Screen flickers every 5-10 seconds with compiz and nvidia

[Rohan Agrawal]

Binary package hint: compiz

Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

compiz:
  Installed: 1:0.8.3+git20091005-0ubuntu5
  Candidate: 1:0.8.3+git20091005-0ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.8.3+git20091005-0ubuntu5 0
        500 http://ubuntu.media.mit.edu karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G73 [GeForce Go 7600] (rev a1)

This is with the nvidia 185 drivers. However, the problem also happened in Jaunty with the 180 drivers and compiz 0.8.2.

When compiz is enabled, the screen flickers black every 5-10 seconds (the flicker lasts perhaps 1/10 second). This does not happen when compiz is disabled.

[Steffen M. (maxdamage)]

I'm having the same issue here:
compiz version:
1:0.8.4-ubuntu2

vga-controller according to device manager: G72M [Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300]
It's the GeForce Go 7300 I'm using with 185 nvidia drivers.
I'm encountering this problem with Karmic as well as with Jaunty.
This is really annoying because it makes compiz unusable for me.

[Steffen M. (maxdamage)]

update: seems to work better with the previous nvidia 173 drivers. Testing this for a few hours now and didn't encounter flickering yet (karmic).

I've had the feeling that this issue only occurs when using programs like firefox or openoffice where there's a lot of scrolling. In my case there's no flickering on the blank desktop but when using the mentioned apps.

[Rohan Agrawal (agrawalr)]

Hm, your bug seems slightly different from mine. I do encounter flickering on the blank desktop, and see no apparent correlation with firefox/openoffice or scrolling. Also yours seems to be worse than mine if it makes compiz unusable. I am able to get used to it easily and often don't even notice it unless I am explicitly looking for it.

[Steffen M. (maxdamage)]

Okay, sorry. Didn't want to spoil you bug report. :)
I just opened up my own report (#471224). Maybe these two correlate to each other in some way.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/471224

[Rohan Agrawal (agrawalr)]

Oh, I didn't necessarily mean that it was so different it needed a different bug report; I just meant that the symptoms were slightly different. I'll post on your bug report also indicating that this one exists.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for your bug report. Is this still an issue with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal? May you please check and comment back? Thanks in advance!.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for compiz (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]