[SOLVED] Screen Tearing/Low Refresh Rate

萌新-Newbie · 2023-04-02 18:55:09

I made a fresh installation of Arch Linux on Dell Inspiron 16 plus laptop. Notice this laptop has NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti.

In the Linux virtual console, whether its during or after the installation, the screen failed to refresh promptly in response to the characters I typed. For example, when I type `pacman -Syyu`, it would take a second to render this line on the screen, or it wouldn't do it at all. However, the shell received this message, so when I press Enter anyway, the command are executed. It doesn't refresh quick enough for new line characters neither, and so the commands output disappears and become invisible as they don't refresh.

Disheartened, I installed sway windows manager. The same problem persists, and the cursor tears the screen into many horizontal lines after moving the cursor. Sometimes the cursor disappears due to lagging refreshing. The same problem can be reproduced on other distros that uses Linux 6.* kernels.

However, after downloading an archived version of Manjaro, the screen tearing is fixed. I realized that Linux 5.15 have some magic, and by installing it on Arch, it does fix the screen tearing. However, it also causes the failure to detect NIC on the laptop.

Therefore, I end up have to use Linux 6.* and I want to know if there is a way to fix it. Here are log files from booting into Linux 629 and Linux 515. The files with `full` in the end have no filter, while the files without have `--priority 5` as filter during collection of the log. I am happy to provide more information as necessary. https://drive.google.com/file/d/197kdgK … sp=sharing

Thanks for your time.

Last edited by 萌新-Newbie (2023-04-03 18:53:55)

seth · 2023-04-02 20:28:04

Try to use the binary nvidia driver instead of nouveau (install nvidia and nvidia-utils)

Sidebar:

when I type `pacman -Syyu`

Why would you type that?
Check the pacman manpage on the meaning of the second "y" and then stop using it unless you really, actually, positively, absolutely mean to.
You're causing undue burden on the mirror and risk to damage your local database.

萌新-Newbie · 2023-04-03 03:58:11

Thanks for your advice. I had always believed that `-Syyu` does the update, not until today I read the manual and realized that meant forced refresh of the database, regardless of necessity.

Back to this problem, I tried combinations of `nvidia` + `nvidia-utils` and `nvidia-dkms` + `nvidia-utils`, and none solved the slow refresh problem with Linux 6.*. The output of `journalctl` under all 4 scenarios can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YTgy-q … sp=sharing.

I made a few observations during the testing:
1. The HDMI output, a 1920x1080@60hz HP E243 display always works. A demo video of running `python -c '[print(x) for x in range(10000)]'` can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B2xs2j … sp=sharing, which we can see that the laptop display have an observable latency before things printed out are updated.
2. Linux 515 doesn't seem to have loaded `nouveau` or `nvidia`. I collected the outputs of `sudo lsmod` and ran the following command `diff <(cat linux-515-modules.txt | awk '{print $1}') <(cat linux-629-modules.txt | awk '{print $1}')`. Those results are saved in the `module` folder of the zip.

seth · 2023-04-03 07:33:15

It's a hybrid graphics system, the problem is i915, not nvidia (the HDMI output likely being attached to the latter)
Try to disable PSR and FBC, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel_ … flickering & https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel_ … nable_fbc)
My money is more on PSR

萌新-Newbie · 2023-04-03 14:30:50

Thanks! Disabling psr actually does the job.

Last edited by 萌新-Newbie (2023-04-03 14:31:00)

seth · 2023-04-03 14:38:27

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-04-02 18:55:09

[SOLVED] Screen Tearing/Low Refresh Rate

#2 2023-04-02 20:28:04

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Tearing/Low Refresh Rate

#3 2023-04-03 03:58:11

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Tearing/Low Refresh Rate

#4 2023-04-03 07:33:15

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Tearing/Low Refresh Rate

#5 2023-04-03 14:30:50

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Tearing/Low Refresh Rate

#6 2023-04-03 14:38:27

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Tearing/Low Refresh Rate

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