Screen tearing Nvidia - since Kubuntu 14.04

[BadBoy]

Affects fullscreen YouTube, VLC or OnLive.

Since Kubuntu 14.04 I have a screen tearing which is quite annoying... It looks like 4/5 of the screen gets painted on time and the rest is refreshed too late.

The problem occurs since Kubuntu 14.04. Changing Nvidia drivers does not help. Currently I'm on the recommended 331.89 driver.

No problem on Debian and previous versions of Kubuntu.

Temporary resolution is:
1) Go to System Settings -> Desktop Effects
2) Go to Advanced tab
3) Change the Scaling Method to whichever other option
4) Apply settings

The problem reoccurs after restart or resume from suspend or hybernation.

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The following FIXED the problem completely:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Create file:
/etc/profile.d/Tearing.sh

Insert this code:
export __GL_YIELD="USLEEP"

Then make it executable with:
chmod +x /etc/profile.d/Tearing.sh

Once that's done, reboot.

The GL_YIELD worked for me, and now vertical sync appears to be working as it should.

(https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?63946-No-vertical-sync-with-NVIDIA&highlight=tearing)

---------------
Output of "sudo lshw -C display; lsb_release -a; uname -a; free -m" as follows:

  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G96 [GeForce 9500 GT]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:50 memory:e2000000-e2ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:e0000000-e1ffffff ioport:2000(size=128)
  *-display
       description: Display controller
       product: 82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 02
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:47 memory:e3200000-e327ffff ioport:3460(size=8) memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:e3100000-e31fffff
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu Utopic Unicorn (development branch)
Release: 14.10
Codename: utopic
Linux CNRI-PC 3.16.0-18-generic #25-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 26 02:44:15 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
             total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 7909 4353 3555 94 529 1306
-/+ buffers/cache: 2518 5391
Swap: 10001 0 10001

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.16.0-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-18.25-generic 3.16.3
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-18-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Sep 28 15:32:03 2014
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/Xorg
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-09-13 (14 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Alpha amd64 (20140826.1)
ProcEnviron:

SourcePackage: xorg-server
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[BadBoy (sklep-szybkieczytanie)]

One more thing to add...

Sadly after my computer goes to sleep and then wakes up the tearing comes back.
You have to go to System Settings -> Desktop Effects -> Advanced tab and change Scaling Method to whatever. Than Apply changes and that's it.

[BadBoy (sklep-szybkieczytanie)]

I'm sorry to report that the "Desktop Effects" workaround does not work anymore...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Iván Gálvez (ivgalvez)]

For me the only way to avoid tearing when reproducing video or using applications such as Firefox is to use the Nouveau driver.

[varnie (varnie29a)]

I can confirm that bug in xubuntu 14.04 (nvidia-driver version 304.125), XFCE4's compositor disabled.
the part from "glxinfo" output:

""
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
server glx version string: 1.4
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile,
    GLX_ARB_create_context_robustness, GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float,
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile,
    GLX_EXT_create_context_es_profile, GLX_EXT_swap_control,
    GLX_EXT_swap_control_tear, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_NV_float_buffer,
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
    GLX_SGI_video_sync
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile,
    GLX_ARB_create_context_robustness, GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float,
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample,
    GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile, GLX_EXT_fbconfig_packed_float,
    GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_swap_control,
    GLX_EXT_swap_control_tear, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_NV_copy_image,
    GLX_NV_float_buffer, GLX_NV_multisample_coverage, GLX_NV_present_video,
    GLX_NV_swap_group, GLX_NV_video_capture, GLX_NV_video_out,
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
    GLX_SGI_video_sync
GLX version: 1.4
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile,
    GLX_ARB_create_context_robustness, GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float,
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample,
    GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile, GLX_EXT_swap_control,
    GLX_EXT_swap_control_tear, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_NV_float_buffer,
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
    GLX_SGI_video_sync
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce 7900 GS/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.125
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
OpenGL extensions:
    GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility, GL_ARB_color_buffer_float,
    GL_ARB_compressed_texture_pixel_storage, GL_ARB_conservative_depth,
    GL_ARB_copy_buffer, GL_ARB_depth_clamp, GL_ARB_depth_texture,
    GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_explicit_attrib_location,
    GL_ARB_fragment_program, GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow,
    GL_ARB_fragment_shader, GL_ARB_framebuffer_object,
    GL_ARB_get_program_binary, GL_ARB_half_float_pixel,
    GL_ARB_half_float_vertex, GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_internalformat_query,
    GL_ARB_map_buffer_alignment, GL_ARB_map_buffer_range, GL_ARB_multisample,
    GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_occlusion_query2,
    GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object, GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_point_sprite,
    GL_ARB_provoking_vertex, GL_ARB_robustness, GL_ARB_sampler_objects,
    GL_ARB_separate_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shader_objects,
    GL_ARB_shading_language_100, GL_ARB_shading_language_420...