[SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

v6ak · 2010-07-19 08:04:26

Some apps (Firefox/Namoroka, Thunderbird/Lanikai, gnome-terminal) have often rendering problems since my yesterday large upgrade. Some areas of these apps are randomly replaced by black or gray rectangles until they are rerendered. Alt+tab forces the rerender. It is difficult to capture it by gnome-screenshot, because it also causes rerendering.
The black area on following image is an example of such problems:
(Modal dialog probably allowed me to capture it.)

I think that something must be wrong with GTK. I've experienced no problems with Kdevelop. Problems with Jabbim (Python+Qt) are rare.

What is the source of such problems?

Last edited by v6ak (2010-07-20 20:49:48)

karol · 2010-07-19 08:17:32

What graphic card are you running, what video drivers, what have you updated.

Last edited by karol (2010-07-19 08:43:07)

v6ak · 2010-07-19 08:45:45

There is the important part of pacman.log: http://pastebin.com/6KAKpc3C (The notebook has not been used for cca 20 days.)
I've notebook HP ProBook 4710s VQ737EA#AKB with no hardware modiffications: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm … 35157.html
xorg.conf: http://pastebin.com/DhjLWSQp
I hope I'm using Fglrx drivers. BTW, I had to reinstall Fglrx drivers after this update because Archlinux complained that Fglrx module is not found and X11 didn't start. After the upgrade, the power rate increased cca 5W like with opensource graphic drivers.

Note that the areas can be scrolled. If a part of the area becomes invisible due to the scrolling and then it becomes visible due to scrolling, the part is rerendered and becomes OK. I think that these problems are related to GTK rather than graphic driver. I haven't experienced these problems with Eclipse also, but I haven't used it much since the upgrade.

I use SLIM (Login manager) and Openbox (Window manager).

There is another problem with keyboard layout that was caused by the same upgrade: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 82#p794482 (It is probably unrelated.)

karol · 2010-07-19 09:06:53

You haven't updated for some time, so many things changed at once when you finally did.
I have no idea what might be the reason for the rendering / refreshing problems.

drcouzelis · 2010-07-19 12:58:01

I had a similar problem. I have a Radeon X850 that I use with the open source radeon driver.

I fixed it by enabling KMS.

Last edited by drcouzelis (2010-07-19 13:15:53)

v6ak · 2010-07-19 16:32:45

Thank you, it is an interresting information. FYI, I switched to proprietary Fglrx (Catalyst) drivers because of power rate. The difference seems to be about 5W-10W, so it is not a small difference.

$ hwdetect --show-video
VIDEO  : output fglrx

I'm going to try KMS. (You mean http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KMS , don't you?) Is there any command that allows anybody to detect KMS?

drcouzelis · 2010-07-19 18:11:45

v6ak wrote:

You mean http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KMS , don't you?

Yes. I use "Early KMS start".

v6ak · 2010-07-19 20:33:17

So, using opensource ATI drivers instead of Fglrx solves this problem, but it increased power rate. I've read that the next kernel (2.6.35) should improve their power management.

realflash · 2010-07-20 13:02:36

Could be the same as https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 55#p795155

karol · 2010-07-20 13:07:00

@ realflash
I know, that's why I posted a link to https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 44#p795144

v6ak, if you think your problem is solved, please add [solved] to the thread's title.

BTW, you have a typo in your webpage's url: instead of http://v6ak,profitux.cz/ (a comma after v6ak) it should read http://www.v6ak.profitux.cz/

v6ak · 2010-07-20 20:49:20

OK, I think that problem is solved. I'll probably do some experiments with graphic drivers, but that's OT.

The problem was probably there: after the update, fglrx were somehow partially removed. It was installed, but the kernel module didn't exist. X11 didn't work. Then I installed different version of fglrx that was buggy. (I can provide some details on demand, I think.)

Thanks for your advices and goodwill.

karol: Oops, I'll correct it.

v6ak · 2010-07-23 07:53:48

Finally, I've recognized, that this is problem of RTFM category.
yaourt catalyst wrote:

If experiencing problems with white/gray/black_artifacts you can
[as root] kill Xserver and use this command:
# aticonfig --set-pcs-str=DDX,ForceXAA,TRUE

So I restarted Archlinux, waited for grub, pressed 'e', added " single" at the end of line that starts with "kernel /vmlinuz26-rc", pressed enter, pressed 'b', entered root password , wrote aticonfig --set-pcs-str=DDX,ForceXAA,TRUE and rebooted.

Catalyst drivers seems to be still better for me, even if I have RC kernel. The problem is maybe betweeb keyboard and seat, because I probably didn't use proper drivers (xf86-video-ati):

# hwdetect --show-video
VIDEO : uvcvideo videodev v4l1-compat output

Note that these drivers were really slow, scrolling in Firefox was terrible.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-19 08:04:26

[SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#2 2010-07-19 08:17:32

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#3 2010-07-19 08:45:45

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#4 2010-07-19 09:06:53

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#5 2010-07-19 12:58:01

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#6 2010-07-19 16:32:45

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#7 2010-07-19 18:11:45

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#8 2010-07-19 20:33:17

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#9 2010-07-20 13:02:36

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#10 2010-07-20 13:07:00

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#11 2010-07-20 20:49:20

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

#12 2010-07-23 07:53:48

Re: [SOLVED] Rendering deffects (GTK?)

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