Version: unspecified (using KDE 4.5.2) OS: Linux Clicking on stuff in the taskbar, very often the currently maximized window disappears and is redrawn again. This causes a very irritating flash, causing me to suddenly not like kde anymore :-( Behavior is a (one of the several) regression introduced with 4.5. Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: I click on the calendar to see the calendar. Same behavior for clicking on the application buttons in the task bar. Actual Results: Currently maximized Firefox window disappears and appears again. Expected Results: I expect no flashing windows. Let's hope the developers do not tell me this is caused by my video card, and the problem is not solved in kde. I use an ATI 9200SE, with latest video-ati open source drivers. I read tales of kde stumbling because the drivers lie about their capabilities...
sounds like the "highlight window" effect. can you turn it off ("kcmshell4 kwineffects") and see whether the problem remains? in case this "fixes" it, it should (probably) a plasma (taskbar) bug since it invokes the effect.
This sounds like bug #177495 - are you using the netbook shell? So is it possible that all window cover the complete screen geometry?
On Saturday 16 October 2010 14:14:39 Thomas Lübking wrote: > https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254366 > > > > > > --- Comment #1 from Thomas Lübking <thomas luebking web de> 2010-10-16 > 14:14:38 --- sounds like the "highlight window" effect. > can you turn it off ("kcmshell4 kwineffects") and see whether the problem > remains? > > in case this "fixes" it, it should (probably) a plasma (taskbar) bug since > it invokes the effect. Your command results in this: kcmshell4 kwineffects kcmshell(4143) locateModule: Could not find module ' "kwineffects" '. kcmshell(4143) locateModule: Could not find module ' "kcm_kwineffects" '. kcmshell(4143) locateModule: Could not find module ' "kcmkwineffects" '. [john@homebase config]$ I used system settings - desktop effects - all effects to search for and turn off the highlight windows effect. This caused my plasma session to crash (other bug I read about, apparently not solved yet?) After the crash, I see that the highlight effect is turned off. This unfortunately did not solve my problem. Looking a bit more carefully at the flashing, it seems that all desktop windows disappear and are redraw again. (kmail, console, rekonq). I am not sure about the file view plasmoid I have on the desktop, not sure if that is redrawn or not. Just let me know if you want me to do some other experiment.
On Saturday 16 October 2010 14:16:35 Martin Gräßlin wrote: > https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254366 > > > > > > --- Comment #2 from Martin Gräßlin <kde martin-graesslin com> 2010-10-16 > 14:16:35 --- This sounds like bug #177495 - are you using the netbook > shell? So is it possible that all window cover the complete screen > geometry? Hi Martin, No, I do not use the netbook shell. I noticed that the flashing also occurs in non-fullscreen windows. In fact, if I keep pushing the time to pop up/down the calendar, once every few times the whole desktop flashes (disappears and then appears again) and the rest of the time the active window (in this case: kmail) flashes. Switching to another button in the task manager and back to the calendar reliably reproduces the flashes every time. Seems like something related to the taskbar, but you guys are the experts :-)
yeah, "kcmshell4 kwincompositing" ... blast ;-) crashes or hangs of kwin's compositor on touching settings are most likely related to mesa (ought to be fixed in >= 7.9rc2, at least the intel issues ...) - does it look like when calling "xrefresh"? - do you use the blur plugin? - do you use vsync? - does it occur on the xrender backend? - does it remain if you keep compositing enabled but disable all effects?
On Saturday 16 October 2010 18:39:28 Thomas Lübking wrote: > https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254366 > > > > > > --- Comment #5 from Thomas Lübking <thomas luebking web de> 2010-10-16 > 18:39:25 --- yeah, "kcmshell4 kwincompositing" ... blast ;-) > > crashes or hangs of kwin's compositor on touching settings are most likely > related to mesa (ought to be fixed in >= 7.9rc2, at least the intel issues > ...) > > - does it look like when calling "xrefresh"? > - do you use the blur plugin? > - do you use vsync? > - does it occur on the xrender backend? > - does it remain if you keep compositing enabled but disable all effects? It looks exactly like calling xrefresh, at least for those occurances where the whole desktop flashes. The blur plugin was switched on, it never worked for me. I switched it off, no effect on the flashing. I use vsync. Switching it off did not help. The flashing does _NOT_ occur when using the xrender backend. So OpenGL related, I was afraid of this :-( I guess disabling desktop effects as you request is not by pressing the button (systemsettings - Desktop Effects - Suspend Desktop effects.) Therefore I manually disabled each desktop effect (tab "All Effects") Eureka: I determined that the flashing is caused by the "Sliding Popups" setting in the "Appearance" section. I hope this helps you to reproduce the bug / help me out.
On Saturday 16 October 2010 18:39:28 Thomas Lübking wrote: > https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254366 > > > > > > --- Comment #5 from Thomas Lübking <thomas luebking web de> 2010-10-16 > 18:39:25 --- yeah, "kcmshell4 kwincompositing" ... blast ;-) > > crashes or hangs of kwin's compositor on touching settings are most likely > related to mesa (ought to be fixed in >= 7.9rc2, at least the intel issues > ...) > > - does it look like when calling "xrefresh"? > - do you use the blur plugin? > - do you use vsync? > - does it occur on the xrender backend? > - does it remain if you keep compositing enabled but disable all effects? Extra information I manually disabled all effects. This solves the problem as reported before. Then enabling one at a time. There seem to be various problems. Enabling the "Shadow" effect causes sometimes a flickering of the taskbar(when switching between applications). But not the flashing of other windows / the desktop. Enabling just the "sliding popup" effects introduces the flickering of the complete desktop. Just like when I call xrefresh. Enabling "logout" causes heavy flashing of applications when "smooth" dimming of windows and presentation of logout dialog appears. Did not try all effects individually, hope this helps.
Eureka! On my machine it *only* happens when I'm using KMS. The moment I add nomodeset and radeon.modeset=0 to the kernel boot line, my system speeds up by about three times and all the flickering goes away. Before I discovered this though I *did* go through every Kwin effect and got flickering with the following: Sheet Glide Sliding popups Magic lamp (sometimes) Wobbly windows (like crazy) Fade Desktop Slide Fall appart (extreme - also activates when opening a window or even switching windows) Scale in (also made richt click on taskbar menus flash a lot) Minimize animation Magnifier (might be another problem, but the magnified area left trails onscreen and often jumped behind the current window) Zoom - minor Slideback - extreme Desktop cube - extreme Desktop cube animation- extreme Desktop grid - minor Present windows Resize windows - extreme I tried these effects but couldn't activate them with my card: Blur Explosion Invert Looking glass Sharpen Cover switch (although I get no popup error about it) Flip switch (although I get no popup error about it) I'm on Kubuntu Maverick 10.10 32 bit running KDE 4.5 with QT 4.7.0 and using ATI FOSS driver version 1:6.13.1ubuntu5 (that is, version 6.13.1) on a Dell Latitude XT. Card is an ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 (although I have the same flicker issue on a Dell Latitude 1501 with the same software and an ATI Xpress 200M). Both video cards are R300.
I tried that, and the result is a black root window, not visible: background image, maximized windows, plasma desktop folder. So this does not work for me alas. I installed this morning on my laptop kubuntu 10.10 This works perfectly with its Radeon ATI mobility 9600/9700 On Sunday 31 October 2010 10:02:23 bugsbane wrote: > https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254366 > > > bugsbane <bugsbane@gmail.com> changed: > > What |Removed |Added > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > - CC| |bugsbane@gmail.com > > > > > --- Comment #8 from bugsbane <bugsbane gmail com> 2010-10-31 10:02:20 --- > Eureka! On my machine it *only* happens when I'm using KMS. The moment I > add nomodeset and radeon.modeset=0 to the kernel boot line, my system > speeds up by about three times and all the flickering goes away. > > Before I discovered this though I *did* go through every Kwin effect and > got flickering with the following: > > > Sheet > Glide > Sliding popups > Magic lamp (sometimes) > Wobbly windows (like crazy) > Fade Desktop > Slide > Fall appart (extreme - also activates when opening a window or even > switching windows) > Scale in (also made richt click on taskbar menus flash a lot) > Minimize animation > Magnifier (might be another problem, but the magnified area left trails > onscreen and often jumped behind the current window) > Zoom - minor > Slideback - extreme > Desktop cube - extreme > Desktop cube animation- extreme > Desktop grid - minor > Present windows > Resize windows - extreme > > > I tried these effects but couldn't activate them with my card: > Blur > Explosion > Invert > Looking glass > Sharpen > Cover switch (although I get no popup error about it) > Flip switch (although I get no popup error about it) > > > I'm on Kubuntu Maverick 10.10 32 bit running KDE 4.5 with QT 4.7.0 and > using ATI FOSS driver version 1:6.13.1ubuntu5 (that is, version 6.13.1) on > a Dell Latitude XT. Card is an ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 (although I have the > same flicker issue on a Dell Latitude 1501 with the same software and an > ATI Xpress 200M). Both video cards are R300.
Seems to me as a user, that if I have the exact same problem as you and can turn it on and off at will with KMS, then its likely the issue is with KMS and that your black screen without KMS is likely a separate issue. It's probably nothing, but I am wondering if you tried both nomodeset and radeon.modeset=0 together. Would be interesting to see your Xorg.0.log.old from /dev/logs after booting without KMS and then rebooting when it stops. We can always compare to my Xorg.conf and play spot the difference. On a side note, I forgot to confirm that it all flashing goes away when switching to Xrender on my system, too. It's just slow as molasses. OpenGL + no kms is working great though.
I have the same flicker problem with the "desktop grid" and "show windows" effect. Adding nomodeset to the kenel boot line fixes the flickering. Unfortunately i get random X crashes with nomodeset enabled. The crashes occoured mostly when i typed an addres in firefox or rekonq. I didn't find any hints in the xorg.log file. I'am using: ATI Technologies Inc M24GL [Mobility FireGL V3200] (rev 80) 2.6.35-ARCH, xorg-server 1.9.2-1, xf86-video-ati 6.13.2-1 Let me know if i should give you more Information. Etienne PS: it worked fine with KDE 4.4
try to put "LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1" into ~/.xprofile (in doubt create the file). logout/in notice that even if this works, it's just a workaround - direct rendering is faster (iff it works...) rather don't use trilinear filtering with ati chips - this _might_ be the cause of black desktop/windows
Thanks. But "LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1" seems to have no effect for me. (With and without nomodeset) I use the fastest filter.
I get the exact same problem with x crashing on my (ATI Xpress 200M) laptop. Interestingly, I don't get this with my (ATI Radeon HD4850) desktop, both running the foss ati driver. I just noticed though, that my desktop is using modeset, so it may be something to do with ATI driver + nomodeset.
For me the problem went away with an update to newer version of Mesa / radeon driver in Arch Linux. I am now a happy camper :-) Will leave the report open because perhaps the problems still persist for others in this report. Not sure if I should close this bug...
the bug just needs to be tagged correctly (upstream, since a driver update fixed it) - it's still possible to find and post to it :-)