XMir screen corruption on radeon GPU

[Kai Mast]

See the attached video. Happens on my Thinkpad Edge with radeon graphics card.
---
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250] [1002:9712] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21c6]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-05-12 (872 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
MarkForUpload: True
Package: unity-system-compositor 0.0.1+13.10.20130926.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-9.16-generic 3.11.2
Tags: saucy
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-9-generic x86_64
UnitySystemCompositorLog: ** (lightdm:1376): WARNING **: Error executing child process unity-system-compositor.sleep: No such file or directory
UnitySystemCompositorLogOld: ** (lightdm:1377): WARNING **: Error executing child process unity-system-compositor.sleep: No such file or directory
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to saucy on 2013-06-05 (117 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
version.libdrm: libdrm2 2.4.46-1
version.lightdm: lightdm 1.7.17-0ubuntu1
version.mesa: libegl1-mesa-dev N/A

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
    apport-collect 1233545
When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

A popup appears saying "no information collected"...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It probably could not guess the source package from the bug number. Now I've added that info to the bug, the command might work. Try again...

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

apport information

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

apport information

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

apport information

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

apport information

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

apport information

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Liam Proven (lproven)]

Affects an RV620 in my Toshiba Satellite Pro P300A, too.

[Giovanni Battista Salvietti (giovannibattista-salvietti)]

Radeon 6450, after fix of the vertical line bug I'm now affected by this screen corruption bug.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Actually we should narrow down which package this bug in, so please...

1. Install package: mir-demos
2. When the corruption is happening log in to VT1 (Ctrl+Alt+F1) and then...
3. sudo mir_demo_client_egltriangle
4. Switch back to VT7: Ctrl+Alt+F7
5. Hopefully you can see a spinning triangle.

Now does the corruption still happen? Does it affect the triangle?

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Mh I don't see any triangle or any difference when I do this.

On TTY1 I get something like
"libEGL: warning unsupported platform (null)"

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

That's strange. Please verify you're still running a Mir server:
    ps auxw | grep mir
    ps auxw | grep unity-system-compositor

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Nevermind. I tried it again and now the expected behaviour worked.

But I noticed that input was extremely slow. I guess the triangle is constantly drawing?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

OK, by "worked", I assume you mean the triangle was not corrupt. So removing the Mir task.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

OK, raof confirms he can reproduce this bug too.

[christian (chmathieu)]

same problem, but only when the mouse moves. . .

ubuntu 14.04

uname -a: Linux d1561-00-30-05-fd-69-fd 3.12.0-2-generic #7-Ubuntu SMP Sat Nov 9 00:02:42 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

unity --version: unity 7.1.2

VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV620 LE [Radeon HD 3450 AGP]

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Of course it only happens when the mouse moves. Only in this case the screen is redrawn.

I cannot test this on trusty currently. When I install usc nothing changes -- I still run a normal X session without the system compositor.

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Okay, I can confirm this on trusty too.

[christian (chmathieu)]

the problem seems solved since the last update 2013-11-21 12:30 am
but everything seems very slow . . .

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

For me it does not start the system compositor anymore. /var/log/lightdm/unity-system-compositor.log only says: "unity-system-compositor.sleep: No such file or directory"

[christian (chmathieu)]

arrggll, exact:

unity-system-compositor was disabled . . .
I don't know why, maybe a bad update ?

I reactivated unity-system-compositor, and the bug is still there !

sorry for my hasty conclusions . . .

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

I figured it out. There is a new package "ubuntu-desktop-mir" that you also need to run mir.

However, I still have the flickering :(

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Just testing this again.

I noticed that when using an external monitor and disabling the one on my laptop, the flickering only occurs very rarely. Also , when enabling both screens, the flickering is much more severe.

So for me this seems like the radeon driver doesn't detect the refresh rate correctly or xmir doesn't set the refresh rate correctly.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please make sure you're using Ubuntu 14.04 trusty. That's the only release that's getting Mir updates now.

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Why is this incomplete?

[Maarten Lankhorst (mlankhorst)]

It doesn't say if you tested trusty or not.

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

I wrote in November that I am on trusty. (Last tested about 2 weeks ago).

However, I don't use my radeon card anymore so I cannot test this. If nobody else can confirm it I guess we can keep it Incomplete.

[sh4r4d (sh4r4d)]

I am also facing the same issue with
ubuntu 14.04
graphics card: ATI Radeon HD4200

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

XMir 1.0 (the old Xorg extension) is now deprecated and is not being maintained or fixed. It is replaced by the new 'Xmir' binary (package 'xmir') introduced in Ubuntu 15.10 wily.