strange graphics bug, window looks squished, wrong colors (in gnome-system-monitor, gnome-do)

[Data]

Binary package hint: gnome-system-monitor

I see this strange graphics bug (see attached screenshot) in an up-to-date installation of hardy beta. I should mention I am running it as a virtual machine in Virtualbox, so this bug should not be hardware-related, nor related to 3D-driver issues or something like that.

So far, gnome-system-monitor seems the only affected program from the default installation.
However, I just discovered that I also see this bug in Gnome-do (See second screenshot)

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

not a gnome-system-monitor bug, rather something broken on your video card.

[Rodrigo Rivas Costa (rodrigorivascosta)]

I have this same problem too. It happens only with 24 bit color depth; with 16 bits the problem is gone.
I think it is related to the Vesa video driver.

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-vesa

I have an old PCI Vodoo Banshee card that uses this driver, and the virtual installation of the OP probably uses Vesa as well.

The fun thing is that it only affects a few windows, but most of them look just fine. It's like if the application, (or the WM or the X server) draws the window into an offscreen buffer at 24bpp and then it blits into the screen as if 32bpp (or the other way around?)...

PS: the "xfce4-terminal" also has this effect. Searching for more... ;^)

[Rodrigo Rivas Costa (rodrigorivascosta)]

Just playing around a little...

I recompiled the gnome-system-monitor to test this issue, and I made it disappear just removing the references to the colormap in the 'interface.cpp' source file. It looks like the problem appears when trying to use an alpha channel.

BTW, why the gnome-system-monitor tries to change the colormap? Is it really neccesary?

It is clear that the bug is not in the application, but whether it is in gtk, gdk, X or the driver, I cannot tell.

Anyway, just for fun, I have written a tiny workaroud to avoid the issue (attached)...

[Data (ubuntuaddress)]

Yep. I think the vesa driver is a good guess (Obviously we need some package to blame the bug on).

Could someone who knows what package the vesa driver is in, add that to the affected packages?

(Of course I know that it is not a gnome-system-monitor bug nor a gnome-do bug, but if we set them all to invalid without any other afftected packages, the bug report will just vansih...)

[Data (ubuntuaddress)]

Setting status to confirmed as of Rodrigo's comment

[Ruwan Jayaweera (ruwan-jayaweera)]

i have the same issue

[Jan Rüegg (rggjan)]

Same problem here, with an Ati x1600 card and the fglrx drivers... (Besides the strange colors everithing is moving here up and down a few pixels every few seconds)

[Mediaklan (didli)]

Exactly the same here with an X800. Gnome-system-monitor and a (very) few others apps are affected.

[Jan Rüegg (rggjan)]

Just found out that this doesn't happen with compiz enabled (neither with gtk nor emerald decorator), but only with metacity...

So maybe a metacity / gnome-system-monitor bug?

[Alex Launi (alexlauni)]

This doesn't happen to me with metacity compositing on the free ATI drivers, Hardy Heron. Can you give us your system specs?

[Jan Rüegg (rggjan)]

Also Hardy Heron, Ati x1600, Macbook Pro rev 3, fglrx drivers from Ubuntu repository...

[hedgehogs55 (hedgehogs55)]

 i have this as well

[bullium (wbradshaw)]

I to have the same issues running Xubuntu 8.04 w/ ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M6 LY. Problem also affects xfce4-terminal on my system as well.

[K_A_V (post-good)]

Ubuntu 8.04 w/S3virge problem is present.

[marius (marius-gala)]

apparently solved on Ubuntu 8.10 (just updated to latest release from 8.04, no other changes applied)

[Ludwig Flask (flask72)]

I have the same problem... installed Ub 8.1 from scratch from a downloaded install CD. Didn´t have the same problem with Ub8.04 installed upgraded to Ub8.1 through internet... DFI P2 XLX mother board with 512Mb ram, SIS 6328 8Mb agp 2x video card... display at 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 (though the higher resolution isn´t easy on the eye, have no control of setting the refresh rate!)

[Ludwig Flask (flask72)]

Further to previous... no problems with a clean re-install of xubuntu 8.04... Xubuntu update or clean install 8.10 same problems, even the Terminal (Xubuntu 8.10) is effected.

[Ralph Little (rlittle)]

Ludwig, I have this in Ubuntu on Parallels with updating from 8.04.
Does anyone know how I could fix this by hand?

[Rodrigo Rivas Costa (rodrigorivascosta)]

Ralph, you can get my tiny little hack in a previous post in this very same thread:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-system-monitor/+bug/208570/comments/5
HTH

[Bolin (bolinmdt)]

This bug is still present in Hardy 8.04.2, which I am still running as it is a long-term support release. My graphics card is an ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility M3 AGP 2x and I'm using Open GL Messa GLX Indirect 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.0.3-rc2). I have xserver-xorg-video-vesa version 1:1.3.0-4ubuntu4 (although I'm not entirely sure that my computer is using it).

I found that the system monitor was fine when I first installed Hardy on 2008-04-28 but subsequently this bug caused the corrupted graphics on the system monitor sometime between then and 2008-05-31. Presumably an update in that period has caused the problem.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Hi Data,

This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
test if it still occurs on Lucid?

Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
normal support channels, please see:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:

  apport-collect 208570

If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
bug 208570 in your report if you think it may be related):

  ubuntu-bug xorg

If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/208570

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

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.