X giving noise and zig-zag patterns

grooveman · Veteran Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 1217

Hi,

I have an ATI hd4250 graphics chip in my computer. I have been using kde 4.x with acceleration for about a year now with no issues, until my last world update.

For some reason, ever since this update, my system is having difficulty accurately rendering graphical objects that fade in and fade out. For example, in firefox, libreoffice or prettey much any application, when I do a right click to get the context sensitive menu. Same thing happens with the drop down menus. Instead of fading in, I get a pop up of a the menu in all black, then it is rapidly filled with zig-zag colors, then the menu appears. It all happens in less than a second. It does this with anything that fades in the first time it is rendered. The next time I go to do it, it is usually fine until I reboot.

This is very strange...

Just today, I updated my kernel, hoping it would get better, but it hasn't.

I am using the ati proprietary drivers, with opengl set to ati. I'm using kernel-2.6.39-gentoo-r3. I like the proprietary drivers, and I didn't really want to switch to the xorg drivers.

Anybody know what is going on here?

Thanks.

G
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Randy Andy · Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:04 am Post subject:

Hi grooveman.

I've noticed the same behaviour only on my Netbook since some weeks, so i proceed it nearly as normal in the meantime.
But you are right, it isn't so i will trace it more precisly the next time how or if it changes since i upgraded to kernel 3.0 and kde 4.7.

I state it couldn't have somthing to do with your prop. ati driver, cause my Netbook uses the intel driver for xorg.
I have to check what kind of renderer is in usage actually.

Otherwise my Desktop hasn't this trouble with an prop. nvidia driver, rest is the same except the arch, its ~x86_64 instead of ~x86.

Til my next feedback,

Andy.
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grooveman · Veteran Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 1217

Thanks Andy.

I've been fiddling, and I still am having the same problems, so I'm anxious to see what you come up with.
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grooveman · Veteran Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 1217

I'm still having problems with this. Though I'm not 100% positive it is for fade-ins exclusively... It always draws a box with a bunch of noise and/or zig-zag patterns, then after a second, it paints the menu appropriately. It is very annoying, and sometimes pops-up in other areas as well.

I have completely deconstructed my X, and re-setup as per the gentoo docs, and I have tried every ati driver (fglrx) from 11.4 through 11.7 (the newest as of this post).

I have tried the open source driver, but didn't have any luck with that and acceleration.

Anyone have any idea what is going on here?

Here is a screenshot of what I'm seeing.

Thanks.
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Randy Andy · Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:31 pm Post subject:

Sorry for leaving you alone for a long time,

but i can't reproduce it on my netbook since the last updates after my last post, and lots of updates followed this.
But after seeing your screenshot, i know now, that its totally different to what i had have.

I fear that i can't help you out in this case.

By the way, today i fixed (more a workaround) a different problem with a mouse over effect in libreoffice 3.4.2 (compiled from source), i get a black rectangle without text inside.
But i was not able to take a screenshot from this, like you did, cause it disappears in this momnet.

I tried if different desktop themes settings helped, but no. Bugzilla doesn't know this bug, or i couldn't find it.

So i installed the libreoffice-bin (same)version and everything is fine.

Shit, one reason to use a binary package, Yuck!

Nevertheless, much success for your problem.

Best regards, Andy.
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grooveman · Veteran Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 1217

Randy Andy · Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 4:01 pm Post subject:

Good idea, the recordmydesktop trick, grooveman,

although i don't need it now. I try to remember, if the time has come.

Today i read some fixes into the kernel.log of the 3.0.2 version, which should come to the tree soon,
today it is not in there.

Give it a try, although i don't know if the ati/amd GPU fault description fit to your needs.

Hopefully some others knows more about it.

Much success, Andy
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