Cursor is not loading chats and screen might as well be pure black

[amon (Dale Amon)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor CLI

Describe the Bug

I cannot seem to get back to my work (~/,config/Cursor) and to make it worse, I can barely see the screen as the GUI mode seems to be ‘black cat on a black blanket on a moonless night’.

I am updating via debian dselect / apt-get. One day I had a working system… I did an update and it showed my former chat as an agent and gave me a wait cursor that ran for many hours before I killed it. This situation persisted until yesterday’s update when everything failed.

I do not know if it has trashed months of work or not.

Steps to Reproduce

Start up Cursor.
It gives a nearly pure black screen with invisible darkgrey print.
It does not use my previous ~/.config/Cursor state and chat

Expected Behavior

It should start up into my previous chat (or agent under new structure) without going into a wait forever loop.

Operating System

Linux

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Debian package Version: 2.1.36-1764129366

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Claude

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. The black screen issue is likely related to the GPU or graphics rendering. Let’s try some fixes:

First, address the display issue:

1. Launch with the GPU disabled:
   cursor --disable-gpu

2. If that helps, make it permanent by creating ~/.config/Cursor/User/argv.json:

{
    "disable-hardware-acceleration": true
}

3. Try launching with a clean slate:
   cursor --new-window --disable-extensions

About your chat history:

Your data should still be in ~/.config/Cursor/ - could you check if that directory exists and contains files? Chats are typically stored there and shouldn’t be lost unless the directory was wiped.

Diagnostics needed:

If the above doesn’t resolve the issue, please share:

• Log files from ~/.config/Cursor/logs/ (most recent ones)
• Your GPU/graphics card info
• A screenshot of what you see (even if it’s mostly black)

Let me know if the --disable-gpu flag helps with the display issue first.

[amon (Dale Amon)]

Didn’t make a lot of difference. You can see the two Cursor windows in the above photo. Better than a screen shot because it shows what I actually see in a day lit room in the Southwest.

Any ones in particular? There are a bunch of them.

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/logs/20251125T105640:
editSessions.log main.2.log network-shared.log sharedprocess.log terminal.log window1
main.1.log main.log remoteTunnelService.log telemetry.log userDataSync.log window2

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/logs/20251126T105621:
editSessions.log network-shared.log remoteTunnelService.log telemetry.log userDataSync.log window2
main.log ptyhost.log sharedprocess.log terminal.log window1

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/logs/20251127T205113:
editSessions.log network-shared.log remoteTunnelService.log telemetry.log userDataSync.log window2
main.log ptyhost.log sharedprocess.log terminal.log window1

(attachments)

[deanrie]

Thanks for the photo - it helps show the severity of the rendering issue. Let’s gather more information to diagnose this:

Please share:

1. The latest main.log file from ~/.config/Cursor/logs/20251127T205113/
2. GPU information: lspci | grep -i vga or glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"
3. Desktop environment and display server: echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE (tells us if you’re using Wayland or X11)

Additional actions:

1. Force software rendering:

   cursor --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing --enable-features=UseSkiaRenderer

2. Try resetting your theme/UI settings by temporarily moving the User directory:

   mv ~/.config/Cursor/User ~/.config/Cursor/User.backup
   cursor

3. Check if your chat data still exists:

   ls -lh ~/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/

About your chat history: If you can find chat-related files in these directories, your data should be recoverable even if the display issue persists.

Let me know what you find, especially the system info and log contents.

[amon (Dale Amon)]

I’ve got the deadline under control, so I can spend a few hours today and tomorrow on this.

1. ~/.config/Cursor/logs/20251127T205113/main.log

$ cat ~/.config/Cursor/logs/20251127T205113/main.log
2025-11-27 20:51:13.503 [info] [CursorProclistService] Native module loaded successfully
2025-11-27 20:51:13.951 [info] updateURL https://api2.cursor.sh/updates/api/update/linux-x64/cursor/2.1.39/56ce6e76103f8b98acec21dc8bd344a96ad14■■■91aadd92b09804b9845d152f/stable
2025-11-27 20:51:13.951 [info] update#setState idle
2025-11-27 20:51:22.488 [info] [CursorProclistService] Config enabled feature (subsample every 10s)
2025-11-27 20:51:22.546 [info] [CursorProclistService] Config enabled feature (subsample every 10s)
2025-11-27 20:51:25.862 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot execute JavaScript: browser view not created for window 2
2025-11-27 20:51:26.036 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot execute JavaScript: browser view not created for window 1
2025-11-27 20:51:43.823 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot flush storage data: browser view not created for window 1
2025-11-27 20:51:43.839 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot flush storage data: browser view not created for window 2
2025-11-27 20:51:43.844 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot set visibility: browser view not created for window 1
2025-11-27 20:51:43.846 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot set visibility: browser view not created for window 2
2025-11-27 20:51:43.871 [info] Extension host with pid 2426004 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2025-11-27 20:51:43.873 [info] Extension host with pid 2426018 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2025-11-27 20:51:43.957 [info] update#setState checking for updates
2025-11-27 20:51:44.008 [error] [UtilityProcess id: 1, type: fileWatcher, pid: 2425986]: crashed with code 15 and reason ‘killed’

2. They show nothing.
   amon@otv3:~$ lspci | grep -i vga | grep “OpenGL renderer”
   amon@otv3:~$ lspci | grep -i glxinfo | grep “OpenGL renderer”

3. I use x11 intentionally: Wayland and GNUStep do not play nice together and all of our code is in ObjC.

$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
x11

No change:

$ cursor --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing --enable-features=UseSkiaRenderer
Warning: ‘disable-gpu-compositing’ is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.
Warning: ‘enable-features’ is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.

mv ~/.config/Cursor/User ~/.config/Cursor/User.backup

It forced me to login to Cursor and prove I am human… and I ended up with the same interface.

amon@otv3:~$ ls -Rlh ~/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/
/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/:
total 8.0K
drwxrwxr-x 2 amon amon 4.0K Dec 3 15:18 1749395105236
drwxrwxr-x 4 amon amon 4.0K Dec 3 15:18 4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/1749395105236:
total 84K
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb.backup

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262:
total 92K
drwxrwxr-x 2 amon amon 4.0K Nov 24 15:07 anysphere.cursor-retrieval
drwxrwxr-x 2 amon amon 4.0K Nov 25 10:56 ms-vscode.makefile-tools
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb.backup

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262/anysphere.cursor-retrieval:
total 1.6M
-rw-rw-r-- 1 amon amon 1.6M Dec 3 15:17 embeddable_files.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 amon amon 5.3K Dec 3 15:17 high_level_folder_description.txt

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262/ms-vscode.makefile-tools:
total 0

There should be about 8 months of chats, some very long and some including images, so those numbers look small.

(Attachment main.log is missing)

(Attachment main.log is missing)

[amon (Dale Amon)]

I’ve got the deadline under control, so I can spend a few hours today and tomorrow on this.

1. ~/.config/Cursor/logs/20251127T205113/main.log

$ cat ~/.config/Cursor/logs/20251127T205113/main.log
2025-11-27 20:51:13.503 [info] [CursorProclistService] Native module loaded successfully
2025-11-27 20:51:13.951 [info] updateURL https://api2.cursor.sh/updates/api/update/linux-x64/cursor/2.1.39/56ce6e76103f8b98acec21dc8bd344a96ad14■■■91aadd92b09804b9845d152f/stable
2025-11-27 20:51:13.951 [info] update#setState idle
2025-11-27 20:51:22.488 [info] [CursorProclistService] Config enabled feature (subsample every 10s)
2025-11-27 20:51:22.546 [info] [CursorProclistService] Config enabled feature (subsample every 10s)
2025-11-27 20:51:25.862 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot execute JavaScript: browser view not created for window 2
2025-11-27 20:51:26.036 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot execute JavaScript: browser view not created for window 1
2025-11-27 20:51:43.823 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot flush storage data: browser view not created for window 1
2025-11-27 20:51:43.839 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot flush storage data: browser view not created for window 2
2025-11-27 20:51:43.844 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot set visibility: browser view not created for window 1
2025-11-27 20:51:43.846 [warning] [BrowserViewMainService] Cannot set visibility: browser view not created for window 2
2025-11-27 20:51:43.871 [info] Extension host with pid 2426004 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2025-11-27 20:51:43.873 [info] Extension host with pid 2426018 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2025-11-27 20:51:43.957 [info] update#setState checking for updates
2025-11-27 20:51:44.008 [error] [UtilityProcess id: 1, type: fileWatcher, pid: 2425986]: crashed with code 15 and reason ‘killed’

2. They show nothing.
   amon@otv3:~$ lspci | grep -i vga | grep “OpenGL renderer”
   amon@otv3:~$ lspci | grep -i glxinfo | grep “OpenGL renderer”

3. I use x11 intentionally: Wayland and GNUStep do not play nice together and all of our code is in ObjC.

$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
x11

No change:

$ cursor --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing --enable-features=UseSkiaRenderer
Warning: ‘disable-gpu-compositing’ is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.
Warning: ‘enable-features’ is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.

mv ~/.config/Cursor/User ~/.config/Cursor/User.backup

It forced me to login to Cursor and prove I am human… and I ended up with the same interface.

amon@otv3:~$ ls -Rlh ~/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/
/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/:
total 8.0K
drwxrwxr-x 2 amon amon 4.0K Dec 3 15:18 1749395105236
drwxrwxr-x 4 amon amon 4.0K Dec 3 15:18 4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/1749395105236:
total 84K
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb.backup

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262:
total 92K
drwxrwxr-x 2 amon amon 4.0K Nov 24 15:07 anysphere.cursor-retrieval
drwxrwxr-x 2 amon amon 4.0K Nov 25 10:56 ms-vscode.makefile-tools
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb
-rw-r–r-- 1 amon amon 40K Dec 3 15:18 state.vscdb.backup

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262/anysphere.cursor-retrieval:
total 1.6M
-rw-rw-r-- 1 amon amon 1.6M Dec 3 15:17 embeddable_files.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 amon amon 5.3K Dec 3 15:17 high_level_folder_description.txt

/home/amon/.config/Cursor/User.backup/workspaceStorage/4b6796d279de060bbc36f2d4f4003262/ms-vscode.makefile-tools:
total 0

There should be about 8 months of chats, some very long and some including images, so those numbers look small.