KDE visual glitches (with video example)

silencer · 2016-11-02 15:46:18

Hi!

I have everything up to date, and I'm experiencing some off visual glitches with KDE. I've uploaded a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trByWCJp1BI. This is the system settings, you can see that when I scroll from bottom to top, the row of items has some issues that get fixed as soon as a redraw takes place (when I hover it). It doesn't seem to matter if I have compositing enabled or not. In the video there's no compositing.

Later in the video I show what happens when I open, for instance, Dolphin. I'm not sure if that's related, but you can see how it draws the border first and the content shows a little lat. The time that passes until the content appears can vary (the longest I experienced was 5 seconds). It happens as well, for instance, with the contextual menu that appears when I click the right mouse button over an item or the desktop.

Sometimes it's like is some windows failed to upload their content for a while. I've been experiencing small freezes as well. Seem like "visual" freezes, where I can move the mouse, but nothing else happens. They last a few seconds (between 1 and 3, I've seen).

None of this happens with Gnome. In Gnome windows open just perfect and fast, and no freezing at all.

I'm using an Alienware 15r2, it has an Intel Core i7-6700HQ. I'm using bumblebeed and the integrated graphic card (Intel HD Graphics 530).

Do you have any ideas on what might be happening?

Thank you!

damjan · 2016-11-02 21:34:50

use the modesetting driver with intel graphics (why bumblebeed btw?).

silencer · 2016-11-02 23:17:24

damjan wrote:

use the modesetting driver with intel graphics (why bumblebeed btw?).

Thank you Damjan, I'll try that. Is there a reason why it has issues using normal Intel drivers? I'm using bumblebeed because this machine also has an nVidia GTX 970M, and I'm using the USB Type-C output (and not the HDMI). The HDMI seems to be connected directly to the nVidia card, while with the USB Type-C and Bumblebeed I can turn off the nVidia card and use the integrated one.

EDIT: some grammar

Last edited by silencer (2016-11-02 23:19:40)

V1del · 2016-11-02 23:48:42

The normal intel drivers haven't really seen much development recently (the last official release was years ago, the latest commits are usually only a few line fixes with no substantial updates) whereas the modesetting driver is actively maintained, the normal intel driver has always been problematic with how KDE intends to use the card.

Last edited by V1del (2016-11-02 23:50:44)

silencer · 2016-11-03 03:49:12

I removed the xf86-video-intel package and removed my xorg config. Xorg runs but the glitches are still there. How can I make sure I'm using modesetting?

JohnBobSmith · 2016-11-03 11:01:40

Disclaimer: I do not use KDE or intel or nvidia, but here's my 2 cents...

Your scrolling looks completely fine to me, I'm not sure whats wrong there. Your file manager being somewhat transparent before opening, however, seems to me like a slow/bogged down machine. Because it takes dolphin (dolphin??) a bit to long to fully open, a brief blank window is created. This can happen on first boot, especially after a cold boot, or when you're draining the system resources for any reason. Because KDE is resource heavy, this begs the question: How much RAM do you have? What is the output of free -h ? To ensure you are using modesetting, I would expect to see output in either an xorg log, dmesg, or the journal. But right now, I think that using modesetting probably wont help you very much. Chances are high that the integrated graphics chip is not the best for running KDE. Do you have all your intel related microcode updates installed? That may help. Also, can you use your discrete graphics card for running KDE? If that fixes the issue, we can blame the integrated graphics. If it doesn't, you have other issues and we can continue troubleshooting from there.

silencer · 2016-11-03 14:43:45

I don't think is a ram issue. I have 16 Gb of it. Windows and Gnome works just fine with the Intel card. I'll keep trying to see what the problem is. Thank you!

seth · 2016-11-03 16:14:02

There're two issues here:

a) dolphin slow to start - strace it and check what's going on between showing the window frame and finally mapping the window (this one should be covered by the compositor which would stall the frame until the window signals that it's ready)

b) QtQuick (systemsettings redraw issue) - try "LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 systemsettings", but don't expect too much.

silencer · 2016-11-03 16:45:28

seth wrote:

There're two issues here:
a) dolphin slow to start - strace it and check what's going on between showing the window frame and finally mapping the window (this one should be covered by the compositor which would stall the frame until the window signals that it's ready)
b) QtQuick (systemsettings redraw issue) - try "LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 systemsettings", but don't expect too much.

Thank you Seth!, I'll try that to see what I can find. I've noticed as well that sometimes, with some applications (really notable with Kate) there is a long delay between the click on the Close button and the window closing. Odd, I don't know if it's related, but wanted to mention it.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-11-02 15:46:18

KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#2 2016-11-02 21:34:50

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#3 2016-11-02 23:17:24

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#4 2016-11-02 23:48:42

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#5 2016-11-03 03:49:12

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#6 2016-11-03 11:01:40

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#7 2016-11-03 14:43:45

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#8 2016-11-03 16:14:02

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

#9 2016-11-03 16:45:28

Re: KDE visual glitches (with video example)

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