tint2 icon tearing

mi · 2017-02-13 11:29:29

Hi.

I've been having a problem with tearing of/ glitches on icons in tint2. I know it's an old issue (already since crunchbang age).
It has also been easily solved by setting compton to start in the end of the autostart script, or by restarting compton after making modifications on tint2.
Since a few weeks, I guess (didn't really pay attention), I've been experiencing these glitches again. These would only be solved by disabling compton (kill or bl-compositor --stop).
After some test with compton I went to check the /usr/bin/bl-compositor script and was able to solve the problem by swapping the order of the commands $EXECXCOMP and bl-tint2restart || true so it now look like

elif [[ $1 = '--start' ]]; then
    if ! pidof compton > /dev/null; then
        bl-tint2restart || true
        $EXECXCOMP
    else
        echo "$0 --start: compton already running" >&2
    fi

before and after:
(look at the systray. I must add that the tearing also occurred in the task bar when using another tint2rc)

This change will probably be overwritten after updates are done to it. If I'm not the only one experiencing this problem, I would like to ask you to consider implementing this fix upstream, in case it does solve the problem for others as well.

thanks guys

mi

Last edited by mi (2017-02-13 12:05:57)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-02-13 19:10:09

Thanks for this mi, I will test soon on my Haswell machine.

Just to confirm, do you have Intel hardware?

lspci -knn | grep -iA2 'vga\|3d'

If so, have you tried switching to SNA?

See https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 072#p20072 for details.

It may be useful to examine /var/log/Xorg.0.log and determine whether SNA or UXA acceleration is currently in use and switch to the other method — the Intel DDX driver is notoriously buggy, unfortunately

I would actually advise upgrading your entire graphics stack if you have Haswell or newer, guide here:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1185

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-02-13 19:17:08

On a more general point:

mi wrote:

This change will probably be overwritten after updates are done to it.

To modify installed system scripts (such as bl-compositor), simply copy them to ~/bin first and modify that file instead:

cp /usr/bin/bl-compositor ~/bin
editor ~/bin/bl-compositor

Any executables in ~/bin will be run in preference to identically-named versions elsewhere in the system because that folder is first in the standard BunsenLabs user's $PATH and they will also survive package upgrades, although any updates should always be checked and any new changes "merged" with ~/bin/bl-compositor

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-02-13 20:55:18

I have just tried re-ordering the lines in ~/bin/bl-compositor but it did not fix the issue for me on a fresh install (Intel HD4600 graphics card), selecting "restart compositing" from the Openbox menu does remove the artefacts though.

I can now confirm that BunsenLabs uses the UXA acceleration method for Intel cards as standard (ew was right!) and that switching to SNA fixes things for my hardware.

To do this, use these commands:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf <<!
Section "Device"
	Identifier "Intel Graphics"
	Driver "intel"
	Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
EndSection
!

Then log out & back in again.

johnraff · 2017-02-14 08:43:14

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

I have just tried re-ordering the lines in ~/bin/bl-compositor but it did not fix the issue for me on a fresh install (Intel HD4600 graphics card), selecting "restart compositing" from the Openbox menu does remove the artefacts though.

This compositing/tint2 issue keeps coming back. There are many posts here, eg this.

We used to start tint2 before compton, but when re-writing openbox/autostart and the scripts, came to the conclusion that composition needed to be running before tint2 was started. The tint2 wiki says "Tint2 autodetects your compositing manager" which implies that. That's why we now trigger a tint2 restart after (re)starting compton. Behaviour might depend on different peoples' hardware though - the current default works fine for me.

I can now confirm that BunsenLabs uses the UXA acceleration method for Intel cards

Is this something we (BL) are doing (if so, where?), or standard Debian Jessie configuration?

switching to SNA fixes things for my hardware.
To do this, use these commands:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf <<!
Section "Device"
	Identifier "Intel Graphics"
	Driver "intel"
	Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
EndSection
!
Then log out & back in again.

Should we be doing a hardware probe somewhere to set things like this?

hhh · 2017-02-14 15:12:07

re: acceleration, xf86-video-intel defaults to sna unless overwritten as HoaS described.

Use what works best! You can test with glx --info, I think.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-02-14 18:42:56

johnraff wrote:

I can now confirm that BunsenLabs uses the UXA acceleration method for Intel cards
Is this something we (BL) are doing (if so, where?), or standard Debian Jessie configuration?

That's the stock jessie configuration.

switching to SNA fixes things for my hardware
Should we be doing a hardware probe somewhere to set things like this?

Perhaps, the only problem with that would be determining the ideal setting for the various different hardware configurations.

hhh · 2017-02-14 19:43:13

@HoaS, where is your reference that uxa is the default?

https://packages.debian.org/jessie/xser … ideo-intel
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Switch_xf86 … tel_to_UXA

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-02-14 19:43:45

hhh wrote:

where is your reference that uxa is the default?

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

hhh · 2017-02-14 19:44:50

Lol, I can't argue because my comp isn't booting ATM! 8D

jochen · 2017-04-01 10:45:29

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

I have just tried re-ordering the lines in ~/bin/bl-compositor but it did not fix the issue for me on a fresh install (Intel HD4600 graphics card), selecting "restart compositing" from the Openbox menu does remove the artefacts though.
I can now confirm that BunsenLabs uses the UXA acceleration method for Intel cards as standard (ew was right!) and that switching to SNA fixes things for my hardware.
To do this, use these commands:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf <<!
Section "Device"
	Identifier "Intel Graphics"
	Driver "intel"
	Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
EndSection
!
Then log out & back in again.

I can confirm this bug and the workaround working on Lenovo Thinkpad X230. Thanks for this!

mufrious · 2017-04-01 20:08:16

^ And on Dell XPS 13 l322x as well. The various workarounds I had applied were a bit erratic. Thanks also for this!

DomOctober · 2017-12-23 06:45:04

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

I have just tried re-ordering the lines in ~/bin/bl-compositor but it did not fix the issue for me on a fresh install (Intel HD4600 graphics card), selecting "restart compositing" from the Openbox menu does remove the artefacts though.
I can now confirm that BunsenLabs uses the UXA acceleration method for Intel cards as standard (ew was right!) and that switching to SNA fixes things for my hardware.
To do this, use these commands:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf <<!
Section "Device"
	Identifier "Intel Graphics"
	Driver "intel"
	Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
EndSection
!
Then log out & back in again.

Working on my Lenovo T440P -big improvement all around. Thank you!

#1 2017-02-13 11:29:29

tint2 icon tearing

#2 2017-02-13 19:10:09

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#3 2017-02-13 19:17:08

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#4 2017-02-13 20:55:18

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#5 2017-02-14 08:43:14

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#6 2017-02-14 15:12:07

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#7 2017-02-14 18:42:56

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#8 2017-02-14 19:43:13

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#9 2017-02-14 19:43:45

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#10 2017-02-14 19:44:50

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#11 2017-04-01 10:45:29

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#12 2017-04-01 20:08:16

Re: tint2 icon tearing

#13 2017-12-23 06:45:04

Re: tint2 icon tearing

Board footer