Spotify Linux Black Screen of Emptiness

[Forsh]

Hi,

I'm running Linux Mint 21.1 with Kernel 6.3.6 and i've tried installing Spotify both through the Software Manager and apt via the PPA. The executable launches and if i'm playing something in another room then I get the pop up notifications that the song has changed, but the window is just black.

Spotify worked on this laptop and version of Linux Mint a while back. It also works on my other PC with the same version of LM and kernel.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I've tried '--disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer' and '--no-zygote' and it had no impact.

The system info is below:

System:
  Kernel: 6.3.6-060306-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.8
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Pavilion Laptop 15-cs3xxx v: Type1ProductConfigId
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 86AB v: 95.34 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde v: F.12
    date: 11/05/2020
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 23.4 Wh (100.0%) condition: 23.4/23.4 Wh (100.0%) volts: 12.9 min: 11.6
    model: HP Primary serial: N/A status: Full
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i5-1035G4 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ice Lake rev: 5 cache:
    L1: 320 KiB L2: 2 MiB L3: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2225 high: 3682 min/max: 400/3700 cores: 1: 3040 2: 3682 3: 1500 4: 619
    5: 2294 6: 3671 7: 1500 8: 1500 bogomips: 23961
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1 empty: none bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:8a5a
  Device-2: Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP Wide Vision HD Integrated Webcam type: USB
    driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-3:4 chip-ID: 05c8:03bc
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 4480x1440 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: HDMI-1 mapped: HDMI-A-1 pos: primary,top-right model: GN32Q res: 2560x1440 dpi: 93
    diag: 801mm (31.5")
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: bottom-l model: LG res: 1920x1080 dpi: 142 diag: 395mm (15.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Plus Graphics (ICL GT1.5) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.5
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Ice Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:34c8
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.3.6-060306-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ice Lake-LP PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.3
    chip-ID: 8086:34f0
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 4000 bus-ID: 06:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-10:6 chip-ID: 8087:0026
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2
    sub-v: 237e
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 bus-ID: 00:17.0
    chip-ID: 8086:282a
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 53.74 GiB (22.5%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KIOXIA model: N/A size: 238.47 GiB speed: 15.8 Gb/s lanes: 2
    serial: <filter> temp: 43.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 91.18 GiB used: 53.66 GiB (58.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 256 MiB used: 90.4 MiB (35.3%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 75.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 2816 apt: 2809 flatpak: 7
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cappelikan-ppa-jammy.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/cappelikan-ppa-jammy.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/cappelikan/ppa/ubuntu jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http: //dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxuprising-java-focal.list
    1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/linuxuprising/java/ubuntu jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/obsproject-obs-studio-jammy.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/obsproject-obs-studio-jammy.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/obsproject/obs-studio/ubuntu jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
    1: deb http: //repository.spotify.com testing non-free
Info:
  Processes: 302 Uptime: 10m Memory: 7.53 GiB used: 2.62 GiB (34.8%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11/12/9 Client: Cinnamon v: 5.6.8 inxi: 3.3.13

[DeSades]

Hi, Linux Mint 19.3, same problem. Updated client from 1:1.1.10.546.ge08ef575-19 to 1:1.2.8.923.g4f94bf0d

When lauching via terminal, saw these errors:

Gkr-Message: 12:06:50.811: secret service operation failed: Failed to execute program org.freedesktop.secrets: No such file or directory

[libprotobuf ERROR /var/lib/spotify/buildagent/teamcity/work/dci-wd/web-platform/client-web/desktop/shell/core/vendor/protobuf3/src/google/protobuf/wire_format_lite.cc:618] String field 'spotify.event_sender.proto.DroppedEvents.DroppedEventsBySequenceIdEntry.key' contains invalid UTF-8 data when parsing a protocol buffer. Use the 'bytes' type if you intend to send raw bytes.

[DeSades]

I found a temporary solution, I need to log out in to the application, then close it, then open it and log in using the browser. 

[Forsh]

This workaround worked for me. Hopefully the problem doesn't come back. Thank you!

[dammarin]

I have the same problem on Kubuntu 22.04. The first time Spotify starts fine and I log in through the browser. On next start the window is black (dark grey really). Spotify works, music can be played through the system's sound controls. Installed from Spotify ppa, the version is: spotify-client/stable,now 1:1.2.11.916.geb595a67 amd64

[ManMachine]

---

@dammarin wrote:

I have the same problem on Kubuntu 22.04. The first time Spotify starts fine and I log in through the browser. On next start the window is black (dark grey really). Spotify works, music can be played through the system's sound controls. Installed from Spotify ppa, the version is: spotify-client/stable,now 1:1.2.11.916.geb595a67 amd64

---

See also here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux/spotify-not-starting/m-p/5623786

[ManMachine]

---

@dammarin wrote:

I have the same problem on Kubuntu 22.04. The first time Spotify starts fine and I log in through the browser. On next start the window is black (dark grey really). Spotify works, music can be played through the system's sound controls. Installed from Spotify ppa, the version is: spotify-client/stable,now 1:1.2.11.916.geb595a67 amd64

---

nipatsu claims this works on Ubuntu 22.04 now here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux/spotify-not-starting/m-p/5623786

Does it also work for you?    It doesn't work for me.  Still fails with black screen...

[ManMachine]

I eventually found a solution for this: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux/spotify-not-starting/m-p/5627238#M22065

I wouldn't have started trying harder unless nipatsu had posted it had started working for him.

[DeSades]

Doesnt work for me 😕

[mobilemintlint]

I have the same problem with Linux Mint 21.1 - black window.

I removed the spotify-client, removed all the files in ~/.cache/spotify/ and reinstalled spotify-client

All fine now, even afeter spotify-client restart.

[listener_x]

Debian 12 user here. I wanted to add that simply removing the ".cache/spotify" folder and restarting the app got things working again for me.

[ndcrl]

Hello all, Linux Mint 20 user here, just to say that mobilmintlint's solution worked, thank you !
1) Uninstalling the spotify client

2) Removing all the files in ~/.cache/spotify/ (I didn't delete the folder)
3) Reinstalling Spotify via command line according to Spotify's instructions (https://www.spotify.com/us/download/linux/)

[nocnoc]

deleting the cache in ~/.var/app/com.spotify.Client/cache (flatpak) solved the issue for me

[pracedru]

Launching without GPU acceleration fixed it for me.

[l00k]

This did the trick on Fedora 38 (flatpak)

This seemed to coincide with a Mesa update

[mie-_tng1wk8]

this worked for me. Thanks nocnoc.

[dhouard]

Maybe a bit late but here's the solution. As Spotify for linux is not more than an electron app, GPUCache must be cleaned.

Execute this in a console window

rm -r .config/spotify/Browser/GPUCache

That should do the trick.

[moita]

The GPUCache folder in on the .cache folder when installed from RPM Fusion (lpf-spotify-client)

On Fedora and using lpf-spotify-client, this is the command:

rm -r .cache/spotify/Browser/GPUCache

[DesertKen]

I was having the same problem on Pop_OS for the last month (some Pop upgrade broke it) but this solution worked!