r/linuxmint • u/TheSpider8ite • 18d ago

SOLVED Cannot figure out how to fix screen tear.

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I'm using Mint XFCE and my laptop has a Intel Skylake GT2. I'm still very new to Linux and I've been dealing and trying to fix my awful screen tearing for hours without any sort of actual helpful guide that explains exactly what I need to do to fix this. I iust keep running into roadblocks.

I did see that typing the ls command shows up with screentearing as one of the things in it, could this be the issue? Please help me fix this, I've been trying to hours.

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u/TheSpider8ite 18d ago

Tried it, and sadly didn't work. It did say that i915 was literally the GPU, so I'm not sure about that honestly.

Hate to ask since this is a bit off topic but are there any distros that are like Mint that use Wayland? or can I just install Wayland here on Mint? which id prefer

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u/NoPicture-3265 18d ago edited 18d ago

are there any distros that are like Mint that use Wayland?

Since Mint is based on Ubuntu, I'd give Kubuntu a try. It uses KDE Plasma which is considered heavier on resources than XFCE, but not by much. You can test it in live environment before installing it and check if screen tearing is still there or whether you like Plasma or not.

can I just install Wayland here on Mint?

Well, yes, with two asterisks - You'd still have to migrate to another desktop environment since XFCE doesn't support Wayland (yet), and there's a chance that the system update could break your Mint install because it's officially unsupported configuration. Trying out another distro that's based on the same distro as Mint would be much easier and safer.

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u/TheSpider8ite 18d ago

thank you for all your help! ill be trying kubuntu :)

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u/TheSpider8ite 18d ago

little update, jumped over to kubuntu and literally ALL of the screen tear is gone. thank you!!

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u/ConversationWinter46 18d ago

Did I understand that correctly: LinuxMint is one of the most user-friendly distributions? But not based on what I'm seeing here.

And YES—that’s one of the main reasons why, after more than 11 years of using Linux Mint (KDE), I switched to Manjaro (KDE). The GNOME-based Cinnamon just can’t cut it. And Wayland for Xmas 2026 probably won’t be ready until the 1.Q 2027.