Bumblebee video tearing with GeForce GT 520M

C. M. Harlequin · 2012-12-04 05:10:41

I'm having issues with video tearing with both my Intel and Nvidia cards. Seems to be across all applications, though it's particulary bad when using smplayer, mythfrontend or flash videos in Firefox. Using mythfrontend as a test, I ran with and without optirun. The Intel card is slightly better than the Nvidia under bumblee, but not by much. Using primusrun seems to solve the tearing issue in all apps, but completely locks up mythfrontend when I try to exit video playback (The WM seems to be somewhat responsive to key commands, but I can't seem to refresh the screen at all until I restart X).

Sync to Vblank is on, however the Wiki says:

X Server XVideo Settings -> Sync to VBlank and OpenGL Settings -> Sync to VBlank should both be enabled.

However, my version of nvidia-settings only gives the option of setting it under 'OpenGL Settings'. Not sure if that matters.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

H.

Info:

lspci | grep -i vga
    00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
    01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 [GeForce GT 520M] (rev ff)

bumblebeed --version
    bumblebeed (Bumblebee) 3.0.1

optirun nvidia-settings -v
    nvidia-settings:  version 310.19

yaourt -Qs bumblebee
    local/bumblebee 3.0.1-4
    local/lib32-nvidia-utils-bumblebee 310.19-2
    local/lib32-primus-git 20121204-1
    local/nvidia-utils-bumblebee 310.19-3
    local/primus-git 20121204-1

sudo pacman -Qs nvidia
    local/libvdpau 0.5-1
    local/nvidia 310.19-2

/etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf

# Configuration file for Bumblebee. Values should **not** be put between quotes

## Server options. Any change made in this section will need a server restart
# to take effect.
[bumblebeed]
# The secondary Xorg server DISPLAY number
VirtualDisplay=:8
# Should the unused Xorg server be kept running? Set this to true if waiting
# for X to be ready is too long and don't need power management at all.
KeepUnusedXServer=false
# The name of the Bumbleblee server group name (GID name)
ServerGroup=bumblebee
# Card power state at exit. Set to false if the card shoud be ON when Bumblebee
# server exits.
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
# The default behavior of '-f' option on optirun. If set to "true", '-f' will
# be ignored.
NoEcoModeOverride=false
# The Driver used by Bumblebee server. If this value is not set (or empty),
# auto-detection is performed. The available drivers are nvidia and nouveau
# (See also the driver-specific sections below)
Driver=

## Client options. Will take effect on the next optirun executed.
[optirun]
# The method used for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers.
# Possible values are proxy, jpeg, rgb, xv and yuv.
VGLTransport=proxy
[harlequin@harlequin-arch bumblebee]$ sudo cat bumblebee.conf
# Configuration file for Bumblebee. Values should **not** be put between quotes

## Server options. Any change made in this section will need a server restart
# to take effect.
[bumblebeed]
# The secondary Xorg server DISPLAY number
VirtualDisplay=:8
# Should the unused Xorg server be kept running? Set this to true if waiting
# for X to be ready is too long and don't need power management at all.
KeepUnusedXServer=false
# The name of the Bumbleblee server group name (GID name)
ServerGroup=bumblebee
# Card power state at exit. Set to false if the card shoud be ON when Bumblebee
# server exits.
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
# The default behavior of '-f' option on optirun. If set to "true", '-f' will
# be ignored.
NoEcoModeOverride=false
# The Driver used by Bumblebee server. If this value is not set (or empty),
# auto-detection is performed. The available drivers are nvidia and nouveau
# (See also the driver-specific sections below)
Driver=

## Client options. Will take effect on the next optirun executed.
[optirun]
# The method used for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers.
# Possible values are proxy, jpeg, rgb, xv and yuv.
VGLTransport=proxy
# Should the program run under optirun even if Bumblebee server or nvidia card
# is not available?
AllowFallbackToIGC=false


# Driver-specific settings are grouped under [driver-NAME]. The sections are
# parsed if the Driver setting in [bumblebeed] is set to NAME (or if auto-
# detection resolves to NAME).
# PMMethod: method to use for saving power by disabling the nvidia card, valid
# values are: auto - automatically detect which PM method to use
#         bbswitch - new in BB 3, recommended if available
#       switcheroo - vga_switcheroo method, use at your own risk
#             none - disable PM completely
# https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Comparison-of-PM-methods

## Section with nvidia driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nvidia
[driver-nvidia]
# Module name to load, defaults to Driver if empty or unset
KernelDriver=nvidia
Module=nvidia
PMMethod=auto
# colon-separated path to the nvidia libraries
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-bumblebee:/usr/lib32/nvidia-bumblebee
# comma-separated path of the directory containing nvidia_drv.so and the
# default Xorg modules path
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-bumblebee/xorg/,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

## Section with nouveau driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nouveau
[driver-nouveau]
KernelDriver=nouveau
PMMethod=auto
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nouveau

/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "Layout0"
    Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device1"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option "NoLogo" "true"
    Option "UseEDID" "false"
    Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"
EndSection

~/.nvidia-settings-rc

#
# /home/harlequin/.nvidia-settings-rc
#
# Configuration file for nvidia-settings - the NVIDIA X Server Settings utility
# Generated on Tue Dec  4 15:29:57 2012
#

# ConfigProperties:

RcFileLocale = C
ToolTips = Yes
DisplayStatusBar = Yes
SliderTextEntries = Yes
IncludeDisplayNameInConfigFile = No
ShowQuitDialog = Yes
Timer = Memory_Used_(GPU_0),Yes,3000
Timer = Thermal_Monitor_(GPU_0),Yes,1000
Timer = PowerMizer_Monitor_(GPU_0),Yes,1000

# Attributes:

0/CursorShadow=0
0/CursorShadowAlpha=64
0/CursorShadowRed=0
0/CursorShadowGreen=0
0/CursorShadowBlue=0
0/CursorShadowXOffset=7
0/CursorShadowYOffset=2
0/SyncToVBlank=1
0/LogAniso=0
0/FSAA=0
0/TextureSharpen=1
0/TextureClamping=1
0/FXAA=0
0/AllowFlipping=1
0/FSAAAppControlled=1
0/LogAnisoAppControlled=1
0/OpenGLImageSettings=0
0/FSAAAppEnhanced=0
0/DigitalVibrance[DFP-0]=0
0/ColorSpace[DFP-0]=0
0/ColorRange[DFP-0]=0
0/XVideoSyncToDisplay=65536
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/RedBrightness=0.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/GreenBrightness=0.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/BlueBrightness=0.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/RedContrast=0.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/GreenContrast=0.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/BlueContrast=0.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/RedGamma=1.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/GreenGamma=1.000000
harlequin-arch:8[dpy:0]/BlueGamma=1.000000

Last edited by C. M. Harlequin (2012-12-04 05:11:51)

David Batson · 2012-12-06 02:24:07

If possible, try unchecking using OpenGL 2 shaders. That and vsync should be turned on. Also, I use compositing (Compiz or Kwin or Clutter/Mutter).

C. M. Harlequin · 2012-12-06 05:32:02

David, thanks for the reply.

I'm not using a compositor and vblank is definitely turned on. There appears to be nothing in the nvidia-settings dialogue regarding OpenGL shaders, so I'm still at a loss.

C. M. Harlequin · 2012-12-06 05:48:26

Strangly, mythfrontend just crashed itself this time using primusrun instead of optirun and gave the following stdout:

2012-12-06 16:44:20.530469 W  OpenGL: Could not determine whether Sync to VBlank is enabled.
2012-12-06 16:44:20.545475 E  OpenGL: Multi-texturing not supported. Certain OpenGL features will not work

wise-one · 2013-09-12 12:30:39

I think that I have the same problem on Chakra-Benz. I have a NVIDIA GeForce 610M card.

I installed nvidia-bumblebee and bumblebee via this steps: http://chakra-project.org/wiki/index.ph … =Bumblebee

But I experienced video tearing in vlc and xbmc.

When I do ''optirun nvidia-settings -c :8'' the X Server XVideo Settings tab is totally blank.

So I can't enable vsync.

I tried every logical solution that I could find on the web, but I still have this issue.

Is this a bug in bumblebee?

Arch Linux

#1 2012-12-04 05:10:41

Bumblebee video tearing with GeForce GT 520M

#2 2012-12-06 02:24:07

Re: Bumblebee video tearing with GeForce GT 520M

#3 2012-12-06 05:32:02

Re: Bumblebee video tearing with GeForce GT 520M

#4 2012-12-06 05:48:26

Re: Bumblebee video tearing with GeForce GT 520M

#5 2013-09-12 12:30:39

Re: Bumblebee video tearing with GeForce GT 520M

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