Selecting TextField or TextFormField causes app to freeze for 20-40 seconds on Linux Mint.

[ShubhamVG]

Steps to reproduce

1. Created a flutter project for linux only using the command flutter create --platforms=linux textfield_broken.
2. Copy pasted the code from the "Interactive example" section at the bottom of the page at https://docs.flutter.dev/cookbook/forms/text-input.
3. Run it on Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon.

Expected results

App to run as shown on the cookbook page and work on every platform whether it be android, linux, windows, etc. i.e., TextField to receive text input and show it on screen and also focusNode to work smoothly.

Actual results

Code compiled on Linux Mint 22. Worked as expected on web and android phone.
However, on the main machine itself, the app was freezing as soon as any of the TextField or TextFormField was being selected.

Sometimes, after 20-40 seconds, the inputs will be received and displayed on the screen and the app would start to work normally again but unfocusing and clicking on the same or any other TextField or widgets alike would cause the app to freeze for the same amount of time again. FocusNode freezes too and so does the dev tools.

Usually, {app name} is not responding. Force Quit or Wait dialogue box pops up.

Code sample

Code sample

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(const MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    const appTitle = 'Form Styling Demo';
    return MaterialApp(
      title: appTitle,
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: const Text(appTitle),
        ),
        body: const MyCustomForm(),
      ),
    );
  }
}

class MyCustomForm extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyCustomForm({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Column(
      crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.start,
      children: <Widget>[
        const Padding(
          padding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 8, vertical: 16),
          child: TextField(
            decoration: InputDecoration(
              border: OutlineInputBorder(),
              hintText: 'Enter a search term',
            ),
          ),
        ),
        Padding(
          padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 8, vertical: 16),
          child: TextFormField(
            decoration: const InputDecoration(
              border: UnderlineInputBorder(),
              labelText: 'Enter your username',
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ],
    );
  }
}

Screenshots or Video

Screenshots / Video demonstration

2024-08-16.17-39-12.mp4

Logs

Logs

[Paste your logs here]

Flutter Doctor output

Doctor output

[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.24.0, on Linux Mint 22 6.8.0-40-generic, locale en_IN)
    • Flutter version 3.24.0 on channel stable at /home/lav/dev/tooling/flutter
    • Upstream repository https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
    • Framework revision 80c2e84975 (2 weeks ago), 2024-07-30 23:06:49 +0700
    • Engine revision b8800d88be
    • Dart version 3.5.0
    • DevTools version 2.37.2

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 35.0.0)
    • Android SDK at /home/lav/Android/Sdk
    • Platform android-35, build-tools 35.0.0
    • Java binary at: /home/lav/dev/tooling/android-studio/jbr/bin/java
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.11+0-17.0.11b1207.24-11852314)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Chrome - develop for the web
    • CHROME_EXECUTABLE = /usr/bin/brave-browser

[✓] Linux toolchain - develop for Linux desktop
    • Ubuntu clang version 18.1.3 (1ubuntu1)
    • cmake version 3.28.3
    • ninja version 1.11.1
    • pkg-config version 1.8.1

[✓] Android Studio (version 2024.1)
    • Android Studio at /home/lav/dev/tooling/android-studio
    • Flutter plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9212-flutter
    • Dart plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6351-dart
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.11+0-17.0.11b1207.24-11852314)

[✓] VS Code (version 1.92.2)
    • VS Code at /usr/share/code
    • Flutter extension version 3.94.0

[✓] Connected device (2 available)
    • Linux (desktop) • linux  • linux-x64      • Linux Mint 22 6.8.0-40-generic
    • Chrome (web)    • chrome • web-javascript • Brave Browser 127.1.68.141

[✓] Network resources
    • All expected network resources are available.

• No issues found!

[ShubhamVG]

By the way, I am not sure whether this is only a Linux Mint 22 issue or not but rather it is my own assumption. I will send updates if I manage to finds someone who faces the same problem on a different distro or no problem on the same distro & version as me.

[ShubhamVG]

By the way, I am not sure whether this is only a Linux Mint 22 issue or not but rather it is my own assumption. I will send updates if I manage to finds someone who faces the same problem on a different distro or no problem on the same distro & version as me.

It seems like it is NOT a Mint 22 issue only but rather an issue on my machine only. TextFields in the previous version of flutter works absolutely fine but the latest stable/beta/main's does not.

Edit: I think I may have some fancy extension installed that is causing this issue. I will try to remove the fancy things I have installed on my machine one by one and hope to find the issue. Hope some dev also picks on this soon™.

[danagbemava-nc]

Hi @ShubhamVG, did you have this issue prior to stable 3.24.0? I just tested the code sample on ubuntu 24.04 but it works as expected. Did you find any extensions that may be interfering with your app? Do you only face this issue with textfields?

[ShubhamVG]

Hi @ShubhamVG, did you have this issue prior to stable 3.24.0? I just tested the code sample on ubuntu 24.04 but it works as expected. Did you find any extensions that may be interfering with your app? Do you only face this issue with textfields?

Hello.
No, I did not not have this issue before 3.24.0. To confirm this, I did downgrade flutter using flutter downgrade. Cannot remember which version it downgraded to but TextField was working absolutely fine with that version.

I have not tried finding any extension that may be interfering because I have a deadline nearby and that only requires the android build. I did discuss about possible apt packages issues with some people including one in the flutter Discord and found no leads there either.

Lastly, I am getting this issue with both TextField and TextFormField. I asked 2-3 other Linux Mint 22 users and they were not having this issue.

[danagbemava-nc]

Hi @ShubhamVG, do you get this issue in only debug mode or are profile and release modes affected as well?

Also, what are the specs of the machine you're seeing this on?

[ShubhamVG]

Hey @danagbemava-nc, I am getting this issue in every mode & build (only when running/building for Linux).
My specs are:

OS: Linux Mint 22 x86_64 
Host: 82KD Lenovo V15 G2 ALC Ua 
Kernel: 6.8.0-41-generic 
Uptime: 1 hour, 56 mins 
Packages: 2433 (dpkg), 7 (flatpak) 
Shell: bash 5.2.21 
Resolution: 1920x1080 
DE: Cinnamon 6.2.9 
WM: Mutter (Muffin) 
WM Theme: Numix-Cinnamon-Transparent (Mint-Y) 
Theme: Mint-Y-Dark-Purple [GTK2/3] 
Icons: Mint-Y-Purple [GTK2/3] 
Terminal: gnome-terminal 
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 5300U with Radeon Graphics (8) @ 3.900GHz 
GPU: AMD ATI 04:00.0 Lucienne 
Memory: 3800MiB / 5785MiB 
Swap: 1.4GiB / 2.1GiB

[danagbemava-nc]

Hi @ShubhamVG, can you try a simple GTK app with a textfield to see if you experience the same issue? You can try using https://gist.github.com/huycozy/e256eb638287f3ce5799c53f881bcce9 as a way to get started

[ShubhamVG]

@danagbemava-nc I just used an LLM to generate the code and it came up with this:

#include <gtk/gtk.h>

// Callback function to print the text field content
void on_button_clicked(GtkWidget *widget, gpointer data) {
    GtkEntry *entry = GTK_ENTRY(data);
    const gchar *text = gtk_entry_get_text(entry);
    g_print("Text entered: %s\n", text);
}

// Main function
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    GtkWidget *window;
    GtkWidget *vbox;
    GtkWidget *label;
    GtkWidget *entry;
    GtkWidget *button;

    // Initialize GTK
    gtk_init(&argc, &argv);

    // Create a new window
    window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
    gtk_window_set_title(GTK_WINDOW(window), "Simple GTK App");
    gtk_window_set_default_size(GTK_WINDOW(window), 300, 200);

    // Connect the delete event to gtk_main_quit
    g_signal_connect(window, "destroy", G_CALLBACK(gtk_main_quit), NULL);

    // Create a vertical box to arrange widgets
    vbox = gtk_box_new(GTK_ORIENTATION_VERTICAL, 5);
    gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(window), vbox);

    // Create a label
    label = gtk_label_new("hi");
    gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(vbox), label, TRUE, TRUE, 0);

    // Create a text entry
    entry = gtk_entry_new();
    gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(vbox), entry, TRUE, TRUE, 0);

    // Create a button
    button = gtk_button_new_with_label("Print Text");
    gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(vbox), button, TRUE, TRUE, 0);

    // Connect the button click event to the callback function
    g_signal_connect(button, "clicked", G_CALLBACK(on_button_clicked), entry);

    // Show all widgets
    gtk_widget_show_all(window);

    // Start the GTK main loop
    gtk_main();

    return 0;
}

And this runs absolutely fine on my machine.