[SOLVED] Video breakup on starting compiz 0.8 - amd

freebird54 · 2019-12-23 07:40:16

New to Arch - more familiar with AmigaDOS(!) and 'buntus, but I thought I'd try to find an answer here. I built a mid-range AMD system with a Ryzen 5 2400G (integrated graphics) and put a number of distros on it - and finally got a very nice (to me) Arch running on it - my preferred setup. I also run an MX-19 (among others) on the same machine, and on it compiz 0.8 (reloaded) works without problems. However, any attempt to start the same compiz on Arch causes video breakup (it looks almost as if it was displaying the wrong buffer?) that consists of 'sparkles' over anything that conveys information, such as text. The capability of moving windows etc is also missing. It can be rescued by blind typing: "xfwm4 --replace &", but does not seem to get the mouse settings back cleanly (if that matters).

As far as I can tell, I have all the same packages on both systems, and similar configurations. Logs show nothing happening at all (journalctl -r) when the problems occur. I can't find a configuration file that differs between the two systems - but I may not be looking in the right places. Both systems run XFCE 4.14 (including xfwm4 as a window manager when not in compiz) so I can think of nothing easy that causes the difference.
The one major thing I can think of is backtracking to an lts kernel (similar to MX), but I am hoping not have to deal with that! When I run inxi -F, I see there is a small difference in the Graphics section of its output - after reporting the X11 server version, it appears that Arch has a modesetting driver in use, where MX-19 uses amdgpu. I am unable thus far to discover WHERE it gets it, or why, (or how to get rid of it!) and I do not KNOW that this is the problem...... but it's all I have right now. Here's the combined inxi -F from both systems, with the differences (few) set off by dashed lines:

System:    Host: aerie Kernel: 5.4.6-arch1-1 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 Distro: Arch Linux 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System:    Host: aerie Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 
           Distro: MX-19_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME B450-PLUS v: Rev X.0x serial: <root required> 
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1201 date: 04/25/2019 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 2400G with Radeon Vega Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
           L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           Speed: 3877 MHz min/max: 1600/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3877 2: 3112 3: 3490 4: 3182 5: 3714 6: 3758 
           7: 3754 8: 3637 

Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Raven Ridge [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.6 driver: modesetting resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.35.0 5.4.6-arch1-1 LLVM 9.0.0) v: 4.5 Mesa 19.3.1 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Raven Ridge [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: amdgpu resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.27.0 4.19.0-6-amd64 LLVM 7.0.1) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audio:     Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.6-arch1-1 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 
           IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A 
           IF-ID-1: tun0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 8.41 TiB used: 756.94 GiB (8.8%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 250GB size: 232.89 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: Seagate model: Expansion Desk size: 1.82 TiB 
           ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T2B0A-00SM50 size: 931.51 GiB 
           ID-4: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Seagate model: Expansion Desk size: 1.82 TiB 
           ID-5: /dev/sdd vendor: Western Digital model: WD40EFRX-68N32N0 size: 3.64 TiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 31.47 GiB used: 13.51 GiB (42.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
           ID-2: /boot size: 511.0 MiB used: 162.7 MiB (31.8%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 
           ID-3: /home size: 229.70 GiB used: 5.21 GiB (2.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2 
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 1.92 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 35.6 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 35 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 253 Uptime: N/A Memory: 13.66 GiB used: 834.5 MiB (6.0%) Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.36

Hope I tagged that right. Anyway - any thoughts on the probable cause, or directions for further research (have been extensively trolling through Xorg and Archwiki docs, as well as general web info) would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

Freebird54

Last edited by freebird54 (2019-12-24 07:20:59)

V1del · 2019-12-23 10:05:48

For the xf86 driver, while I also doubt this to be the issue you could get that from xf86-video-amdgpu you could also test linux-lts to be closer to the kernel you have in your other system in the case that this is a kernel regression.

freebird54 · 2019-12-23 18:32:39

Well I actually did the LTS replacement, and it allows functionality - but I hesitate to mark it [solved] because I hopefully await an answer on the original question on how/where/why I got a 'modesetting' driver on my system, and how to remove it. When XFCE 4.14 arrived, I had similar video breakdown problems (sparkles, let's call them) that also were mitigated by using an LTS kernel - but were solved by:

 xfwm4 --vblank=xpresent --replace &

and allowed me to happily run a current kernel. This is why I wish to find out about the driver issue, as it may be trying to swap in a glx vblank setting, thus causing the problem.

Thanks for providing the 'motivation' to at least try the stopgap solution!

Freebird54

V1del · 2019-12-23 18:36:48

The modesetting driver is the default xorg ddx given you didn't explicitly install anything. You can install xf86-video-amdgpu and you get a few additional xorg options, though it isn't strictly necessary.

freebird54 · 2019-12-24 06:20:52

Well - that has provided the answer I sought - and perhaps my speculation as to the cause of the problem was headed in the right direction. I have installed

xf86-video-amdgpu

This gives the following Graphics subsection in inxi -F now

Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Raven Ridge [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.6 driver: amdgpu resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.35.0 5.4.6-arch1-1 LLVM 9.0.0) v: 4.5 Mesa 19.3.1

that I have removed the LTS kernel, and everything appears to work just fine together. Perhaps 'modesetting' was defaulting to a glx setting? I created a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d (20-amd.conf) as follows:

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "AMD"
	Driver "amdgpu"
    Option "TearFree" "on"
EndSection

and the result is a tear free as well as 'sparkle free' situation. Thank you so much for the search direction - google wasn't getting me too far on this!

I'll get it marked {SOLVED] now - if I can figure it out.
Freebird54

freebird54 · 2019-12-28 19:34:48

I just want to point out (if anyone else runs into this) that the 'tear free' capability might have been the difference maker, rather than the driver change itself. Of course, it seems the 'tear free' is only available with the replacement driver. I shall try to figure out the parameters of which fix is operative, perhaps on another distro with the same problem (I have 5 set up).

Sure is nice to get it solved this quickly though

Freebird

Arch Linux

#1 2019-12-23 07:40:16

[SOLVED] Video breakup on starting compiz 0.8 - amd

#2 2019-12-23 10:05:48

Re: [SOLVED] Video breakup on starting compiz 0.8 - amd

#3 2019-12-23 18:32:39

Re: [SOLVED] Video breakup on starting compiz 0.8 - amd

#4 2019-12-23 18:36:48

Re: [SOLVED] Video breakup on starting compiz 0.8 - amd

#5 2019-12-24 06:20:52

Re: [SOLVED] Video breakup on starting compiz 0.8 - amd

#6 2019-12-28 19:34:48

Re: [SOLVED] Video breakup on starting compiz 0.8 - amd

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