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#1 2014-01-21 11:32:43

ironicbadger
Member
Registered: 2013-11-12
Posts: 17

Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

On the hardware in my sig I'm having a significant amount of horizontal tearing under playback with XBMC on a fresh install. I have been using this hardware since August to do exactly this (run a Xen kernel and playback XBMC on the host) and the performance has been great! The tearing occurs under both a stock kernel and a xen kernel so that is not the issue.

All settings and configurations are identical to a previous install that worked fine that I just restored using clonezilla, this image is about 2 months behind though. This makes me think that the issue must one of a few things. First, it could be the

- xf86 intel driver
- libva-intel-driver
- xorg (any part of it)
- kernel? (not sure about this one)

The KG installation is running kernel 3.12.0-1 whereas the problematic install runs the latest kernel 3.12.8-1.

I install the following to get XBMC to work on both installs, one has tearing - the other does not on the same hardware.

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-xinit libva-intel-driver xf86-video-intel

What information is going to best help someone troubleshoot my issue? I could post all sorts of files but wouldn't mind someone helping me narrow things down a little first...

Here's an XBMC log if it helps from the fresh install with the issue described.
http://pastebin.com/UNWnRiQ5

Thanks in advance.


** I have read the Wiki and the thread below amongst other things trying to resolve my issue, but it didn't work or is not really relevant I don't think or too old.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1018579

The wiki section for tear free makes things better but not perfect, this wasn't required before either.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
EndSection

Last edited by ironicbadger (2014-01-21 11:50:06)


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#2 2014-01-21 13:09:30

ironicbadger
Member
Registered: 2013-11-12
Posts: 17

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Ok, so the 20-intel.conf edit appears to have done the trick after a reboot (or several I lost track).

I think I had installed the intel-git driver from AUR during testing, once I removed this and went back to all stock with the 20-intel.conf things are just peachy.

Hope this helps anyone in future.


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#3 2014-01-21 17:54:17

kayrune
Member
Registered: 2007-12-15
Posts: 43

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

You should not use the tearfree option, it seems to mess up the xbmc render and even though you get tearfree playback you will not get smooth playback. Many people don't notice this though.

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#4 2014-01-23 11:43:30

ironicbadger
Member
Registered: 2013-11-12
Posts: 17

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Is there an alternative you can suggest to the tearfree option? Disabling it makes for an unwatchable video, where as enabling it makes it watchable.


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#5 2014-02-02 19:07:51

binaryjay
Member
Registered: 2013-08-08
Posts: 4

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

I just wanted to chime in that as of a while ago, I started suffering from this as well and the only thing I could do to make videos watchable without crazy tearing is enabling tearfree which was never needed before and nothing else in my system changed.

I have noticed some oddities using tearfree like sudden short periods of things going out of sync either slowing down or speeding up slightly particularly it seems for SD content for whatever reason.

I cannot figure out what went wrong I believe when I first notice it I even tried downgrading a few packages but could not resolve it.  It may have been related to a kernel update, xbmc change (I am using git) or the intel packages I have no idea.

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#6 2014-02-02 19:12:29

graysky
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From: :wq
Registered: 2008-12-01
Posts: 10,595
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Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Recommend you remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf and build the drive from git until upstream gets it sorted out.  Link to driver: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xf86 … intel-git/


CPU-optimized Linux-ck packages @ Repo-ck  • AUR packagesZsh and other configs

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#7 2014-02-06 17:06:22

ironicbadger
Member
Registered: 2013-11-12
Posts: 17

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

This git driver doesn't resolve the issue. Without tear free, it's as bad as ever.

With the git driver I still require 20-intel.conf to make things watchable.

Last edited by ironicbadger (2014-02-06 17:13:56)


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#8 2014-02-10 06:31:12

Vash63
Member
Registered: 2012-09-22
Posts: 30

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Latest version of the git driver here also and no luck. The tearfree option sucks also as it makes the frame timing weird, especially noticeable in games and anything high FPS.

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#9 2014-02-10 10:05:51

graysky
Wiki Maintainer
From: :wq
Registered: 2008-12-01
Posts: 10,595
Website

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Do you get the same tearing if you use another video player app like mplayer?  I am not suggesting this as a solution, but as a means to troubleshoot.  Is it an xbmc or general problem?


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#10 2014-02-10 21:31:33

pl
Member
Registered: 2014-02-10
Posts: 32

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Hey,

I had the same problem on two Intel builds. Can be fixed with:

adr3nal1n wrote:

No need to downgrade packages,

Simply add the following to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to prevent screen tearing with nvidia cards.

Section "Extensions"
   Option         "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Hope this helps.

from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=175820 and with possible cause explained at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=176651

Other solutions are using SNA with Option TearFree enabled or running a compositor like compton, but both can mess with other things so I'd suggest the first solution if that works for you. Fixed it for me at least!

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#11 2014-02-11 14:10:12

ironicbadger
Member
Registered: 2013-11-12
Posts: 17

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Yes, this did the trick thank you!!

Simply add the following to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to prevent screen tearing with nvidia cards.

Section "Extensions"
   Option         "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

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#12 2014-02-11 18:27:33

Emphrygian
Member
Registered: 2007-04-18
Posts: 27

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

I can confirm the xorg.conf fix did the trick for me as well (i3-4330).

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#13 2014-02-13 01:51:29

Vash63
Member
Registered: 2012-09-22
Posts: 30

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

pl wrote:

Hey,

I had the same problem on two Intel builds. Can be fixed with:

adr3nal1n wrote:

No need to downgrade packages,

Simply add the following to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to prevent screen tearing with nvidia cards.

Section "Extensions"
   Option         "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Hope this helps.

from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=175820 and with possible cause explained at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=176651

Other solutions are using SNA with Option TearFree enabled or running a compositor like compton, but both can mess with other things so I'd suggest the first solution if that works for you. Fixed it for me at least!

Thanks, the AUR package for SDL from your second link worked great for me, much less harmful than turning off Composite or using TearFree.

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#14 2014-02-25 13:22:43

ironicbadger
Member
Registered: 2013-11-12
Posts: 17

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Just tried out the SDL fix too, and this appears to have less impact on my desktop installation.

Simple fix, thanks!

1) Install sdl-nobackingstore from AUR
2) run this:

export SDL_VIDEO_X11_BACKINGSTORE=1

3) Problem solved.

Last edited by ironicbadger (2014-02-25 13:23:11)


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#15 2014-03-02 21:53:36

bernd_b
Member
Registered: 2013-07-30
Posts: 164

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

I don't understand this (apart from having no effect on my tearing problems with cmplayer on my HD2000-graphics box).

The thread you rely on says:

If you have compositing extension enabled, sdl 1.2 based opengl apps will produce tearing unless you manage to disable backing store.

The patched package for sdl offered there is supposed to have the chance to disable(!?11?) backingstore.

Now you suggesting to enable backingstore and your problems are fixed? Shouldn't it be enabled anyway with the default package shipped by the repositories?

Last edited by bernd_b (2014-03-02 21:54:40)

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#16 2014-04-22 16:59:11

rufflove
Member
From: Holmfirth, UK
Registered: 2010-11-22
Posts: 96

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

The 'tearfree' driver option bears too high a performance hit for my liking and disabling compositing is a bit drastic - it's 2014, not 2004...

The SDL patch will get rid of the vsync problem if your desktop uses mutter for compositing (I've test with gnome-shell and gala). I'd guess it resolves the problem under Cinnamon too, as its compositor is forked from mutter. If your compositor uses xrender, you'll still see tearing when you launch xbmc from the desktop, so xfwm4, metacity, compton etc. should be avoided for the time being.

As bernd_b mentions, ironicbadger doesn't appear to grasp the problem. Simply put,  just install sdl-nobackingstore and don't use an xrender based compositor.


"Its too big and too slow"

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#17 2014-05-02 22:44:04

Vash63
Member
Registered: 2012-09-22
Posts: 30

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

Is there a bug open for this yet? I switched to an Nvidia GPU on this computer and I STILL need that nobackingstore patch to make this work correctly. XBMC says it's not their bug; whose is it?

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#18 2014-05-06 09:48:12

starquake
Member
Registered: 2013-05-03
Posts: 13

Re: Intel graphics horizontal tearing in XBMC standalone on fresh install

This thread states it's a bug in Xorg

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=176651

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