Text has artifacts when typing something in terminal

[Björn Tillenius]

When I type something in an xterm window, the text that I type have some artifacts, making it almost impossible to read. If I switch focus to some other window, the text looks normal, and when switching focus back to the xterm window the text still looks normal. It's only when I type that the text gets artifacts. See attached screenshot.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: xterm 271-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-10.16-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-10-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,gnomecompat,snap,regex,mousepoll,resize,vpswitch,imgpng,place,resizeinfo,move,animation,grid,workarounds,wall,unitymtgrabhandles,expo,session,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Sun Sep 4 18:03:51 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-09-04 15:35:37.250434
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:20e4]
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:20e4]
MachineType: LENOVO 74695RG
ProcEnviron:
 LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: root=UUID=afc36c17-19d6-4454-92bc-8d610338a7ed ro quiet splash
SourcePackage: xterm
UdevDb: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-09-04 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/19/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 6DET38WW (2.02 )
dmi.board.name: 74695RG
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr6DET38WW(2.02):bd12/19/2008:svnLENOVO:pn74695RG:pvrThinkPadX200s:rvnLENOVO:rn74695RG:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 74695RG
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X200s
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.5.92+bzr2791-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu20
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1

[Thomas Dickey (dickey-his)]

On Sun, 4 Sep 2011, Björn Tillenius wrote:

> Public bug reported:
>
> When I type something in an xterm window, the text that I type have some
> artifacts, making it almost impossible to read. If I switch focus to
> some other window, the text looks normal, and when switching focus back
> to the xterm window the text still looks normal. It's only when I type
> that the text gets artifacts. See attached screenshot.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
> Package: xterm 271-1ubuntu2
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-10.16-generic 3.0.4
> Uname: Linux 3.0.0-10-generic x86_64
> Architecture: amd64
> CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,gnomecompat,snap,regex,mousepoll,resize,vpswitch,imgpng,place,resizeinfo,move,animation,grid,workarounds,wall,unitymtgrabhandles,expo,session,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell]
> CompositorRunning: compiz

...another bug-report for compiz.

--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

[Paul Donohue (s-launchpad-paulsd-com)]

Not sure if this helps any, but this has happened before:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/635258

[Paul Donohue (s-launchpad-paulsd-com)]

I've done a bit of digging, and it looks like the problem has something to do with the value of CompWindow->priv->attrib.border_width being unstable. PrivateWindow::updateFrameWindow() periodically causes the window's border_width to be set to that value (see line 803 of src/window.cpp), and for me that value seems to bounce between 0 and 1, with the xterm display looking correct when the window's border_width get set to 0, and looking corrupted when it is 1. Changing line 803 to just "xev.border_width = 0;" seems to fix the xterm corruption (though, obviously, this is not a proper fix).

I'm still not sure how CompWindow->priv->attrib.border_width is getting changed.

[Paul Donohue (s-launchpad-paulsd-com)]

Ignore my previous comment - I was apparently chasing red herrings yesterday.

There seem to be several interacting bugs that were leading me in circles: The Snapping Windows plugin does very broken things when resizing an xterm window, shading of windows is very broken, and there appear to be multiple sizing issues if border_width != 0.

If I disable Snapping Windows, don't shade any windows, and use 'xterm -xrm xterm.borderWidth:0', everything seems to work ok, so hopefully I can start over and trace out a single issue at a time.

[Paul Donohue (s-launchpad-paulsd-com)]

I believe I have identified the problem with shading of windows:
http://bugs.compiz.org/show_bug.cgi?id=46

I still haven't figured out the border_width or snapping windows problems.

[Paul Donohue (s-launchpad-paulsd-com)]

The unstable border_width problem was caused by the following lines being added to reparent() in commit 887024e2c6040eb5d3ec17b5906cf86bb6aaaa76 :
    xwc.border_width = 0;
    XConfigureWindow (dpy, id, CWBorderWidth, &xwc);

Removing those lines fixes several (but not all) border-related bugs

[Hassan El Jacifi (waver)]

I tried this workaround and the problem is fixed.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=614542#c10

[Paul Donohue (s-launchpad-paulsd-com)]

This seems to be fixed in precise