Bug 510807 - Dragging layers with touchscreen or drawing pen causes soft lock
Summary: Dragging layers with touchscreen or drawing pen causes soft lock
Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: krita
Classification: Applications
Component: Usability (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 5.2.13
Platform: Flatpak Linux
: NOR major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Krita Bugs
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-10-20 02:18 UTC by triguy
Modified: 2025-10-20 07:04 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


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Description triguy 2025-10-20 02:18:02 UTC
SUMMARY

If you attempt to drag a layer with the touchscreen or drawing pen to re-organize it, the app will lock up. It hasn't frozen or crashed, but it stops responding to user input. You need to spam the escape key repeatedly and left click your mouse to get the program to unlock.

This bug is 100% reproducible, and occurs each and every time a user drags a layer using their finger or stylus. It does not lock up if you drag the layers using a mouse. This bug is very severe as it also interferes with normal system input, such as being unable to click outside of the main Krita window.

This causes a massive disruption to almost any workflow involving multiple layers and heavy use of a tablet. For 2-in-1 users such as my girlfriend, this is especially frustrating. She has a Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen 6, and she prefers to draw in tablet mode. Every time she accidentally touches a layer, she needs to unfold the laptop and spam the escape key, and then fold it up again. This is very frustrating and inconvenient. As a non-technical user, it may have taken her a long time to discover a workaround had I not been there to troubleshoot the issue with her. This presents a major usability issue for new users, and a major workflow issue for experienced users, especially when you consider this locks up the entire system, causing the whole desktop to stop responding to mouse and touch input.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open Krita on a touch-enabled device (preferably one with a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet attached)
2. Create a new document
3. Create a new layer
4. Attempt to drag the layer using the touch screen or drawing tablet

OBSERVED RESULT

• User input instantly locks up. Layer appears to be hovering, as if it is being held still by the user.
• Operating system does not respond to touch events, cursor replaced with floating layer widget, computer appears to be completely frozen.
• Attempting to move the mouse makes the layer move with the mouse, but you cannot left click to drop the layer.
• Only way out of this soft lock is to hit escape key a few times and click the mouse.

EXPECTED RESULT

Layer drag and drop should work for touchscreens and tablets, or be disabled.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

Krita installed from official Flatpak on Flathub
OS: Fedora Workstation 42 (x86_64)
Desktop: GNOME 48 (Wayland)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

I've seen this glitch occur on 4 different device models, each with fresh installs of Fedora 42 with GNOME 48:

• 2013 Lenovo ThinkPad X220 T
• 2021 Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen 6 (1080p display)
• 2021 Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen 6 (4K display)
• 2022 Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen 7 (4K display)
Comment 1 dra.w.p.il.e+bugskde 2025-10-20 06:09:28 UTC
It's not a general issue with touch input, since it works on other operating systems. So to narrow it down:

* How does it behave using the AppImage from the download page on krita.org instead of Flatpak?

* How does it behave between X and Wayland? You should be able to pick this on the login screen.

* How does it behave on KDE Plasma instead of Gnome? Or any other window manager that isn't Gnome-based you may have laying around.
Comment 2 Ming Chuan 2025-10-20 06:35:34 UTC
Krita/Qt XWayland drag and drop is generally very buggy (you can find many problems if you google it). The specific issue you are experiencing might be [Krita freezes when re-ordering layers using pen/stylus (#3914) · Issue · GNOME/mutter](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/3914)
Comment 3 dra.w.p.il.e+bugskde 2025-10-20 06:58:50 UTC
Thanks, looks like it's an upstream issue that has been fixed then, so nothing for Krita to do.
Comment 4 triguy 2025-10-20 07:04:47 UTC
(In reply to Ming Chuan from comment #2)
> Krita/Qt XWayland drag and drop is generally very buggy (you can find many
> problems if you google it). The specific issue you are experiencing might be
> [Krita freezes when re-ordering layers using pen/stylus (#3914) · Issue ·
> GNOME/mutter](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/3914)

Did not realize Krita was using XWayland. Glad to see this should be resolved in newer GNOME and QT versions. Hope Krita gets native Wayland support soon as well!