Gnome System Monitor displays only static

[mac9416]

Binary package hint: gnome-system-monitor

Gnome System Monitor displays as a window of static. The same occurs in gnome-do.

Ubuntu version: karmic 9.10 (development branch)
gnome-system-monitor version: 2.28.0-0ubuntu1

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Oct 2 09:08:18 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gnome-system-monitor 2.28.0-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.34-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-system-monitor
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

are you using vesa as your video driver?

[mac9416 (mac9416)]

Hey, Pedro. How would I find that out? I tried looking in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but it doesn't exist.

[foureyesboy (foureyesboy-boy)]

I have the same problem too after I upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10 beta on Thinkpad X22.
I've tried completely removing gnome-system-monitor and re-installing it again but the problem persists.

Regarding video driver, it shows radeon when I did a lsmod. Correct me if I misunderstood what you're referring, Pedro.

[mac9416 (mac9416)]

foureyesboy helped me find out that my video driver is also radeon. And I also have a Thinkpad, though I can't figure out which one.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

that's a video driver issue, look at bug 208570 for example. this needs to be reassigned.

[foureyesboy (foureyesboy-boy)]

I have done some testing, and found that specifying the use of the vesa driver in Xorg works around the problem. All the gnome-system-monitor, notify-osd and even cairo-dock come back. Hope this may help a bit.

Here is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
   Identifier "Configured Video Device"
   Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier "Default Screen"
   Monitor "Configured Monitor"
   Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

[mac9416 (mac9416)]

That worked like a charm! Thanks, foureyesboy!

I'm reassigning this to xorg-xserver-video-ati.

Let me summarize a bit. Folks running Ubuntu on laptops with Radeon Mobility 7500s starting with Ubuntu 9.10 have seen gnome-system-monitor, gnome-do, and notifications appear as black and white stripes, or, as I described it, "static."
Starting Emerald or xcompmgr in Fluxbox turned the entire desktop into the famous "static" for me. Turning desktop effects to Normal has worked for some. Modifying the xorg.conf as foureyesboy has above has worked for foureyesboy and myself.
For more info, check out this thread on UbuntuForums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8278160

[mac9416 (mac9416)]

I thought I could reassign it to xorg-xserver-video-ati, but perhaps I was wrong. I'll let smarter folks than me worry about that.

[Steve McGrath (smcgrath23)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 426582, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Please continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Jerome Lacoste (jerome-lacoste)]

We had the problem as described in the first attachment

Following the workaround in bug #208570 solves it for us.

I.e. use the following library: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/13121156/no_rgba.c