CR: Waybar CSS Performance Remediation

Change Summary

Field Value

CR ID

CR-2026-04-04-waybar-css-performance

Date

2026-04-04

Priority

P1 - High (hardware thermal risk)

Type

Configuration Remediation

Status

Complete

Requestor

Evan Rosado

Implementor

Evan Rosado

Risk Level

Low (visual-only changes, no functional impact)

Systems Affected

modestus-razer — ~/.config/waybar/style.css, ~/.config/waybar/config

Predecessor

N/A

Related INC

INC: Razer High Fan/Temp

Objective

Remove GTK3-hostile CSS properties (box-shadow, infinite animation, transition: all) from the waybar Catppuccin Mocha / Glass Island theme to eliminate a CPU rendering loop that drove waybar to 50-96% CPU and CPU temperatures to 86°C.

Background

On 2026-04-04, modestus-razer exhibited sudden high fan noise and elevated temperatures. Investigation traced the root cause to waybar’s style.css — a 605-line Catppuccin theme using box-shadow with alpha() compositing, 7 infinite CSS animations, and 4 transition: all rules. GTK3’s CSS engine renders box-shadow in software (CPU), not GPU. Combined with animations forcing constant repaints, the rendering pipeline degraded over ~44 hours of uptime into a sustained CPU spin.

See INC-2026-04-04-001 for full investigation timeline.

Visual Impact

Element Change

Window shadow

No visible shadow beneath waybar (was subtle glass effect)

Tooltip shadow

No visible shadow on tooltips

Workspace glow

Active workspace no longer has animated box-shadow glow

Arch logo

No longer flickers (Mr. Robot effect removed)

Clock

No longer breathes (subtle opacity oscillation removed)

Power button

No longer cycles border colors

Network icon

No longer pulses when connected

Hover transitions

Instant state change instead of 0.2-0.3s ease

The Catppuccin color scheme, alpha() backgrounds, border accents, and layout are fully preserved. The change removes visual effects only — no module behavior is affected.

Deployment

Changes applied directly to dotfiles on modestus-razer:

# Files modified
~/.config/waybar/style.css    # box-shadow removed, animations disabled, transitions disabled
~/.config/waybar/config        # custom/media temporarily removed then restored
# Restart waybar to apply
kill $(pgrep -x waybar) 2>/dev/null && waybar &disown 2>/dev/null
If waybar config is managed via dots-quantum / GNU Stow, commit and stow after verifying changes.

Changelog

Date Author Change

2026-04-04

Evan Rosado

Initial CR — removed box-shadow, disabled animations and transitions, restored media module