Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

adintra · 2020-01-07 20:48:15

Since sometime last week (can't remember exactly when), I have horizontal blinking/artifacts that appear in all applications except for terminal. This appears as flickering white and/or gray lines, and it seems especially bad in applications with a light background (such as this forum). This doesn't show up when recording the screen. Here is a video that shows the issue: https://youtu.be/s23TLEGJ4jI

Laptop specs:
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (6th Gen)
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620

Using i3gaps and xcompmgr

Things I have tried:
- switch to LTS kernel

- follow directions from the Tearing section for Intel graphics. i.e., adding

Section "Device"
  Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
  Driver      "intel"
  Option      "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

- turning off xcompmgr

I'm relatively new to Arch, so please let me know what further information is needed.

Last edited by adintra (2020-01-07 22:54:34)

ewaller · 2020-01-07 20:51:29

I have to ask. How did you install Arch and what guide did you use? And why did you elect to install the (problematic) intel driver?

adintra · 2020-01-07 20:56:24

I installed Arch from a live image back in May using the Installation Guide. I installed the xf86-video-intel driver as part of the troubleshooting for this problem.

Last edited by adintra (2020-01-07 20:57:04)

ewaller · 2020-01-07 21:04:18

Fair enough. Try it without the intel driver. What happens if you kill xcompmgr ?

adintra · 2020-01-07 21:09:28

Try it without the intel driver

I've tried deleting the 20-intel.conf file and rebooting/restarting X. The problem still persists.

What happens if you kill xcompmgr

Same deal. All that happens is my terminal window loses its transparency.

ewaller · 2020-01-07 21:14:49

I assume this is the internal display. What happens with an external display?

When you say it does not happen while recording the screen. Is the screen quiet during the time you are recording? or is there no noise in the recorded stream?
Are you using the display at its native resolution?

adintra · 2020-01-07 21:19:34

I don't currently have access to an external display - I'll check that as soon as I can.

The screen is NOT quiet during recording, but the tearing/flickering doesn't show up in the recording. The display is in it's native resolution of 2560x1440 @ 60Hz.

Are you thinking it could be related to the monitor hardware?

adintra · 2020-01-07 21:24:04

I recorded a quick video on my phone that shows the issue.

https://youtu.be/s23TLEGJ4jI

ewaller · 2020-01-07 21:40:57

Don't know what that is. I was concerned you were actually having problems with the LCD; it does not appear to be so. What it does look like is what used to happen on ancient memory mapped displays when the memory was busy (with a DMA or something). I don't actually suspect that is what is happening here. You say you went with the LTS kernel, so it is not a new kernel issue.

It could be a power supply or backlight problem. I am very interested in an external display and how it performs.

adintra · 2020-01-07 21:52:08

I'll check how an external display works as soon as I'm home in about 3 hours. Thanks for your help!

seth · 2020-01-07 22:01:16

appear in all applications except for terminal. This appears as flickering white and/or gray lines, and it seems especially bad in applications with a light background

The video seems to suggest the polar opposite. There're artifacts in the right terminal window w/ black background, right?

If this is the actual problem and the problem remains w/ the external output, please try different terminal colors (black on white instead of white on black - actually esp. avoid black for this test)

tried deleting the 20-intel.conf file and rebooting/restarting X

This will not necesarily elect the modesetting driver. Please check your xorg log and in doubt, purge the xf86-video-intel package.

adintra · 2020-01-07 22:15:32

Seth - what I mean re: the terminal is that the flickering doesn't appear if I have ONLY the terminal (or multiple terminal windows) open. If it's opened with something like Firefox, then the flickering affects the whole screen (as shown in the video).

Changing the terminal background to white seems to have no effect - with only the terminal open, there is no flickering, if there is another application open, then flickering is observed across the screen.

Also, removing the xf86-video-intel driver via pacman doesn't seem to have fixed the problem either.

adintra · 2020-01-08 00:11:35

An even further strangeness:

If I have two windows open (as in the video I posted), I only observe the flickering if the non-terminal application(firefox, in this case) is on the left side of the screen. If I switch the positions so that firefox is on the right, the flickering stops and doesn't come back.

Additionally, I noticed that there was flickering when I logged in as the root user with no graphical server at all - which suggests this isn't related to X, but whatever renders the initial tty? I've never seen anything like that before.
edit: uploaded a video to show flickering without graphical server https://youtu.be/6HpCpx95Etg

edit2: uploaded another video showing very bad flickering when viewing the Arch forum in a browser https://youtu.be/tWUXNpRy6d8. The flickering scrolls with the lines of text for each forum post.

Last edited by adintra (2020-01-08 00:32:59)

seth · 2020-01-08 07:18:08

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … flickering

adintra · 2020-01-08 18:21:46

Update: using an external monitor (connected via HDMI) doesn't cause any flickering.
Update2: adding i915.enable_psr=0 to the kernel parameters also doesn't fix the problem.

Last edited by adintra (2020-01-08 20:21:26)

seth · 2020-01-08 20:15:12

Did you try the psr parameter?
You can also try "i915.enable_dc=0 i915.enable_fbc=0 i915.enable_ips=false", but first try psr.

adintra · 2020-01-08 21:15:38

Did you try the psr parameter?
You can also try "i915.enable_dc=0 i915.enable_fbc=0 i915.enable_ips=false", but first try psr.

I tried each of things, both individually and together - no dice.

I also booted a live image of Parted Magic and observed the same flickering there.

Here's another video showing the weirdness with the position of the tiled windows. If firefox is on the left, the screen flickering occurs, but not if it's on the right. This is also true if I open a terminal below the firefox window on the left, i.e., the flickering only occurs on the portion of the screen that has a firefox window.

https://youtu.be/pMziTGCw8O0

seth · 2020-01-08 21:44:08

This increasingly smells like a HW problem (w/ the panel) - pixels right of open pixels aren't properly closed*
:-(

Do you have a windows installaion (or installation image, HW issues should show up there as well)
You could also try memtest86 and/or whether the same issue shows up in BIOS/UEFI (but you might require a fully white pixel to trigger it)

----
*The entire panel is lit and pixels are closed in some or all RGB subpixels to make it "black"

adintra · 2020-01-09 00:09:53

Thanks for all the help.

I don't have a windows image handy, but I can make one this evening or possibly over the weekend. I'll also let memtest86 run overnight and see if that yields anything.

It's definitely white pixel-related. If I change the theme of the Arch forum to dark using Stylish, the issue goes away.

It might be worth buying a replacement display, but I'll wait until I try the above tests.

Cheers, seth and ewaller - thanks again for your help.

seth · 2020-01-09 09:06:25

You don't need to run memtest as memtest, just as a not-linux-driving-my-output thing.

gboehl · 2020-08-24 09:30:43

I'm having the same problem, but only in terminal. Couldn't find any other clues somwhere else.

Where you able to figure out whats wrong? Is it a hardware problem?

To me it seemed as if the problem started to appear randomly. Downgrading linux-firmware, using LTS or switiching graphics drivers did not help...

adintra · 2020-08-24 16:00:33

@gboehl

> Where you able to figure out whats wrong? Is it a hardware problem?

Nope - still having this problem. I've tried inspecting the ribbon cables that connect the screen to the motherboard, but everything looks fine.

My next plan is just to buy a new screen and replace the monitor, I guess.

gboehl · 2020-08-25 12:49:15

I checked on Windows, same Problem here. So this is hardware related. I heavily doubt that it is the display, seems to be the graphics chip...

Arch Linux

#1 2020-01-07 20:48:15

Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#2 2020-01-07 20:51:29

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#3 2020-01-07 20:56:24

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#4 2020-01-07 21:04:18

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#5 2020-01-07 21:09:28

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#6 2020-01-07 21:14:49

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#7 2020-01-07 21:19:34

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#8 2020-01-07 21:24:04

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#9 2020-01-07 21:40:57

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#10 2020-01-07 21:52:08

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#11 2020-01-07 22:01:16

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#12 2020-01-07 22:15:32

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#13 2020-01-08 00:11:35

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#14 2020-01-08 07:18:08

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#15 2020-01-08 18:21:46

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#16 2020-01-08 20:15:12

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#17 2020-01-08 21:15:38

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#18 2020-01-08 21:44:08

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#19 2020-01-09 00:09:53

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#20 2020-01-09 09:06:25

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#21 2020-08-24 09:30:43

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#22 2020-08-24 16:00:33

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

#23 2020-08-25 12:49:15

Re: Horizontal screen tearing in i3gaps/xcompmgr

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