[SOLVED]Screen tearing on xfce with proprietary nvidia drivers.

BhaskarK · 2016-07-09 03:21:15

EDIT:
The Problem has been solved by installing bumblebee instead of NVIDIA Optimus. Please check the Wiki for more info. There is still a lack of options in the nvidia-settings dialog but the tearing has gone.
Happy Tweaking!

---

So when I posted my last query I didn't notice this problem and most of the problems there have already been solved. I have got an ASUS A555LF notebook with dedicated Nvidia Geforce 930M graphics. During the installation I chose to install the proprietary drivers along with the nvidia-settings applet. Now, I am noticing considerable screen tearing issues while watching videos , moving windows, or playing games.

 lspci | grep -E "VGA|3D"

gives

 
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics (rev 09)
04:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM108M [GeForce 930M] (rev a2)

that means I have both an integrated and a dedicated chip (right?).

So, I chose to use nvidia optimus and here's my 20-nvidia.conf file from xorg.conf.d directory:

Section "Module"
    Load "modesetting"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Driver "nvidia"
    BusID "4:0:0"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "PerfLevelSrc=0x3322; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1; PowerMizerDefault=0x3"
    Option         "TripleBuffer" "False"
    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On , ForceCompositionPipeline= On }"
    Option "Tearfree" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "nvidia"
#   Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
    Option         "AllowIndirectGLXProtocol" "off"
#   Option         "TripleBuffer" "on"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

the alternative configuration section on the optimus page mentions that adding these lines to xorg.conf (20-nvidia.conf in my case) might solve problems in some cases:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "intel"
    Driver      "modesetting"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
    #Option      "TearFree" "True"
    #Option      "Tiling" "True"
    #Option      "SwapbuffersWait" "True"
EndSection

However, on adding them, I get stuck at

[OK] Target Graphical Interface Reached.

instead of getting the sddm manager.

Also, my nvidia-settings window is showing incomplete options. There must be a 'Sync every Vblank' option there but what I am getting is this :

http://i.imgur.com/eUCpfbm.png

note the line " Currently Synced to display: unknown".

Here might lie the main cause of the tearing problem. Please Help!

Last edited by BhaskarK (2016-07-09 12:38:43)

cra1g321 · 2016-07-09 03:33:15

** Edit, apologies just looked at your config file, and you seem to have this setting added **

I have a GT730 in my desktop and had been getting tearing with scrolling in browsers and html5 videos, what fixed it was doing

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"

then i used this useful website http://www.vsynctester.com/ to check the tearing had gone.

I have the code set to run everytime i login by my openbox autostart config file, i've never looked at the nvidia-settings GUI to see if there is way to do it with it.

Last edited by cra1g321 (2016-07-09 03:35:19)

brebs · 2016-07-09 08:35:24

cra1g321's command above, is enough to fix vsync

Funnily enough, an even better test than Youtube of whether vsync is really taking effect, is just to scroll up and down a few times in an email within Thunderbird - any tearing is very noticeable.

As an alternative: I have temporarily played with ortle, which has the advantage over compton in that there isn't a ton of command-line option combinations to experiment with. Both ortle and compton fix the vsync.

BhaskarK · 2016-07-09 10:48:33

cra1g321 wrote:

** Edit, apologies just looked at your config file, and you seem to have this setting added **
I have a GT730 in my desktop and had been getting tearing with scrolling in browsers and html5 videos, what fixed it was doing
nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
then i used this useful website http://www.vsynctester.com/ to check the tearing had gone.
I have the code set to run everytime i login by my openbox autostart config file, i've never looked at the nvidia-settings GUI to see if there is way to do it with it.

Yes, after a number of tries, nothing seems to be working, even the ForceCompositionPipeline method.
Thanks for the vsync tester, it's quite a handy tool.

brebs wrote:

cra1g321's command above, is enough to fix vsync smile
Funnily enough, an even better test than Youtube of whether vsync is really taking effect, is just to scroll up and down a few times in an email within Thunderbird - any tearing is very noticeable.
As an alternative: I have temporarily played with ortle, which has the advantage over compton in that there isn't a ton of command-line option combinations to experiment with. Both ortle and compton fix the vsync.

As he himself mentioned above, I have already tried that and it didn't do anything.
Nevertheless I tried ortle and it also failed (I noticed even more tearing than before). I am presently using xfce's own composting manager. Even compton failed to do anything.

Now, I've got a theory that the problem is something to do with the hardware-software connection because the nvidia-settings dialog is not even detecting all options available with the gpu. I am pretty sure that if I can get a vsync option there, the tearing will be solved quite easily. Is there any way to check if I have installed the drivers correctly and whether my notebook is actually using the gpu instead of the integrated card.

Thanks !

BhaskarK · 2016-07-09 12:36:15

Goddamn YEAH!
Solved the problem, it was a problem with Optimus itself. There is still no vsync option in nvidia-settings but I have fixed the tearing by installing

bumblebee

instead.
Working like a charm !

Marking solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-07-09 03:21:15

[SOLVED]Screen tearing on xfce with proprietary nvidia drivers.

#2 2016-07-09 03:33:15

Re: [SOLVED]Screen tearing on xfce with proprietary nvidia drivers.

#3 2016-07-09 08:35:24

Re: [SOLVED]Screen tearing on xfce with proprietary nvidia drivers.

#4 2016-07-09 10:48:33

Re: [SOLVED]Screen tearing on xfce with proprietary nvidia drivers.

#5 2016-07-09 12:36:15

Re: [SOLVED]Screen tearing on xfce with proprietary nvidia drivers.

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