Nvidia : default xorg.conf settings prevent smooth Compiz operation (jerky animation)

[Mahendra Tallur]

Hi !

Ubuntu automatically generates an xorg.conf file when installing the proprietary Nvidia drivers. It works very well overall, however, one cannot get a smooth Compiz experience without addiing two options in xorg.conf.

* Option "TripleBuffer" "True" : without this option, some effects like the "scale" effect (like the OSX Exposé) are *very* jerky. Moreover it might make things generally smoother at a cost of a little more delay in games which is generally not visible (I personally never noticed it)

* Option "DynamicTwinView" "false" : this is sadly more annoying because it would disable some important features of the Nvidia drivers. However, I think it should be discussed with Nvidia, because this feature makes the nvidia driver report a bad vertical frequency value, which renders animations less smooth.

* Moroever, the "Sync to VBlank" setting in "nvidia settings" should also be enabled by default.

(I also filled in a report about the default Compiz value).

All in all, getting a smooth Compiz (& OpenGL) experience with an nvidia GPU implies changing 4 values... I think this is a major concern for mainstream users... Because most of them will stay with the default values and have jerky / torn animations. (in movies / games / compiz)

Cheers !

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: nvidia-current 256.53-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-20.29-generic-pae 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-20-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 256.53 Fri Aug 27 21:03:42 PDT 2010
 GCC version: gcc version 4.4.5 20100909 (prerelease) (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu1)
Architecture: i386
CurrentDmesg:
 [ 11.776250] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
 [ 11.776254] ata1: EH complete
 [ 14.963059] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=0
 [ 15.915077] EXT4-fs (sda3): re-mounted. Opts: commit=0
 [ 22.116006] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Date: Sat Sep 11 14:44:27 2010
DkmsStatus: nvidia-current, 256.53, 2.6.35-20-generic-pae, i686: installed
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha i386 (20100910)
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-20-generic-pae root=UUID=b632dd94-9cc0-4762-9480-28b067d8d171 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=fr_FR.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers
dmi.bios.date: 03/30/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P1.40
dmi.board.name: P43DE
dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.40:bd03/30/2009:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnP43DE:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.35-20-generic-pae

[bugbot (bugbot)]

Hey Mahendra,

Thanks for testing maverick during its development period. Unfortunately it looks like this bug report didn't get attention during the maverick development period. But I see there's not been more comments on the bug since the release, which makes me wonder if this is still an issue for you?

If you've not seen this issue since maverick's release yourself, it may have been solved by kernel or X or other updates that occurred late in the release; if so, would you mind please closing the bug for us? Go to the URL mentioned in this bug report, click the yellow icon(s) in the status column and set to 'Fix Released'.

If you no longer have the hardware needed to reproduce the problem, or otherwise feel the bug no longer needs tracked in Launchpad, you can set the status to 'Invalid'.

If you are the original reporter and still have this issue, just reply to this email saying so. (Or set the bug status to Confirmed.) If you are able to re-test this against 11.04 Natty Narwhal (our current development focus) and find the issue still affects Natty, please also run 'apport-collect <bug-number>' while running natty, which will add fresh logs and debug data, and flag it for the Ubuntu-X development team to look at.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

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.