Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

sol_caliente · 2021-02-10 15:18:02

Yesterday I installed the MATE Desktop environment, tried for a few minutes and noticed a screen tearing effect. It not only happened on the desktop or when moving windows around, it also happens when playing videos or games.
The things I've tried:

-Installing picom just as advised in: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MA … leshooting (Vertical sync for compositing).
When I installed it, I didn't know how to enable it, at least on the mate tweaks app. This is probably the solution but I need some help setting things up.

-Editing the 20-intel.conf file as advised in: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/in … cs#Tearing
This only broke my system, making it unable to boot in the default target (graphical.target). Fixed it by logging in arch-chroot and deleting the contents on this file that I added (the file was previously empty).

I'm running MATE 1.24.1, with marco (sans composing) as the windows manager. My laptop has an Intel HD Graphics 5500.

salquestfl · 2021-02-11 03:17:08

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Picom
has a link about how to autostart programs.

sol_caliente · 2021-02-11 14:17:06

salquestfl wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Picom
has a link about how to autostart programs.

Thanks, but it looks like that isn't the problem. Marco with composition does have screen tearing when manipulating windows and widgets. But screen tearing in those cases disappears when using marco without composition. The screen tearing on videos and games remains. I'm starting to think that it might be a driver issue, but the proposed solution on the wiki just breaks my system.

seth · 2021-02-11 16:01:03

It "breaks" your system because you most likely don't have xf86-video-intel install but use the modesetting driver (check your xorg log)
nb. that the intel driver is in zombie mode and frequently buggy.

1st, check that vsync isn't actually active, run glxgears - it'll tell you whether the refresh rate is limited.
If not, try "vblank_mode=3 glxgears"

sol_caliente · 2021-02-11 17:18:03

seth wrote:

It "breaks" your system because you most likely don't have xf86-video-intel install but use the modesetting driver (check your xorg log)
nb. that the intel driver is in zombie mode and frequently buggy.
1st, check that vsync isn't actually active, run glxgears - it'll tell you whether the refresh rate is limited.
If not, try "vblank_mode=3 glxgears"

Yes, I installed xf86-video-intel and tried it again, with accel method set to uxa as recommended in: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=199191:

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

Screen tearing persisted. Removing uxa as the accel method and setting it as sna, and enabling tear free as recommended in the wiki:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Intel Graphics"
  Driver "intel"

  Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

Makes my laptop boot into a black screen.
Checking the xorg log, I guess this is what I should check?:

[     6.204] (==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 0
[     6.204] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 1
[     6.204] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 2
[     6.204] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 3

Ran glxgears:

Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
317 frames in 5.0 seconds = 63.287 FPS

So vsync is active. Screen tearing persisted during the glxgears benchmark.

seth · 2021-02-11 21:31:10

Please post your xorg log and the output of "xrandr -q".
63Hz is a bit weird… does it stay at this value if you let glxgears run a bit longer?

sol_caliente · 2021-02-11 22:36:54

seth wrote:

Please post your xorg log and the output of "xrandr -q".
63Hz is a bit weird… does it stay at this value if you let glxgears run a bit longer?

xorg log: https://pastebin.com/F3Lneamm
xrandr -q output:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 174mm
   1366x768      60.00*+
   1280x720      60.00    59.99    59.86    59.74  
   1024x768      60.04    60.00  
   960x720       60.00  
   928x696       60.05  
   896x672       60.01  
   1024x576      59.95    59.96    59.90    59.82  
   960x600       59.93    60.00  
   960x540       59.96    59.99    59.63    59.82  
   800x600       60.00    60.32    56.25  
   840x525       60.01    59.88  
   864x486       59.92    59.57  
   700x525       59.98  
   800x450       59.95    59.82  
   640x512       60.02  
   700x450       59.96    59.88  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   720x405       59.51    58.99  
   684x384       59.88    59.85  
   640x400       59.88    59.98  
   640x360       59.86    59.83    59.84    59.32  
   512x384       60.00  
   512x288       60.00    59.92  
   480x270       59.63    59.82  
   400x300       60.32    56.34  
   432x243       59.92    59.57  
   320x240       60.05  
   360x202       59.51    59.13  
   320x180       59.84    59.32  
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

As for the glxgears, no, it starts hovering around 59.9999 and 60.0000 something.

seth · 2021-02-11 22:46:57

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ver_(i965) ?

sol_caliente · 2021-02-11 23:37:55

seth wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ver_(i965) ?

I'm not quite sure of how to revert to this old driver. Do I add a line to the .bashrc file like this?

 $MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i965

omernaveedxyz · 2021-02-12 07:31:32

I had a similar issue, but I'm not sure about what cpu you're running. You can try enabling hardware acceleration following this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ha … tion#Intel. I personally found best results with the libva-intel-driver. Following that, this is the post where I documented my issue and solution more specfically, feel free to test out for yourself. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=262198

V1del · 2021-02-12 07:58:11

The hardware acceleration page and the libva-intel-driver package is irrelevant for normal display/desktop purposes, that pertains to video file decoding. In your case if it only happened on youtube then that would explain this but it was established here that it's an issue on the normal desktop as well.

@sol_caliente the .bashrc is not guaranteed to be sourced if you start your session with a display manager, use something more global and add the line

export MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i965

to your /etc/profile or so.

sol_caliente · 2021-02-12 15:41:18

V1del wrote:

The hardware acceleration page and the libva-intel-driver package is irrelevant for normal display/desktop purposes, that pertains to video file decoding. In your case if it only happened on youtube then that would explain this but it was established here that it's an issue on the normal desktop as well.
@sol_caliente the .bashrc is not guaranteed to be sourced if you start your session with a display manager, use something more global and add the line
export MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i965
to your /etc/profile or so.

Will do.
Yes, the screen tearing happens on both videos on youtube and on mpv for example, in the glxgears benchmark demo and in games. I probably should change the topic because I think MATE doesn't have nothing to do with my problem hahaha.
As a heads up, disabling vsync on the glxgears demo made the screen tearing disappear. I tried using my desktop with vsync disabled as I read on: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/in … on_(VSYNC)

And yes, screen tearing in glxgears disappeared but in everything else is worse, as expected.

Last edited by sol_caliente (2021-02-12 15:52:19)

sol_caliente · 2021-02-12 16:10:43

UPDATE:
I'm not sure what I did, but screen tearing seemingly disappeared while playing videos on MPV. Haven't checked the games, but something tells me it'd be the case. The glxgears benchmark and the browser still shows screen tearing.
Tried https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1117546 to see if that way screen tearing disappeared from the browser, looks like it didn't.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-02-10 15:18:02

Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#2 2021-02-11 03:17:08

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#3 2021-02-11 14:17:06

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#4 2021-02-11 16:01:03

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#5 2021-02-11 17:18:03

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#6 2021-02-11 21:31:10

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#7 2021-02-11 22:36:54

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#8 2021-02-11 22:46:57

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#9 2021-02-11 23:37:55

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#10 2021-02-12 07:31:32

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#11 2021-02-12 07:58:11

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#12 2021-02-12 15:41:18

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

#13 2021-02-12 16:10:43

Re: Screen Tearing on MATE Desktop

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