opus 4.6 had a go at this and it flailed around quite a bit and in the end it came up with this bash script that doesn't even require root:
fix-lomiri-spinner-install.txt
I told it to be verbose in the script so you can read what it does and whether it's safe at your own discretion - keep in mind that any part of it may be hallucinated and made up.
tl;dr: According to it, it really is the splash screen spinner, and this workaround will stop the spinning on splash screens after 15 seconds. Basically it makes a fake new version of the lomiri qml theme that symlinks all files from the current theme, but replaces the qml file for splash screens with a new qml file that disables the spinning circle on splash screens after 15 seconds. Then creates a systemd user service that sets QML2_IMPORT_PATH to that new theme.
Seems to work here, but as always, run AI generated scripts at your own risk, or anyone else, feel free to create a better workaround or upstream fix based on this info.
I assume there should be two fixes coming from this: 1) don't waste cpu cycles on window animations for windows that are fully covered by other windows, 2) make the spinner animation render in a way that doesn't cause upwards of half a cpu core total cpu usage.
Firefox showing a static reddit page now:
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