Intrepid: Full Screen OpenGL Games Not Working With Intel Video Card

[Jeremy LaCroix]

I have a Gateway M-7315u laptop with an integrated Intel video card. When I run an OpenGL game full screen (like Neverball for example) X crashes or the game will distort. The game plays fine in a window. This used to work in Hardy. The xorg.conf file is the default one with no modifications.

[Jeremy LaCroix (jlacroix82-deactivatedaccount)]

This is working for me now, by disabling desktop effects. Is there a way to make desktop effects suspend if a full screen openGL app is running?

[Ciprian Ocean (ciprianocean)]

Hi, I also face with image distorsion. These are my Graphics Controllers.

lspci | grep Graphics
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

[DonQuichote (xubuntu-w-p)]

Possibly related: I can use full-screen programs (Battle for Wesnoth, Briquolo). Unreal Tournament runs slow after upgrade to Intrepid, but this may be a Wine issue (PSPad runs much slower also, but is not a fullscreen application).

However, upon closing a full-screen application, I only see my background image. Like it is on top of everything instead of behind everything. There are no desktop icons, no menu, etc. I run Xubuntu and the right-click menu still works. I can fire up applications, which are started invisibly. I can tell from the fact that some right-mouse clicks show the context menus that belong to these applications. All programs that were open before I started the full-screen application are still open. I can tell by Firefox asking if I want to open the last session. The only way out (that I know of yet) is to kill the X server.

The output of `lspci | grep Graphics` is:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

[Andrew Ivanov (aa.ivanov)]

I am observing the same issue on a Toshiba Satelite A110 laptop. It has the following video card:
andrew@sat11:~$ lspci | grep Graphics
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

OpenGL games (testing with Supertux and Nexuiz) get distorted if desktop effects are enabled. If effects are disabled everything is ok. Playing the games in full screen or in windowed mode makes no difference.

When starting a opengl game with desktop effects enabled distortion does not happen at once. For a couple of seconds after starting the game all looks as normal. Then some elements disappear from screen and the rest get distorted.

On the other hand I am using the GLmatrix screensaver on this laptop, and I believe it uses openGL too. I have never had such issues with the screensaver.

Here's a list of the packages that seem relevant to me, along with their versions:
andrew@sat11:~$ dpkg -l | grep -i opengl
ii compiz 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1 OpenGL window and compositing manager
ii compiz-core 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1 OpenGL window and compositing manager
ii compiz-gnome 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1 OpenGL window and compositing manager - GNOM
ii compiz-plugins 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1 OpenGL window and compositing manager - plug
ii compiz-wrapper 1:0.7.8-0ubuntu4.1 OpenGL window and compositing manager, wrapp
ii freeglut3 2.4.0-6.1 OpenGL Utility Toolkit
ii libgl1-mesa-dri 7.2-1ubuntu2 A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- D
ii libgl1-mesa-glx 7.2-1ubuntu2 A free implementation of the OpenGL API -- G
ii libglew1.5 1.5.0dfsg1-3ubuntu1 The OpenGL Extension Wrangler - runtime envi
ii libglitz-glx1 0.5.6-1 Glitz OpenGL library GLX backend
ii libglitz1 0.5.6-1 Glitz OpenGL image compositing library
ii libglu1-mesa 7.2-1ubuntu2 The OpenGL utility library (GLU)
ii libglut3 3.7-25 the OpenGL Utility Toolkit
ii libgtkglext1 1.2.0-1ubuntu1 OpenGL Extension to GTK+ (shared libraries)
ii libqt4-opengl 4.4.3-0ubuntu1 Qt 4 OpenGL module
andrew@sat11:~$ dpkg -l | grep -i supertux
ii supertux 0.3.1d-0ubuntu2 Classic 2D jump 'n run sidescroller with Tux
ii supertux-data 0.3.1d-0ubuntu2 Lev...

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi jlacroix82,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (and maybe Xorg.0.log.old) file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Andrew Ivanov (aa.ivanov)]

A quick sidenote:
I've upgraded to 9.04 (Jaunty) and it seems like the issue described here is now gone.
Perhaps there was not enough room in the code to keep this one and in the same time introduce the new issues :P

[DonQuichote (xubuntu-w-p)]

I upgraded to 9.04 as well, and it scared the hell out of me. The "known problems" talk about some intel video cards, but I did not think it would lock up the system that hard. AND in the middle of an upgrade! Nothing reacted: no terminal keys, no CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE, nothing. Only the "off" switch.

I finally got things working though by disabling all acceleration in xorg.conf. But no action game runs any longer. Unreal Tournament is barely playable (but the fastest of them all, even though it's a Windows game), and other games (OpenArena, Briquolo) have turned to just watch-and-die games.

Again, it was a very instructive experience. But not one for newbies or the faint of heart. I would almost suggest "fixing" xorg.conf temporarily during an upgrade by disabling hardware acceleration. And fixing it back only after the upgrade has finished. I have no idea if this is possible though.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

[Jeremy LaCroix (jlacroix82-deactivatedaccount)]

This issue was established to be due to desktop effects not suspending
while OpenGL games are running. As far as I know this has not been
corrected, it needs to be set up so that when OpenGL games run, desktop
effects pause so as not to drop performance. There is an option within
GNOME but I forget what it was called. If it was set to enabled by
default it would be an easy solve.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Bug 282010] Re: Intrepid: Full Screen OpenGL Games Not
Working With Intel Video Card
From: Bryce Harrington <email address hidden>
Date: Fri, May 08, 2009 3:43 pm
To: <email address hidden>

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response
from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please
feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could,
please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this
confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
 Status: Incomplete => Invalid

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Intrepid: Full Screen OpenGL Games Not Working With Intel Video Card
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/282010
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