Nvdia blank black windows

[bowser]

When switching applications with Unity's alt-tab switcher (or shift switcher) the target windows appear to be blank black if more than one instances of the application are in use (e.g several pdf documents with evince or several spreadsheets with LibreOffice's Calc) This doesn't happen when only one instance of the application is in use (e.g just one pdf document)

This has been reported in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/729979, it says that a fix has been released (compiz 0.9.9~daily13.02.19-0ubuntu1) even though the problem still persists in raring daily build (compiz 0.99~daily13.03.29 Ubuntu1) I am using Nvidia driver 313 on raring daily build.

I am opening a new bug report because bug 729979 seems to be closed as a fix is supposed to have been released and it has not have any activity for a while (other than a few comments asking if the fix would be backported and two comments,--one by myself,--saying that the fix doesn't work in raring but have receieved no answer or comment)

Thanks.

[Matthias Niess (mniess)]

I hate to say it, but this bug is a duplicate of the unfixed bug #729979. The reason for the lack of comments is probably that there are no more people interest in fixing anything compiz-related.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[bowser (bwbernard-wong1)]

Found out somewhere in the Nvidia forum that if disable "animation" in ccsm then this bug doesn't manifest. But opening, closing, maximize and minize becomes kind ofabrupt.

[Felipe Uribe (wfpaisa)]

Hello friends,
I'm not sure but I think the problem is with the metacity window decorator,
eh decorator disabled and minimized windows from keyboard commands and effects work perfectly.
In the following video I demonstrate, test conducted in Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lpexQGuuPY

[bowser (bwbernard-wong1)]

@Felipe

I watched your video, no sure which DE you are using, but I have never had the black window problem if I use the mouse to choose applications from the launcher. The bug is triggered only when I use the alt-tab launcher(or the shift launcher) to choose among applications that are already in use, and with raring it only happens when more than one instances of the same applications are in use. e.g If Firefox (one instance), vlc (one instance) and two instances of evenice (2 pdf documents) are in use and all minimized. Using the alt-tab launcher to choose either Firefox or Vlc doesn't result in black windows, but focusing on either instance of evince will.

I have replaced the default window decorator with emerald but it doesn't make a difference.

The only thing that works for me is to disable "animation" from ccsm, but that result in abrupt motion when opening closing maximizing and minimizing windows.

[André Desgualdo Pereira (desgua)]

The problem here happens when clicking in a window behind another that has focus: http://youtu.be/YURpSbEF-Ns [updated video]

Disabling "Animations" in ccsm fix it, but I really don't want to abstain myself from my beloved animations.

[bowser (bwbernard-wong1)]

Hi Andre,

I can't reproduce your problem. Which version of Ubuntu and which DE do you use? In Raring, as I said, the blank windows only appear when trying to use alt-tab or shif switcher to choose an application where more than one instances are already in use (but minimized)

[André Desgualdo Pereira (desgua)]

Hello bowser, thank you very much for your attention. I am using Ubuntu 12.04 in one laptop and 12.10 in another. Both have this problem. This happens as showed in video and also with Alt-Tab. I am suing Ubuntu with Unity DE and the Nvidia binary (this doen't happens with the nouveau driver).
Just tell me if there is any other info that may help to fix it.
Best regards.

[bowser (bwbernard-wong1)]

Hi Andre,

Since the compiz packages in 12.04 is rather old even if they fix the problem it will probably take a long time for them to backport it if at all. So I have basically given up waiting and use nouveau on my 12.04 installation. Following the thread (bugs 729979) I thought a fix has been released for Raring, but it seems that it doesn't really work.

[André Desgualdo Pereira (desgua)]

@bowser I didn't test Raring yet. There is still hope ;-)

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On Sat, Apr 20, 2013 at 5:26 PM, bowser <email address hidden> wrote:

> Hi Andre,
>
> Since the compiz packages in 12.04 is rather old even if they fix the
> problem it will probably take a long time for them to backport it if at
> all. So I have basically given up waiting and use nouveau on my 12.04
> installation. Following the thread (bugs 729979) I thought a fix has
> been released for Raring, but it seems that it doesn't really work.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1162954
>
> Title:
> Nvdia blank black windows
>
> Status in “compiz” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> When switching applications with Unity's alt-tab switcher (or shift
> switcher) the target windows appear to be blank black if more than one
> instances of the application are in use (e.g several pdf documents
> with evince or several spreadsheets with LibreOffice's Calc) This
> doesn't happen when only one instance of the application is in use
> (e.g just one pdf document)
>
> This has been reported in
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/729979, it says
> that a fix has been released (compiz 0.9.9~daily13.02.19-0ubuntu1)
> even though the problem still persists in raring daily build (compiz
> 0.99~daily13.03.29 Ubuntu1) I am using Nvidia driver 313 on raring
> daily build.
>
> I am opening a new bug report because bug 729979 seems to be closed
> as a fix is supposed to have been released and it has not have any
> activity for a while (other than a few comments asking if the fix
> would be backported and two comments,--one by myself,--saying that the
> fix doesn't work in raring but have receieved no answer or comment)
>
> Thanks.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/1162954/+subscriptions
>

[bowser (bwbernard-wong1)]

Hmmm..

Just updated compiz and unity with Sam Spilsbury's ppa https://launchpad.net/~smspillaz/+archive/compiz-experimental?field.series_filter=raring

Now the blank black windows don't appear (for applications with multiple instances in use but minimized) with the alt tab switcher provided the applications don't open to full screen. So suppose I have multiple pdf minimized and I try to select one of them with alt-tab, if I focus on an instance which opens to full screen I still see the blank blackscreen. But if I choose an instance which opens to a smaller window then it is normal.

[bowser (bwbernard-wong1)]

Use Nvidia 319.23 (xorg-edgers) with the Compiz experimental ppa in 13.04 (though I don't think this ppa is essential and sometimes it does break Unity, so I have stopped updating from it after a while) Here are how things stand on my system

I) If all windows are non minimized, then no black window switching either with alt-tab or the shift switcher.

2) if some windows are minimized but there is only one isntance for such applications (e.g no two instances of evince for two pdf documents), then no black windows switching with alt-tab

3) if the minized windows (may have more than one instances of the same applications) restore to non maximized windows than no black windows using the alt-tab switcher.

4) Always get black windows with shift switcher if some applications are minimized (regardless of how many instances are in use)

5) Get black windows with alt-tab for applications with more than one instances in use and minimized AND only for those instances that restore to maximized windows.

6) One way to avoid ALL black windows would be to enable the scale addon in ccsm and use a hot corner to pick windows (i.e using Unity like Gnome Shell) There is no black window under any scenario.

So, if I am switching Windows with the scale addon (like using gnome-shell) I am able to avoild black windows al together and even if I get a black window say in using alt-tab in scenario 5 moving the cursor to the hot corner to refocus the open black window would make it normal again.

Since it doesn't look like this bug will be fixed this is the best I can do. By using mostly the hot corner I have restored normal work flow pretty much and haven't seen any black window for quite some time.

[Neil Rodgers (neilr1971)]

Noticed that for me just disabling the "focus" effect in the animations plugin gets rid of this bug for me. All other animations can still be enabled and the bug goes away. Before that I was using emerald wich also stopped this bug from happening. Nvidia 325.08 here, and 13.04 with Unity.

[André Desgualdo Pereira (desgua)]

Disabling the "focus" effect in the animations plugin gets rid of this bug
for me too.

[bowser (bwbernard-wong1)]

Hi Andre',

Did you try using alt-tab to pick windows where there are a few instances of the same application in use (say two pdf files opened with evince) so that 1) they are minimized and 2) focused to full screen?

As described in post #13 this appears to be the only scenario in which I would still get the black windows using alt-tab (wth the shift switcher it is a bit unpredictable, this will always produce black windows, but there are other scenarios which will result in black windows only some times, described in #13)

I have never enabled focus animation as far as I can remember (it was set to 'none', I think). At the moment I have replaced the stock Compiz build from the repository with version 0.9.10.2 from https://launchpad.net/~smspillaz/+archive/compiz-experimental and ccsm doesn't even have a "focus" option in animation.

Warning. Don't use the Compiz experimental ppa now as the Unity build apparently has not kept up so upgrading with it at this time would break Unity. If anyone wants to try wait til the ppa is updated. I have disabled the ppa after I have upgraded several times and got my sweet spot.

[André Desgualdo Pereira (desgua)]

Hi Bowser, thank you for your suggestion.
Yes I get the blank window with Unity Switcher.
Please tell us the number of the bug you will add so we can follow.
Best regards.

[PJSingh5000 (pjsingh5000)]

I am having this problem using an Asus GeForce GTX 670 Direct CU Mini graphics card.

This is a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.04 x64 with all of the updates.
$ uname -r
3.8.0-27-generic

As soon as I selected the nvidia-313-updates proprietary driver and rebooted, the problem appeared.
(The nouveau driver did not exhibit this problem).

$ lshw
*-display
    description: VGA compatible controller
    product: GK104 [GeForce GTX 670]
    vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
    version: a1
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
    configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
    resources: irq:16 memory:f2000000-f2ffffff memory:e8000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:f3000000-f307ffff

[PJSingh5000 (pjsingh5000)]

FYI...

$ compiz --version
Compiz 0.9.9.0

[Ståle Tomten (staale)]

I am also getting this.

stalet@zbook ~> compiz --version
Compiz 0.9.11.3
stalet@zbook ~> cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS"
stalet@zbook ~> lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK106GLM [Quadro K2100M] (rev a1)