Graphical corruption in unity after leaving shift switcher

[Toby Smithe]

Binary package hint: unity

OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV620

Screenshot attached

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: unity 3.6.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-5.32~ppa1-lowlatency 2.6.38-rc5
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-5-lowlatency x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: cb8560608953d46833a1bf646e78598a
CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,vpswitch,regex,compiztoolbox,animation,place,resize,move,gnomecompat,mousepoll,shift,wall,session,wobbly,workarounds,thumbnail,fade,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
DRM.card0.HDMI.A.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1280x800 1280x720 1152x768 1024x768 800x600 848x480 720x480 640x480
 edid-base64: AP///////wAw5I0BAAAAAAASAQOQIRV4CrqVl1lVjCchUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEB1hoAdlAgFDAYIEQAS88QAAAb1hoAdlAgFDAYIEQAS88QAAAbAAAA/gBKNjU2SIAxNTRXWDcKAAAAAAA8WHSQrMjk/wEBCiAgAL4=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Thu Mar 3 13:02:22 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series [1002:95c4] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:029f]
MachineType: Dell Inc. Studio 1537
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.38-5-lowlatency root=UUID=f5cadb34-d259-4135-a92d-f4bad690bcfc ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature_: Ubuntu 2.6.38-5.32~ppa1-lowlatency 2.6.38-rc5
ProcVersionSignature__: Ubuntu 2.6.38-5.32~ppa1-lowlatency 2.6.38-rc5
ProcVersionSignature___: Ubuntu 2.6.38-5.32~ppa1-lowlatency 2.6.38-rc5
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 05/27/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A09
dmi.board.name: 0P132H
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A09
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A09
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA09:bd05/27/2009:svnDellInc.:pnStudio1537:pvrA09:rvnDellInc.:rn0P132H:rvrA09:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA09:
dmi.product.name: Studio 1537
dmi.product.version: A09
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4-0ubuntu3
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.1~git20110215.cc1636b6-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6~3ubuntu11
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau N/A

[Doctor (zoidbergdoctor)]

I have same problem with shift switcher.

[Carlos Pita (carlosjosepita)]

Same here. After I switch windows there is a short time while the panel and launcher look corrupted until the new window is completely rendered. Then the panel and launcher are correctly restored, but the overall effect is very visible and disturbing.

[Connor Carney (cscarney)]

Same problem here, with an interesting detail: if I slow down the fade time on the shift switcher using CCSM, I can see the corrupted panel cross-fade with the normal panel during the transition.

So when I hit the key to initiate shift switcher, the panel immediately goes corrupt, but as the windows transition into their place in the shift switcher, the corrupted image fades back to the correct panel image, so that the panel looks correct while the shift switcher is active. When dismissing the shift switcher the same transition happens in reverse: as the windows transition back to their places on the screen, the correct panel fades back to the corrupted one. As soon as the transition is over, it immediately goes back to the normal panel.

Observed with both the intel and radeon driver on two separate machines, so it doesn't seem to be driver-specific.

[Kevin Dominguez (kevin13-20)]

I feel the same but with a Dell Inspiron 1545, excuse my bad translation.

[Doug Morse (dm-dougmorse)]

Me too. The visual artifacts seems to appear mostly as the shift switcher restores the layout post-switch. I have attached a screenshot and also attach a very brief video for forensics.

Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric). ATI Radeon HD 5670 (PCIe, Saphire brand). Stock fglrx driver:

ii fglrx 2:8.881-0ubuntu4.1 Video driver for the AMD graphics accelerators
ii fglrx-amdcccle 2:8.881-0ubuntu4.1 Catalyst Control Center for the AMD graphics accelerators

Output of lshw:

root@s3:~# lshw -C video
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Redwood [Radeon HD 5670]
       vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=fglrx_pci latency=0
       resources: irq:50 memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:fdec0000-fdedffff ioport:ee00(size=256) memory:fde00000-fde1ffff

I do not have the visual artifact problems with shift switcher on a similar machine running 10.04 LTS, although it's video card is on the motherboard (ATI Radeon HD 4200 on Asus M4A785TD-V motherboard). That machine also uses official Ubuntu fglrx driver.

[Doug Morse (dm-dougmorse)]

1-2 video attached.

[Doug Morse (dm-dougmorse)]

Apologies, that should have been "1-2 second video".

Also, for what it's worth:

Back on 11.04 I tried out Nautilus Elementary with Clutterflow (am-monkeyd ppa). It never worked right, displaying similar artifacts in the ClutterFlow region -- so much so that it was unusable. I long since removed it and the am-monkeyd ppa. Same machine and hardware configuration.

Within the ATI Catalyst Control Panel (amdccle), I have tried both tear-free enabled and disabled, as well as just vsync on blank both enabled and disabled (tear-free forces vsync on blank, so tear-free is some superset of that). None of the settings resolve the problem with shift switcher (nor did it with ClutterFlow).

Lastly, if you look at the screenshot I posted in Comment #7, the corruption on the topmost right-hand side of the panel (but not menu bar), you'll see the remnants of Alarm Clock 0.3.2 applet/indicator. This window pops up when I first login. I close it right away, and had not used it since logging in (hours previous).

Thus, my suspicion is that the artifacts are related to some double (or triple) buffering issue within or between OpenGL and ATI's fglrx drivers, or at least in the way Shift Switcher is calling them. I suspect the was true with Clutterflow back on 11.04.

This issue is annoying, but what's worse is that it makes it more difficult for me to "market" to friends and colleagues. :) Looks terrible.

I always used Nvidia on Linux up until summer of 2010. I think I'm down with ATI and will go back to Nvidia.

I am curious: Is anyone else here having these problems on non-ATI video hardware?

Thanks. --Doug

[Sami Jaktholm (sjakthol)]

This seems to be a Mesa issue instead of Compiz or Unity as after updating Mesa to the latest upstream version (from PPA), I no longer get the corruption in Precise. Quantal doesn't seem to have this issue either anymore (it also has newer Mesa than the current Mesa default).

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. RELEASE reached EOL on DATE.
See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Is this bug affecting any current release?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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