Lens starts with black screen

Lens Support & Troubleshooting
1

Hi all,

My Lens starts shows black screen without any menus on it after launch.

Preferences does not work too, only About window shows.

Version: 2026.2.111511-latest

OS: Ubuntu 24.04

I tried to remove /.k8slens/ directory, clean up ~/.kube/config file, reinstall app - nothing helps.

2

Hello @mykhailo.levandovsky, Thank you for reaching out! We have received your request and get back to you as soon as we have some info.

3

Hello @mykhailo.levandovsky,

A few things that could help us investigate:

1. Logs: Could you share the Lens log files? You can find them at ~/.config/Lens/logs/. The main.log and any renderer-*.log files from the time of the issue would be most helpful.

2. GPU acceleration: This could be a GPU/rendering issue on Linux. Could you try launching Lens with GPU acceleration disabled?

lens --disable-gpu

2. Or alternatively:

lens --use-gl=egl

3. Display server: Are you using X11 or Wayland?

4. Fresh install: Since you’ve already tried removing ~/.k8slens/, could you also try removing ~/.config/Lens/ completely and restarting?

This will help us understand whether this is a rendering/GPU issue specific to your Linux setup or a broader regression.

4
  1. No renderer-* log in that location for unsuccessful run attempts.
  2. Did not help
  3. Also didn’t help
  4. And removing ~/.config/Lens helped, thanks! Last time it was solved by rebooting btw.
5

Hi @mykhailo.levandovsky, glad to hear that removing ~/.config/Lens resolved the issue! That directory can sometimes contain stale state that causes rendering problems after updates. Thanks for reporting back – it helps us understand the pattern.