opensuse 11.2 Bad Screen Shaking and Screen Artifacts with radeonhd 1.3 for ATI x1200
Matthias, all, I've been busy lately and haven't had time to focus on the radeonhd driver issues on my Toshiba 205d laptop with RS690M (x1200). Until now, I have been running opensuse 11.0 and still using the fglrx driver. (the other box you were working with me on was an Arch Linux install). Now, looks like I have to make time to get the radeonhd issues worked because I just installed 11.2 which defaults to radeonhd on my laptop and the display is horrible (screen shakes, many artifacts left all over the screen) In opensuse 11.2, the screen shakes and stumbles bad enough to give you sea sickness. It looks like what is occurring is the driver incorrectly draws or corrupts a few horizontal lines (at radom vertical heights in the screen) and then the remaining part of the display gets adjusted up/down to fill the void for the remainder of that refresh (or the next 3-4 refreshes). Typing (like this email) makes this happen more frequently. (this happens too fast to catch with a screenshot) I don't know if this is a technical term, but the screen with 'flash in those corrupted lines' and then the rest of the screen 'jiggles'?? Another big problem is screen artifacts. When you move a window you will have horizontal lines left in the display where the top/bottom of adjacent windows are. See: (82k) http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/ss/radeonArtifacts.jpg (91k) http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/ss/radeonArtifacts1.jp... Xorg.0.log at: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/radeonhd/Xorg.0.log Another problem with the radeonhd driver on openSuSE 11.2 is the performance is so poor it shuts down compositing when you rotate the cube. This happens about 1/2 the time. Sometimes I can rotate the cube, other times compositing just shuts down. You can also see from the following screenshot that when compositing shuts down it destroys transparence for the plasma widgets line the plasma panel show next to the error message about compositing being shut down. See: (21k) http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/ss/compositing- shutdown.jpg When we left off, the radeonhd from git was blackscreening my box. Looking at the radeonhd version install (1.3) at least it is running now. (that's a plus). I am going to pull the latest git version and build it and see how it goes. However, I need to know how I tell 11.2 to load the new driver now -- since there is no xorg.conf. Do I have to rebuild the kernel initramfs or something like that? If you can give me the steps or point me to a link where managing which driver gets loaded now, I'll follow up and give you the results. Let me know what I need to do. Thanks. P.S. Downloading updates for 11.2 right now, so the screenshots may be a little slow :p -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
On Nov 19, 09 07:05:13 -0600, David C. Rankin wrote:
I've been busy lately and haven't had time to focus on the radeonhd driver issues on my Toshiba 205d laptop with RS690M (x1200). Until now, I have been
[...]
In opensuse 11.2, the screen shakes and stumbles bad enough to give you sea sickness. It looks like what is occurring is the driver incorrectly draws or corrupts a few horizontal lines (at radom vertical heights in the screen) and then the remaining part of the display gets adjusted up/down to fill the void for the remainder of that refresh (or the next 3-4 refreshes). Typing
If I understand you correctly, these issues are intermittent, meaning they happen and vanish again without you doing anything, right? If that is the case, it's a line buffer issue. We had more of them in the past, and there has never been a really good solution. The radeon driver has some logic to reprogram the watermark registers for that, but AFAIK it never helped completely with these issues. Interestingly enough, the R6xx/R7xx series doesn't seem to have this issue. Maybe because the memory bandwidth is just high enough...
Another big problem is screen artifacts. When you move a window you will have horizontal lines left in the display where the top/bottom of adjacent windows are. See:
Looks like acceleration issues. Does this happen with a minimal xorg.conf like the following? Section "Device" Identifier "Device[0]" Driver "radeonhd" Option "AccelMethod" "shadowfb" EndSection
When we left off, the radeonhd from git was blackscreening my box. Looking at the radeonhd version install (1.3) at least it is running now. (that's a plus).
Yes, indeed.
I am going to pull the latest git version and build it and see how it goes. However, I need to know how I tell 11.2 to load the new driver now --
Install it to /usr/lib(64)/xorg/modules/updates/drivers/ (copying the src/.libs/radeonhd_drv.so is enough). Drivers in this location are preferred over the standard drivers. Don't forget that you need the xorg-x11-server-sdk.rpm for compiling the driver.
since there is no xorg.conf. Do I have to rebuild the kernel initramfs or
Nope. Just the driver. Thanks for testing Matthias -- Matthias Hopf <mhopf@suse.de> __ __ __ Maxfeldstr. 5 / 90409 Nuernberg (_ | | (_ |__ mat@mshopf.de Phone +49-911-74053-715 __) |_| __) |__ R & D www.mshopf.de -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 19 November 2009 07:44:42 am Matthias Hopf wrote:
On Nov 19, 09 07:05:13 -0600, David C. Rankin wrote:
I've been busy lately and haven't had time to focus on the radeonhd driver issues on my Toshiba 205d laptop with RS690M (x1200). Until now, I have been
[...]
In opensuse 11.2, the screen shakes and stumbles bad enough to give you sea sickness. It looks like what is occurring is the driver incorrectly draws or corrupts a few horizontal lines (at radom vertical heights in the screen) and then the remaining part of the display gets adjusted up/down to fill the void for the remainder of that refresh (or the next 3-4 refreshes). Typing
If I understand you correctly, these issues are intermittent, meaning they happen and vanish again without you doing anything, right?
That's correct. Here a 2 more artifact screenshots from konqueror trying to copy a folder from one place to another: (~25k each) http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/ss/radeonArtifacts2.jp... http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/ss/radeonArtifacts3.jp...
If that is the case, it's a line buffer issue. We had more of them in the past, and there has never been a really good solution. The radeon driver has some logic to reprogram the watermark registers for that, but AFAIK it never helped completely with these issues. Interestingly enough, the R6xx/R7xx series doesn't seem to have this issue. Maybe because the memory bandwidth is just high enough...
Well that's the funny part. I have the Arch Linux install for this same box running the ATI driver and the display is fine. Also, this is an RS690M so whatever difference the 'M' makes is causing a world of hurt. I don't know what the exact differences are between the RS690 and RS690M, but I suspect that the M model is missing some of the circuitry contained in the desktop version of the card and if the radeonhd driver is writing to circuitry that doesn't exist in the M model, then that might explain all the problems this chipset has had with the radeonhd module. The chipset does great with fglrx, radeon (not performance wise), and ATI (opensource) modules, but the radeonhd module has given this card fits since the changes in July. Before the July changes, this card did great with the radeonhd builds from the git repository. After the mid-July changes in the repository, the radeonhd driver started blackscreening this box if you recall. I think that same issue that I never could find exactly with bisect is rearing it's ugly head again.
Another big problem is screen artifacts. When you move a window you will have horizontal lines left in the display where the top/bottom of adjacent windows are. See:
Looks like acceleration issues. Does this happen with a minimal xorg.conf like the following?
Section "Device" Identifier "Device[0]" Driver "radeonhd" Option "AccelMethod" "shadowfb" EndSection
Dunno, I'll try it real quick and report back :-)
When we left off, the radeonhd from git was blackscreening my box. Looking at the radeonhd version install (1.3) at least it is running now. (that's a plus).
Yes, indeed.
I am going to pull the latest git version and build it and see how it goes. However, I need to know how I tell 11.2 to load the new driver now --
Install it to /usr/lib(64)/xorg/modules/updates/drivers/ (copying the src/.libs/radeonhd_drv.so is enough). Drivers in this location are preferred over the standard drivers. Don't forget that you need the xorg-x11-server-sdk.rpm for compiling the driver.
since there is no xorg.conf. Do I have to rebuild the kernel initramfs or
Nope. Just the driver.
Thanks for testing
Matthias
-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 19 November 2009 08:38:23 am David C. Rankin wrote:
Another big problem is screen artifacts. When you move a window you will have horizontal lines left in the display where the top/bottom of adjacent windows are. See:
Looks like acceleration issues. Does this happen with a minimal xorg.conf like the following?
Section "Device" Identifier "Device[0]" Driver "radeonhd" Option "AccelMethod" "shadowfb" EndSection
Dunno, I'll try it real quick and report back :-)
Matthias, Big improvements. Using the snippet above as my xorg.conf eliminated all of the window shaking and miss-drawn horizontal lines. However, since compositing is disabled as a result, when you move windows, multiple copies of the windows get left behind for a second or two. See: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/ss/radeonArtifacts4.jp... In the example above, I was moving the kwrite windows around on the desktop (not that fast either). The screen does repaint itself and remove the extra copies, but it is visible enough for me to get a screenshot of. Since you did so well with your last suggestion, Got any more that will get compositing back? I can't believe that little xorg entry cleaned up the shaking and artifacts... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 19 November 2009 03:44:28 pm David C. Rankin wrote:
Section "Device" Identifier "Device[0]" Driver "radeonhd" Option "AccelMethod" "shadowfb" EndSection
Dunno, I'll try it real quick and report back :-)
Matthias,
Big improvements. Using the snippet above as my xorg.conf eliminated all of the window shaking and miss-drawn horizontal lines. However, since compositing is disabled as a result, when you move windows, multiple copies of the windows get left behind for a second or two. See:
http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/112/ss/radeonArtifacts4.j pg
In the example above, I was moving the kwrite windows around on the desktop (not that fast either). The screen does repaint itself and remove the extra copies, but it is visible enough for me to get a screenshot of.
Since you did so well with your last suggestion, Got any more that will get compositing back? I can't believe that little xorg entry cleaned up the shaking and artifacts...
Matthias, The following minimal xorg.conf restores compositing, but brings all the horrible jiggling and mis-drawn lines and artifacts back: 16:14 alchemy:~> cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf Section "Device" BoardName "RS690M" # Driver "radeon" Driver "radeonhd" Identifier "Device[0]" Option "AccelMethod" "EXA" Option "DRI" "on" Option "EnablePrivateBackZ" "no" Option "VideoOverlay" "on" Option "UseFastTLS" "1" Option "no_accel" "no" Option "mtrr" "off" VendorName "ATI" EndSection Section "DRI" Group "video" Mode 0660 EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "true" Option "DAMAGE" "true" EndSection I thought my screen was going to explode when the compiz splash screen started. The screen was almost unreadable for a moment. How do you suggest we proceed? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
On Nov 19, 09 15:44:28 -0600, David C. Rankin wrote:
Big improvements. Using the snippet above as my xorg.conf eliminated all of the window shaking and miss-drawn horizontal lines. However, since compositing is disabled as a result, when you move windows, multiple copies of the windows get left behind for a second or two. See:
Ok, in that case it is *not* a linebuffer issue, but only acceleration. shadowfb switches off hardware acceleration (and selects software acceleration), and apparently repaint priorities in the xserver changed so you can see the effect you're describing. If the radeon driver is working fine, it's probably time again to consolidate the acceleration functions. They ought to be the same, but during time they diverged, and we didn't have the time to bring them to the same state again. Matthias -- Matthias Hopf <mhopf@suse.de> __ __ __ Maxfeldstr. 5 / 90409 Nuernberg (_ | | (_ |__ mat@mshopf.de Phone +49-911-74053-715 __) |_| __) |__ R & D www.mshopf.de -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 5:52 AM, Matthias Hopf <mhopf@suse.de> wrote:
On Nov 19, 09 15:44:28 -0600, David C. Rankin wrote:
Big improvements. Using the snippet above as my xorg.conf eliminated all of the window shaking and miss-drawn horizontal lines. However, since compositing is disabled as a result, when you move windows, multiple copies of the windows get left behind for a second or two. See:
Ok, in that case it is *not* a linebuffer issue, but only acceleration. shadowfb switches off hardware acceleration (and selects software acceleration), and apparently repaint priorities in the xserver changed so you can see the effect you're describing.
It still could be line buffer related. When 2d/3d is active, it contends with the display controllers for memory bandwidth and priority. Alex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
On Nov 20, 09 10:35:45 -0500, Alex Deucher wrote:
On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 5:52 AM, Matthias Hopf <mhopf@suse.de> wrote:
Big improvements. Using the snippet above as my xorg.conf eliminated all of the window shaking and miss-drawn horizontal lines. However, since compositing is disabled as a result, when you move windows, multiple copies of the windows get left behind for a second or two. See:
Ok, in that case it is *not* a linebuffer issue, but only acceleration. shadowfb switches off hardware acceleration (and selects software acceleration), and apparently repaint priorities in the xserver changed so you can see the effect you're describing.
It still could be line buffer related. When 2d/3d is active, it contends with the display controllers for memory bandwidth and priority.
Right. Matthias -- Matthias Hopf <mhopf@suse.de> __ __ __ Maxfeldstr. 5 / 90409 Nuernberg (_ | | (_ |__ mat@mshopf.de Phone +49-911-74053-715 __) |_| __) |__ R & D www.mshopf.de -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: radeonhd+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: radeonhd+help@opensuse.org
participants (3)
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Alex Deucher -
David C. Rankin -
Matthias Hopf