Screen artefacts when scrolling

[era]

Binary package hint: nvidia-glx-177

If I scroll a long page in Firefox using the scroll bar on the right, (but usually not when using the space bar), the screen gets incompletely refreshed.

Ironically, attempting to get a screen shot with Alt+PrtScr redraws the screen so the artefacts disappear. I managed to get a picture by using the delay function in the screenshot accessory, then scrolling just after clicking on the button.

This is amd64 with the restricted nvidia driver, up-to-date Intrepid.

I get these errors in Firefox (probably the only graphical program I use much -- it's mostly xterm and Emacs for me) and EOG for example, but wasn't able to get them in Thunderbird.

vnix $ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10

vnix$ apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
  Installed: 3.0.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
  Candidate: 3.0.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages

vnix$ apt-cache policy nvidia-glx-177
nvidia-glx-177:
  Installed: 177.80-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 177.80-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 177.80-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Firefox was upgraded and restarted just now.
[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express DRAM Controller [8086:29b0] (rev 02)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0211]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600 GT [10de:0402] (rev a1)
     Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device [1458:3452]

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi era,

Thanks for including an image to demonstrate the issue. Could you also please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn` too.

[This is an automated message. If this script has reached you erroneously, please accept our apologies; any reply to this message will be sufficient to prevent it from doing further automated processing.]

[era (era)]

I have a reboot pending; as you can see the X session has been running for quite long. I'll obviously need to remember to get back to you if the problem seems to be gone after the reboot.

[era (era)]

FWIW I do get the artefacts in Thunderbird too, contrary to what I said earlier, and OpenOffice and various other GTK programs.

[era (era)]

After a driver upgrade and a reboot, things look better, at least for the moment.

vnix$ apt-cache policy nvidia-glx-177
nvidia-glx-177:
  Installed: 177.82-0ubuntu0.1
  Candidate: 177.82-0ubuntu0.1
  Version table:
 *** 177.82-0ubuntu0.1 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/restricted Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     177.80-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted Packages

There was also a few kernel upgrades and what not. I'll leave this open for now; remind me in a week or so to report back here.

[sommerkom (sommerkom)]

I can confirm this bug with Ubuntu 8.10. However, I use Nvidia 173.14.12 (had to downgrade from 177 due to bug #258357). It usually happens after X has been running for a couple of hours. The artefacts appear in all applications with complex scrolling. Rebooting or restarting X fixes the problem temporarily but it it always reappears sooner or later.

I attached my lspci -vvnn output.

[era (era)]

Just for the record, are you on amd64 too?

[sommerkom (sommerkom)]

No, I'm on Intel, T61 with nvidia Quadro NVS 140, up-to-date Intrepid.

One more remark: It's hard to reproduce this bug, it sometimes doesn't appear for a day or so, then it's there again. Sometimes closing applications is enough to get rid of the artefacts, sometimes restarting X is necessary.

[era (era)]

Confirm that the problems reappeared after (counts) a bit over a week of running. Firefox unbelievably didn't crash until today, and now after restarting, it has this scrolling problem again.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

In Jaunty (9.04), we are dropping the nvidia-graphics-drivers-177 package, which
is now superseded by then nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 package.

  http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-180

To transition your bug into the new package, we need your help. Please do the following:

 a. Verify the bug occurs in Jaunty with the -180 driver
     (ISOs: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/jaunty/)
 b. If you haven't already, please include in the bug:
     * Your /var/log/Xorg.0.log
     * Your /etc/X11/xorg.conf
     * The output of `lspci -vvnn`
     * Steps to reproduce the issue
 c. Under Affects, click the down arrow to the left of 'nvidia-graphics-drivers-177'
 d. Edit the Package to change 'nvidia-graphics-drivers-177' to 'nvidia-graphics-drivers-180'
 e. Click Save Changes

Thank you!

[We'll expire the remaining -177 bugs in a month or so.]

[era (era)]

Is there a way to get version 180 for Intrepid? This is a production system so I'm not inclined to do a dist-upgrade to a beta version, but I can test upgrading this one package.

[jobrahms (jobrahms)]

This is happening to me with 8.10. However, it only seems to happen when I'm running dual head. I haven't seen it when it's just my laptop screen.

[era (era)]

Thanks for spotting that, I'm on dual as well.

@wintercom: you too?

[sommerkom (sommerkom)]

No, I'm using my laptop screen only.

One more remark: I tried switching to 180.11 but the artefacts still occasionally appear. However, these seem to pose less a serious problem as compared to 173/177. Restarting X is not usually necessary, I mostly get rid of the artefacts temporarily by letting the graphics redraw the window a couple of times (e.g. by playing around with the scale plugin for a while).

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

In Jaunty (9.04) we have dropped the nvidia-graphics-driver-177 package, as
it is superseded by nvidia-graphics-drivers-180.

Your reported issue may still be a problem in Intrepid (8.10) however
fixing it would require an update to the binary driver, which is not
permitted under our stable release update policy. (Because the driver is
binary-only, we cannot examine the source code for regression potential,
so must assume every binary driver update carries high risk of regression
for users not experiencing your issue.)

Because of this, we are closing this bug as expired.

You are encouraged to file your -nvidia bug reports against the
nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 package.