Arch Linux

woah

Member

Registered: 2008-09-16

Posts: 12

Screen flickers when certain elements of windows change in X

I just switched from Archlinux 64 bit to 32 bit to get flash working (and I've also noticed things are running much faster), as chrooting to a 32 bit environment did not help.

I've installed the latest nvidia drivers on the repository (I have a recent nvidia card--8800GTS512), along with X and fluxbox.  I simply copied what packages I had installed on the 64 bit distro and used a script to automate the install of them on the new 32 bit one (of course, installing 32 bit packages instead).

Everything is working fine (just like the 64bit distro, but a little bit faster), except for 1 thing.  After X is started, whenever certain window elements change rapidly, the screen flickers.  For example, if I have vim running in a terminal (in an X window), whenever the status changes rapidly (ie indicating a different line number), the screen will flicker (very distracting when one is trying to code).  In addition, viewing some websites cause it to flicker.  I don't have many other examples of when it flickers since most of what I do is simply coding and web browsing.  Though, I can say the screen does not flicker when viewing movies in mplayer or running intensive opengl programs.  I did not have this problem on the 64bit machine, which I had installed about a day ago.

I simply copied the xorg.conf file I configured on the 64bit machine to the 32bit one.  Here it is:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
#    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# Additional fonts: Locale, Gimp, TTF...
#    FontPath     "/usr/share/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/75dpi"
#    FontPath     "/usr/share/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/100dpi"
# True type and type1 fonts are also handled via xftlib, see /etc/X11/XftConfig!
    RgbPath         "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
    ModulePath      "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/western"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/defoma/CID"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/defoma/TrueType"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"

#    Load           "dri"  # nvidia overrides dri
#    Load           "ddc"  # ddc probing of monitor; X says compiled in kernel
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "glx"    # opengl X interface
    Load           "bitmap" # bitmap-fonts
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "record"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # Option         "XkbOptions" "altwin:left_meta_win"
    # Option         "XkbOptions" "altwin"
    # Fix keyboard repeat delay (lower first num is faster)
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "keyboard"
    Option         "CoreKeyboard"
    Option         "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
    Option         "XkbVariant" ""
    # Enable alt and win meta keys
    Option         "AutoRepeat" "220 30"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

#    Option         "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
    Identifier     "USB Mouse"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB-PS.2_Optical_Mouse-mouse"
    Option         "SendCoreEvents" "true"
#    Option         "Protocol"       "ExplorerPS/2"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option         "Buttons" "7"
    Option         "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7"
    Option         "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Serial Mouse"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "Microsoft"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
    Option         "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
    Option         "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "PS/2 Mouse"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
    Option         "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
    Option         "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

#    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mouse1"
    Identifier     "Evdev Mouse"
    Driver         "evdev"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB-PS.2_Optical_Mouse-event-mouse"
    Option         "Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse" "Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse"
    Option         "evBits" "+1-2"
    Option         "keyBits" "~272-287"
    Option         "relBits" "~0-2 ~6 ~8"
    Option         "Pass" "3"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Samsung SyncMaster"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    ModeLine       "1024x768" 78.800 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800 +hsync +vsync
    ModeLine       "800x600" 49.500 800 816 896 1056 600 601 604 625 +hsync +vsync
    ModeLine       "640x480" 31.500 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -hsync -vsync
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

# Section "Monitor"
#     Identifier     "Monitor1"
#     VendorName     "Unknown"
#     ModelName      "DELL 1905FP"
#     HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
#     VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
#     ModeLine       "1024x768" 75.000 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync
#     Option         "DPMS"
# EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8800 GTS 512"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          0
   
    Option         "NoLogo" "False"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
    Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0"
    Option         "TripleBuffer" "True"
    # Pixel data for occluded window regions is remembered
    Option         "BackingStore" "True"
    Option         "DamageEvents" "True"
    Option         "NvAGP" "0"
    Option         "HWCursor" "True"
    Option         "SWCursor" "False"
    Option         "UseEdidFreqs" "True"
    Option         "UseEDID" "True"
    Option         "NoBandWidthTest" "False"
    Option         "NoPowerConnectorCheck" "False"

    Option         "VBERestore" "True"
EndSection

# Section "Device"
#     Identifier     "Videocard1"
#     Driver         "nvidia"
#     VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
#     BoardName      "GeForce 8800 GTS 512"
#     BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
#     Screen          1
#     
#     Option         "NoLogo" "False"
#     Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
#     Option         "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-1"
#     Option         "TripleBuffer" "True"
#     # Pixel data for occluded window regions is remembered
#     Option         "BackingStore" "True"
#     Option         "DamageEvents" "True"
#     Option         "NvAGP" "0"
#     Option         "HWCursor" "True"
#     Option         "SWCursor" "False"
#     Option         "UseEdidFreqs" "True"
#     Option         "UseEDID" "True"
#     Option         "NoBandWidthTest" "False"
#     Option         "NoPowerConnectorCheck" "False"
#
# EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1024x768_75 +0+0; DFP-0: 800x600 +0+0; DFP-0: 640x480 +0+0; DFP-0: 1024x768 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

# Section "Screen"
#     Identifier     "Screen1"
#     Device         "Videocard1"
#     Monitor        "Monitor1"
#     DefaultDepth    24
#     Option         "TwinView" "0"
#     Option         "metamodes" "DFP-1: 1024x768_70 +0+0"
#     SubSection     "Display"
#         Depth       24
#     EndSubSection
# EndSection

If anyone has any ideas on why the screen may be flickering, your input would be appreciated (I highly doubt it's a hardware problem, since the system was functioning fine just days ago, and the chances the problem would occur in sync with switch from 64bit to 32bit are very slim).

woah

Member

Registered: 2008-09-16

Posts: 12

Re: Screen flickers when certain elements of windows change in X

I'd also like to add that when dragging windows on top of other windows, the window movement will become extremely slow and laggy.

woah

Member

Registered: 2008-09-16

Posts: 12

Re: Screen flickers when certain elements of windows change in X

You can mark this as solved (well, at least mostly).  I got the flickering to stop by removing a "*background: Beige" line from an XTerm configuration file.  The line created absolutely no problems with Xorg on my other install, but it really messed things up on this one.

On the other hand, I still have the window lag which I described above.  Not really sure why that's happening.