashing.
It occurred to me after reading this that I, too, have been using transparency effects. I have some semi-transparent MATE panels, and have the compositing window manager option turned on. So I tried disabling these, and updating the kernel -- from 4.9.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.51-1 (2017-09-28) x86_64 to 4.9.0-5-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.65-3+deb9u2 (2018-01-04) x86_64 (the current kernel). Perhaps this is just apophenia, but I think I experienced fewer screen judders (for lack of a better term). (Note that, unlike others, I've never experienced a crash from this bug.) I decided to try the backports kernel (well, *a* backports kernel -- there seem to be multiple ones). The specific kernel is 4.14.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.14.7-1~bpo9+1 (2017-12-22) x86_64 So far (I still haven't re-enabled transparency or compositing. Frankly, I'm too nervous to -- I prefer a stable system to messing around and possibly getting an unstable one. Still, it's a shame I can't use the current kernel -- judging from the date of the backports kernel build, it seems unlikely it's been patched for Meltdown. Regards, Agafnd
