Arch Linux

Stevearch

Member

From: North Wales

Registered: 2014-04-21

Posts: 80

Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

Hi all!

Hoping someone can help

As the title says im getting bad screen tearing when moving windows around in every environment i have tried. This includes: KDE/XFCE/Cinnamon and even vanilla X.

My Laptop is a Dell D630
Spec: http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/dell-la … 630/specs/
I have the xf86-video-intel driver installed from the official repos.

I've tried lowering the resolution to see if that helped (it didn't)

Other than this the graphics on the laptop performs fine it's just annoying seeing things tear whenever they move etc.

Anyone know how i can try and fix this?

Kind regards, Steve.

Last edited by Stevearch (2014-05-08 10:03:47)

Stevearch

Member

From: North Wales

Registered: 2014-04-21

Posts: 80

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

Oh i forgot!

Modules

[stephen@Archey ~]$ lsmod | grep intel
snd_hda_intel          38728  2 
snd_hda_codec         101816  3 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm                81607  2 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd                    60086  11 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
intel_agp              11504  0 
intel_gtt              12856  3 i915,intel_agp

Systemd

[stephen@Archey ~]$ systemctl --failed
0 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

The options are outlined in the intel man page ("man intel"); the file in Arch will be /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Intel Graphics"
        Driver "Intel"
        Option "TearFree" "True"
EndSection

This is described in the wiki here...

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Stevearch

Member

From: North Wales

Registered: 2014-04-21

Posts: 80

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

The options are outlined in the intel man page ("man intel"); the file in Arch will be /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Intel Graphics"
        Driver "Intel"
        Option "TearFree" "True"
EndSection

This is described in the wiki here...

Thanks for the speed response!
Unforutnatley i don't have the '20-intel.conf' file?
I only have these:

[stephen@Archey ~]$ cd /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
[stephen@Archey xorg.conf.d]$ ls
10-evdev.conf  10-quirks.conf  50-synaptics.conf

Any ideas?

Stevearch

Member

From: North Wales

Registered: 2014-04-21

Posts: 80

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

The correct driver is definatley installed:

[stephen@Archey ~]$ sudo pacmatic -S xf86-video-intel
[sudo] password for stephen: 
Recent ML chatter: 
warning: xf86-video-intel-2.99.911-2 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Packages (1): xf86-video-intel-2.99.911-2

Total Installed Size:   1.90 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:       0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

I meant that you have to create a 20-intel.conf file with the content listed...
EDIT: do you have a text editor?

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2014-05-07 18:59:40)

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Stevearch

Member

From: North Wales

Registered: 2014-04-21

Posts: 80

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

I meant that you have to create a 20-intel.conf file with the content listed...
EDIT: do you have a text editor?

Oh man im such a wolly! Yes i have nano

I will create the file now and paste the contents into it. I take it a reboot is required for it to take place?

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

Well, you could just restart the x-server...

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Stevearch

Member

From: North Wales

Registered: 2014-04-21

Posts: 80

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

Well! what do you know!! IT WORKS!!
Thank you so much! Usually when someone misses an obvious part of the wiki you get slaughtered on here

Quick question though: I looked into the bug and it's marked as 'solved' https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=37686
How come i was still suffering from it though?

Thanks again for all your help

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

No worries, a pleasure
I saw that bug report too, don't know why they consider it "fixed"...
My setup (intel HD4600 integrated card) still needs the tearfree option enabled

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Stevearch

Member

From: North Wales

Registered: 2014-04-21

Posts: 80

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

No worries, a pleasure
I saw that bug report too, don't know why they consider it "fixed"...
My setup (intel HD4600 integrated card) still needs the tearfree option enabled

I wish i had your HD4600! the GPU horse-power I have is next to none! LAG LAG LAG
Doesn't help that im using the latest KDE on this little old laptop I guess!

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: Bad screen tearing in every environment. [SOLVED]

No, it wouldn't --- I use monsterwm; my cpu idles at 0.1% - 0.2%
EDIT: best mark the thread as [SOLVED] for the benefit of others with this problem...

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2014-05-07 19:48:05)

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî