[RV100/RV200] (Needs KMS) Background and full screen apps don't show up when Normal Visual Effects on

[SteveE]

Binary package hint: compiz

Ubuntu 9.10 - When turning on "Normal Effects", after the driver finishes loading, the desktop wallpaper disappears and except for the top and bottom panels, the screen is black. Also full screening flash based applications from within Firefox causes the screen to go black. Same machine, Jaunty worked perfectly with desktop effects on. In addition, effects themselves are extremely slow in comparison with Jaunty. All of this makes me suspect that there is a problem with the compositing interaction and the direct rendering drivers for AGP Radeon 7500.

Not sure how I can help, but willing to perform other tests and provide results if it will help diagnose the issue.

Have attached Xorg.0.log to hopefully help narrow this down a little.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,move,resize,place,decoration,animation,ccp,dbus,mousepoll,gnomecompat,png,svg,imgjpeg,text,commands,neg,video,wall,snap,scale,scaleaddon,expo,staticswitcher,regex,resizeinfo,workarounds,ezoom,vpswitch,extrawm,fade,session]
Date: Mon Oct 5 19:28:28 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: System Manufacturer Product Name
Package: compiz 1:0.8.3+git20091005-0ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
PciDisplay: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500] [1002:5157]
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=4bf73046-8a86-4541-b017-ffdab605aa57 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.38-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0~git20090817.7c422387-0ubuntu7
 libdrm2 2.4.13-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090825.fc74e119-0ubuntu2
SourcePackage: compiz
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 04/23/2003
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: SAP41
dmi.board.name: VI35 Serials
dmi.board.vendor: First International Computer, Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0x
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: First International Computer, Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Version xx
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvrSAP41:bd04/23/2003:svnSystemManufacturer:pnProductName:pvrSYS-xxxxxx:rvnFirstInternationalComputer,Inc.:rnVI35Serials:rvr1.0x:cvnFirstInternationalComputer,Inc.:ct3:cvrVersionxx:
dmi.product.name: Product Name
dmi.product.version: SYS-xxxxxx
dmi.sys.vendor: System Manufacturer
system: distro = Ubuntu, architecture = i686, kernel = 2.6.31-11-generic

[Michele B. (lupp0l0)]

This happens to me too, but I'm using a Radeon 9200.

[SteveE (steveedw)]

After much Googling, I got this working for the most part (except for the window decorations on liferea for some reason) by turning on KMS for Radeon in the kernel. A url which describes how to do this is http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1261990 . In a nutshell:

create a new /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf that contains:

##enable KMS Radeon
options radeon modeset=1

Then execute the following command:
sudo update-initramfs -k `uname -r` -u

May not work with all Radeon cards is their caveat, but at least worked for Radeon AGP 7500. Other video issues I had were getting mplayer working (added vo=gl2,x11 to ~/.mplayer/config).

Video effects are at the same speed (if not faster) than they were under Jaunty.

From what I've read, this isn't a bug, Radeon KMS is still a work in progress from what I was able to read.

[Michele B. (lupp0l0)]

This workaround was very useful, thanks.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Forwarding this bug from Ubuntu reporter SteveE:
http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/444139

[Problem]
It seems that even though glxinfo -l says GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE is 2048, for ati users it is 1024 for -ati version 1:6.12.99+git20090825.fc74e119-0ubuntu3

[Original Description]
Ubuntu 9.10 - When turning on "Normal Effects", after the driver finishes loading, the desktop wallpaper disappears and except for the top and bottom panels, the screen is black. Also full screening flash based applications from within Firefox causes the screen to go black. Same machine, Jaunty worked perfectly with desktop effects on. In addition, effects themselves are extremely slow in comparison with Jaunty. All of this makes me suspect that there is a problem with the compositing interaction and the direct rendering drivers for AGP Radeon 7500.

Not sure how I can help, but willing to perform other tests and provide results if it will help diagnose the issue.

Have attached Xorg.0.log to hopefully help narrow this down a little.

Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,move,resize,place,decoration,animation,ccp,dbus,mousepoll,gnomecompat,png,svg,imgjpeg,text,commands,neg,video,wall,snap,scale,scaleaddon,expo,staticswitcher,regex,resizeinfo,workarounds,ezoom,vpswitch,extrawm,fade,session]
Date: Mon Oct 5 19:28:28 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: System Manufacturer Product Name
Package: compiz 1:0.8.3+git20091005-0ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
PciDisplay: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500] [1002:5157]
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=4bf73046-8a86-4541-b017-ffdab605aa57 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.38-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0~git20090817.7c422387-0ubuntu7
 libdrm2 2.4.13-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090825.fc74e119-0ubuntu2
SourcePackage: compiz
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 04/23/2003
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: SAP41
dmi.board.name: VI35 Serials
dmi.board.vendor: First International Computer, Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0x
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: First International Computer, Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Version xx
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvrSAP41:bd04/23/2003:svnSystemManufacturer:pnProductName:pvrSYS-xxxxxx:rvnFirstInternationalComputer,Inc.:rnVI35Serials:rvr1.0x:cvnFirstInternationalComputer,Inc.:ct3:cvrVersionxx:
dmi.product.name: Product Name
dmi.product.version: SYS-xxxxxx
dmi.sys.vendor: System Manufacturer
system: distro = Ubuntu, architecture = i686, kernel = 2.6.31-11-generic

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The issue does not occur if KMS is enabled.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I've forwarded this bug upstream for you to https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24406 - please subscribe yourself to this bug, in case they need further information or wish you to test something. Thanks ahead of time!

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Amaranth, I'm fairly sure this is a driver bug but since this was open against compiz I'll leave a task open against it too in case you wish to track it. If not, you can close the compiz task.

[agd5f (agd5f)]

Does limiting your desktop size fix this issue?
Virtual 1680 1050
in the display subsection of the screen section of your config. I suspect your are running out of texture memory. The driver switched to letting randr select the virtual size, which results in a 1680x1680 front buffer (so that rotation will work). You might also try selecting depth 16 rather than depth 24.

[_dan_ (dan-void)]

This is *not* ati specific, i have the exact same Problem with my Geforce 6M on my Laptop.
My Desktop nvidia is not affected.

[_dan_ (dan-void)]

Furthermore it does not only affect fullscreen apps, but also windows apps when there are 2 or 3 other windows open.
Its has the same behaviour as the "nvidia black window bug" from 1-2 years ago, plus the missing background.

[Arc "warthog" Riley (arcriley)]

This seems like a pretty serious bug to get fixed before release, many more people will be affected by it who won't know how to find or apply the above patch, or even think that reducing their screen resolution could fix it.

[Javier Rivera (javier-isotecsl)]

_dan_ this bug is *ati* specific, and it doesn't affect small windows. It's solved with a workaround for the radeon drivers, so your nvidia bug is a different one.

[_dan_ (dan-void)]

My bug report about this issue with nvidia gfx card was marked duplicate of this one.

[Javier Rivera (javier-isotecsl)]

Turning KMS on solved it for me.

_dan_ those bugs where ati specific before you commented on then. You need to search or open a nvidia related bug.

[_dan_ (dan-void)]

As i stated earlier, i opened a bug report back in june for nvidia and it was marked duplicate of this one. (Not by me).

[Javier Rivera (javier-isotecsl)]

_dan_: Yes I see. But you didn't state your graphic card and the bug was hickjacked by people with ATI cards and this bug. Most of the info there is Ati-related, and every comment but yours look related to this problem with the ati drivers.

Sorry but it seems like the ati problem is way more common than yours, and we (ati-users) steal you bug away. I still believe that you should open another one. Please note clear in the new bug description your video card.

[Arc "warthog" Riley (arcriley)]

better yet, run apport on compiz/x11/etc so all the relevant info is
uploaded for you

[marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra)]

On Karmic Turning KMS don't solve. isn't working good, i get desktop background and icons but i get mangled font...
Please see the attached image...
Hth

[marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra)]

I forgot some details...

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]

xserver-xorg-video-ati:
  Installato: 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
  Candidato: 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
  Tabella versione:
 *** 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Stefan Nagy (stefan-nagy)]

Turning KMS on didn't work for me either - I also got mangled fonts plus other corruptions. I attach the output of dmesg, there are some error messages like...

[15318.655652] i2c-adapter i2c-1: unable to read EDID block.
[15318.655657] radeon 0000:01:00.0: LVDS-1: no EDID data

I wonder if we should open another bug, maybe at bugs.freedesktop.org, to see which ATI chips are affected...

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] [1002:4c66] (rev 01)

[Emmanuel Touzery (emmanuel-touzery)]

I reported bug #24074 which appears to be the exact same problem.
I confirmed that going to an older version of mesa also fixes the problem (as well as reducing resolution) so the regression might be in mesa only.

However I would like to try that virtual setting that you suggest, but on my computer there is no xorg.conf anymore, the installer doesn't create it anymore. This is ubuntu.

Can you put a sample xorg file that I could copy there to test this? I use 1280x1024@85, ATI driver.
On ubuntu dkpg-reconfigure xserver-xorg used to create an xorg.conf but nowadays it doesn't anymore and I don't know how to create it (I tried Xorg -configure but Xorg is running and if I kill it it respawns instantly, not sure how to prevent it to).

Or maybe there's another way than with xorg.conf?

NOTE: since I use 1280x1024 if I understand well for me the virtual would only increase my resolution to 1280x1280 which is not much more, so this might already prove that the virtual is not the main reason of the problem.

[Stefan Nagy (stefan-nagy)]

Regarding screen artifacts and font tearing after turing on KMS for radeon see bug #413259.

[Emmanuel Touzery (emmanuel-touzery)]

Well I turned on KMS and that also fixes the problem for me, and I don't get artifacts however I got a freeze relatively quickly (using AGP as well). Maybe I would have gotten it without KMS using 3d as well, I don't know because I never used 3d for long, since the desktop is black.

[Stephen H. Gerstacker (stack)]

I have the same problem with a Radeon RV250 (Mobility FireGL 9000). The work around seems to work for me, but I get the tearing.

The bug #413259 solution seems to have fixed the tearing problem.

I'll also note that the compiz performance takes a hit without the fixes. The animations stutter a bit, but with the fix, the animations are smooth.

[bgruber (bgruber)]

Turning KMS on fixes this bug for me, introduces tearing. It also seems to introduce freezes, though as Emmanuel Touzery wrote, it's hard to know whether or not there would have been freezes without KMS. radeon.agpmode=-1 fixes the tearing, but I'm still getting occasional freezes.

[Emmanuel Touzery (emmanuel-touzery)]

I think if it's not going to be fixed on time for 9.10 release (and it looks that way) then probably a series of ATI r200 cards should get blacklisted for 3d effects. Ideally they should be blacklisted only for resolutions about 1024x768 if possible, since it seems that 1024x768 is the maximum working resolution.

Note that even at 1024x768 or less there might still be freezes in 3d that did not occur with 9.04, nobody tested this properly at this point.

I think a blacklist is needed and also maybe a mention in the release notes. A black desktop gives a very bad first impression of ubuntu and this is a clear regression from 9.04.

About my freezes, they occur with KMS at AGP8x (default), 4x and 2x. I stopped at that point and also because of https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/454847 decided to give up on 3d support on my graphics card for 9.10 (maybe I'll return to 9.04 I'll see).

[Emmanuel Touzery (emmanuel-touzery)]

for resolutions about 1024x768

=>

for resolutions above 1024x768

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

It's too late to do this for the final release but if we get an accurate list of card affected we could perhaps do it in an SRU. The real problem is that, as we've seen with previous ATI blacklists, not every card with the same pci id is affected. I don't know if that is the case for this issue but we'd want to try to make sure one way or the other before doing anything.

[Emmanuel Pacaud (emmanuel-pacaud)]

Let's begin this list. Here's my lspci output:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200] [1002:5961] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:5002]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 Region 1: I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
 Region 2: Memory at df000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 Expansion ROM at dffe0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: [58] AGP version 3.0
  Status: RQ=256 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW+ AGP3+ Rate=x4,x8
  Command: RQ=32 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ AGP+ GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=x8
 Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
  Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
  Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
 Kernel modules: radeon, radeonfb

[Dominik (dominalien)]

Like I commented on bug 385539, I fixed this temporarily by installing libgl1-mesa-dri and libgl1-mesa-glx from the Jaunty repositories.

I'm now getting

direct rendering: No (LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT set)

and

OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R200 20060602 AGP 8x x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 7.4

from glxinfo, and glxgears flicker.

Desktop effects are back to Jaunty-speeds, though. I thought I'd have to go back to 9.04, but this should tide me over.

[Twisted Lucidity (lucidlytwisted)]

(Coming from bug 421334)
I can confirm the same problem on an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 at 1400x1050.
This system was fine on Jaunty, just done a full install of Karmic and I now see this.
When Compiz is running, the Benchmark app reports very poor performance (circa 11fps when it used to be 100+fps).
The KMS update had no effect.

As I am still new, not sure what other info to provide

[SpmP (scarletpimpernal)]

After upgrade from Jaunty, had balck desktop background (with icons),
Enabling KMS resolved this, but now i have slight text corruption (sometimes).
 Compiz performance (with and without KMS) is crap. Very high fps for glxgears (5k, small) but in reality glx is kerky and tears.
 Thanks for the link to the fix!

[Jacopo Lorenzetti (jacopol)]

confirmed here, after upgrading to karmic I had a black desktop and no icons.

enabling kms fixed it (only if I also do update-initramfs after enabling kms in modprobe.d), but sometimes I notice minor font corruption on some letters.

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
PciDisplay: 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1

[JaiBee (jaibee)]

Workaround in #3 worked for me (Radeon 9200 PRO (rev 01)), thanks a lot!

Just run the following commands:

echo -e "##enable KMS Radeon\noptions radeon modeset=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

sudo update-initramfs -k `uname -r` -u

sudo reboot

[Jacopo Lorenzetti (jacopol)]

now I'm working with kms on and I'm getting occasional freezes, as reported by other users here

[Erik Corry (erik-arbat)]

I'm seeing this on Karmic 32 bit.

Resolution is 1680x1050. I'm using the DVI output.

lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 662 Host (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] PCI-to-PCI bridge
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS964 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 36)
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev 01)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
00:06.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] (rev 01)
00:06.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] (Secondary) (rev 01)

Switching off visual effects seems to help.

[Karel Marik (kaja-marik)]

Same here for Radeon 9200SE - no wallpaper, no desktop icons when visual effects are on.

[Karel Marik (kaja-marik)]

(coming from
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/460013
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/368219)

I can confirm this for Radeon 9200SE - black screen and no icons when visual effects are on. It worked fine in 8.10 or 9.04 with proprietary driver. I am ready to put here any listing or screen shot if necessary.

[Peter Jacobs (peter-jljacobsfamily)]

Just another confirmation, also with a Radeon 9200. Enabling KMS fixes this, but introduces mild font corruption. Interestingly, the corruption isn't present to begin with, and grows worse over time. Reloading X or restarting clears it up again, for a while.

[Ramesh Rajaby (mesh89)]

If I can add my 2 cents, with my Radeon 9200SE setting the color depth to 16 solves it. Animation performance are terrible, anyway, much worse than on Jaunty.

[bjaglin (bjaglin)]

Could someone change the title? It does not seem to be specific to Radeon 7500, but applies to all R200 chipsets from what I can see here. Still reproducable with the latest xorg-edgers.

For those who are looking for a workaround that does not introduce performance hit, result in tearing, or require a change in resolution/bit depth, you can have a look at bug #433173 and bug #420599 which, to me, sound like duplicates to this one. This does not use KMS, but just an old version of the DRI module for Mesa. It is always unfortunate to have to revert to a previous version, but that is the best alternative I have to enjoy Karmic, so here is a step by step, tested on a T40p (Radeon Mobility 9000 [RV250]):

1. Download the latest version you can find of libgl1-mesa-dri on the 7.5 branch. It looks like it is not easy to get a .deb anymore, so I uploaded the one I am using (retrieved from the Debian squeeze repositories a few weeks ago):
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2114917/libgl1-mesa-dri_7.5.1-1_i386.deb

2. Install it using dpkg:
sudo dpkg -i libgl1-mesa-dri_7.5.1-1_i386.deb

3. Restart your X server. If you are using gnome:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

At that point the bug should be fixed and the performance be back to Jaunty level. If it is not, just run sudo apt-get upgrade to revert your changes. If it works and you want to keep this solution, the next problem is that the newer version of libgl1-mesa-dri will appear in the upgrade list each time you want to upgrade your packages and override the package that you installed manually. There is a way to tell apt to stay with a specific version using Pin:

1. Edit /etc/apt/preferences. This file might not exist on your system.
sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences

2. Append the following lines:
Package: libgl1-mesa-dri
Pin: version 7.5.1-1
Pin-Priority: 1001

From now on, any specific update on libgl1-mesa-dri will be ignored. When the bug is fixed, KMS gets more stable, or another package require a newer version of libgl1-mesa-dri, just remove the /etc/apt/preferences file (or the lines you added if the file was already present) and run sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade to get the latest version from the ubuntu repositories.

[bjaglin (bjaglin)]

I forgot to mention that this workaround is not perfect: when using Compiz, the windows rendering content using hardware acceleration leave a trail (old content not redrawn) when you move the window and/or are not rendered are rendered on only one workspace (sometimes not the one you would like) when the window is on a side/corner and has pixels in another workspace. Some apps such as Google Earth behave therefore strangely when the window is placed on a corner, but at least no HW freeze as I was getting doing that on a freshly installed Karmic.

[Dominik (dominalien)]

@bjaglin

Your solution is... complex, especially regarding the obtaining of the mesa packages and locking them. The libgl1-mesa-dri/libgl1-mesa-glx packages can be easily obtained from packages.ubuntu.com. I wrote a short explanation of how to "fix" the problem in bug 385539 and a more detailed expalanation here: http://www.ode2.com/?p=44

[Twisted Lucidity (lucidlytwisted)]

Thanks bjaglin, I followed your steps and performance seems to have improved a bit. Compiz benchmark now reports 130+fps (which is what I had under Jaunty) but Tux Racer is still down at 2fps (I can't recall what is was under Jaunty) so I think there are still underlying problems.

[bagl0312 (bagl0312)]

I have an old Radeon 9200 video card:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] [1002:5960] (rev 01)

I posted my xorg.conf configuration here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8263824#post8263824

it works perfectly for me, and graphics performance seem better than in Jaunty

[ementos (ementos)]

Wow! Thanks, @bjaglin. It works great :)

[Jacopo Lorenzetti (jacopol)]

two days ago I turned off kms and downgraded libgl1-mesa-dri to version 7.5.1-1 as bjaglin suggested. I didn't get a freeze, performances seem to be slightly better than jaunty and I have no screen corruption. good fix!

[Bugzi09-fdo-tormod (bugzi09-fdo-tormod)]

Users with similar issues in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1308027&page=4 report that using AGPSize 128 solved their problem.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

I would be interested to know if upping the AGPSize helps for everybody here, that is, use an xorg.conf with only this (on otherwise default packages of course):

Section "Device"
 Identifier "my-radeon"
 Driver "ati"
 Option "AGPSize" "32"
EndSection

The default size is 8 for R100/R200 and 32 for R300 and up. You can try 16,32,64,128,256 at the expense of reserved system memory, so if you are tight on RAM I would recommend to just go as high as you need.

[tastyracer (steve-theoldrose)]

Fantastic, changing the AGPSize worked perfectly for me (Radeon 9200)

The fix suggested by by bagl032 also worked, but Tormod's seems so simple I'm guessing it goes to the real heart of the problem.
Thanks guys....

[Karel Marik (kaja-marik)]

Reply to Termod Volden ....

Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (Secondary) (rev 01)

Option "AGPSize" "8" => doesn't work (black screen with compiz)
Option "AGPSize" "16" or "32" => desktop image is back

BTW - what AGPSize setting is correct? How do I determine it?

[bagl0312 (bagl0312)]

Putting simply:

 Option "AGPSize" "32"

as suggested by Tormod doesn't work for me.
gnome-appeareance-properties refuses to switch desktop effects on.

If I add:
Option "BusType" "PCI"
desktop effects can be enabled but gdm is unstable: the screen gets all black if I open a few firefox windows.

Increasing AGPSize to 64 works but I get a kernel panic few minutes after logon if I open several windows.

To have a stable system I have to put all the options below in the Device section:

Section "Device"
        Driver "ati"
        Identifier "Radeon 9200"
        Option "BusType" "PCI"
        Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
        Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
        Option "AGPSize" "64"
EndSection

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

It is useful if everybody posting results also includes the output from "lspci -nn | grep VGA" and the amount of video RAM they have.

Since different workarounds are needed among you, there must be several issues mixed into this report. Bagl0312, I think you should open a new bug report since you need all these options.

[bagl0312 (bagl0312)]

I found that if I decrease the AGPSize to 32 I can get rid of some options.

The following is the minimal set:

Section "Device"
        Driver "ati"
 Identifier "Radeon 9200"
        Option "BusType" "PCI"
        Option "AGPSize" "32"
EndSection

It is strange that I have to put a so low AGP size since my card should have 128MB of memory:

lspci -vv gives the following:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Hightech Information System Ltd. Device 2020
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 32 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
 Region 1: I/O ports at 9000 [size=256]
 Region 2: Memory at fb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 [virtual] Expansion ROM at fa000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel modules: radeon, radeonfb

I can open a new bug if needed

[tastyracer (steve-theoldrose)]

"lspci -nn | grep VGA" reports following:
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] [1002:5960] (rev 01)

Also 128MB, essentially identical to bagl0312

Fresh install of Karmic - I had tried all other suggestions but these screwed it up too much so thought I'd start again and wait for a proper fix. Just setting AGPsize seemed so simple and easily-reversed - and it worked.

[tastyracer (steve-theoldrose)]

Aaah...the simple fix didn't work fully - desktop effects perfect but flash video in Firefox really jerky. I went back to bagl0312's xorg.conf and it was fine

[Emmanuel Pacaud (emmanuel-pacaud)]

With this board:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200] [1002:5961] (rev 01)

The right setup for me is:

modeset disabled

and the following xorg.conf file:

---
Section "Device"
        Driver "ati"
        Identifier "Radeon 9200"
        Option "BusType" "PCI"
        Option "AGPSize" "64"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Default Screen"
    Monitor "Configured Monitor"
    Device "Radeon 9200"
EndSection
---

modeset must be disabled in order to really have BusType and AGPSize parameters taken into account.

Also, EXA should not be activated if I want good performance when scrolling pages in firefox or chromium.

[bjaglin (bjaglin)]

I have a T40p: Radeon Mobility 9000 with 64MB:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] [1002:4c66] (rev 02)

"AGPSize" "8" does not solve the problem. "AGPSize" "16", "32" or "64" does. Flash rendering was jerky (at least with Compiz), so I had to add "BusType" "PCI" (same problem as tastyracer). Too early to say if everything is fine, but it does look like performance is good and the system is stable.

Thanks Tormod!

[Karel Marik (kaja-marik)]

I don't know exactly how to determine video memory size, but I believe it is an old 64MB card as card ID is R9200SE/64B/64M.

lspci gives

~$ lspci -v -v
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Hightech Information System Ltd. Device 320e
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
 Region 1: I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
 Region 2: Memory at eb800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 Expansion ROM at f3fe0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (Secondary) (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Hightech Information System Ltd. Device 320f
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Region 0: Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
 Region 1: Memory at eb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]

Just repeat my previous post:
Option "AGPSize" "8" => doesn't work (black screen with compiz)
Option "AGPSize" "16" or "32" => desktop image is back.

I didn't test another options as "BusType", "AccelMethod" or "MigrationHeuristic". Just let me know if it is needed.

[Jacopo Lorenzetti (jacopol)]

just adding AGPSize 64 to my existing xorg.conf (taken from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver) works for me, without kms and without downgrading libgl1-mesa-dri.

I'm now using Extra Visual Effects at the same speed it was on jaunty (or at least I can't notice differences in browsing, playing flash video, etc).

---

Section "ServerLayout"
 Option "AIGLX" "true"
 Identifier "Default Layout"
 Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE]"
 Driver "ati"
 Option "AGPMode" "8"
 Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
 Option "ColorTiling" "on"
 Option "AGPSize" "64"
 BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
 Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
 Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

---

[Karel Marik (kaja-marik)]

Sorry, I don't know if it is related but I have found following lines in my dmesg
---
[ 37.915300] agpgart-via 0000:00:00.0: AGP 3.5 bridge
[ 37.915340] agpgart-via 0000:00:00.0: putting AGP V3 device into 8x mode
[ 37.915404] pci 0000:01:00.0: putting AGP V3 device into 8x mode
...
[ 99.878432] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8102000-f8112000
[ 99.878449] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8112000-f8122000
[ 99.878462] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8122000-f8132000
[ 99.878474] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8132000-f8142000
[ 99.878485] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8142000-f8152000
[ 99.878510] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8152000-f8162000
[ 99.878523] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8162000-f8172000
[ 99.878534] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8172000-f8182000
[ 99.878546] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8182000-f8192000
[ 99.878557] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f8192000-f81a2000
[ 99.878568] glxinfo:2086 freeing invalid memtype f81a2000-f81b2000

I am running following xorg.conf
Section "Device"
 Identifier "my-radeon"
 Driver "ati"
 Option "AGPSize" "16"
EndSectio

However, I have another problem with my DVB card and maybe it is related to it.

[Emmanuel Touzery (emmanuel-touzery)]

*** Bug 24889 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Jacopo Lorenzetti (jacopol)]

sadly the xorg.conf I posted yesterday leaded to compiz instability. tried adding first "BusType" and then "MigrationHeuristic" with no luck.

downgrading libgl1-mesa-dri to version 7.5.1-1 seem to be the only stable workaround for me.

[Keith Howanitz (howanitz)]

AGPSize did not help me, nor turning off all effects. Video card worked well with 9.04. Fresh install of 9.10 resulted in a max resolution of 1152x864 - should instead be 1280x1024. Card info:

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]
03:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 [Radeon X300SE]

Downgrading drivers worked.

Wallpaper and everything was always visible, just had wrong resolution.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Keith, please file a new bug using "ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-ati".

[Twisted Lucidity (lucidlytwisted)]

Result of "lspci -nn | grep VGA"
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] [1002:4c66] (rev 01)

Result of "glxinfo |grep vendor"
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: SGI
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc.

I have downgraded the mesa drivers to 7.4.0-ubuntu3.2 (the most recent I could find). This seems to have partially returned Jaunty performance, but not quite. Anything that involves true 3D (e.g Tux Race, Compiz cube) really struggles and Flash performance very poor.

As this is a new install, I have no xorg.conf (it's my understanding that this file is not used any more).

[Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h)]

Same bug using an ATI IGP 340M.

lspci -v -v:

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon IGP 330M/340M/350M
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 002a
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR- FastB2B+ DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 66 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
 Region 0: Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
 Region 1: I/O ports at 9000 [size=256]
 Region 2: Memory at d0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 [virtual] Expansion ROM at d0320000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0
  Status: RQ=48 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW- AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
  Command: RQ=16 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ AGP+ GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=x4
 Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
  Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
  Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
 Kernel modules: radeon, radeonfb

[Andrey Barrientos M. (cpoliticas2005)]

Thank you bjaglin! your solution was perfect for me!

Since I have upgraded this machine to Kubuntu Karmic 9.10 (I'm using a R100 ATI videocard), it always showed I got direct rendering with glxinfo, however I had no desktop effects and couldn't run any 3D applications. After read some tutorials and launchpad bugs I set AGPSize to 32 and the desktop effects began to work, but no 3D applications (they hung up or crashed).

I tried everything out there, even to compile drivers and nothing worked. But when I downgraded Mesa to 7.5.1 as you suggested (thank for provide the .deb link, it is very useful indeed!), everything got better. Still games like Open Arena run a bit slower than it used to be in Jaunty but now the 3D apps don't crash anymore, the desktop effects are still there nicely, and more important, I can use again Blender.

I think there are problems related with performance in the newer mesa version in Karmic. Nevertheless this work around works flawlessly until the maintainers come up with a definitely solution to this problem.

Thank you so much again bjaglin!

[McSnickered (jtmac94)]

Tormod's suggestion worked for my ATI Radeon RV250 (9000). I set the AGP size to 32. Thanks Tormod!

[mh1974 (m-huelsmann)]

same problem here, HP Compaq nx7000, ATI Radeon Mobility 9200.
Black Screen when basic 3d is on without any desktop-icons. slow window movement.
same with 9.10 live-system.

[mikeollie (miguel-86)]

bagl0312 Thanks! your post #41 Works Perfect for me! (i have Radeon 9200)

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

WTF?! Encoding or else? i see similar problems e.g. on launchpad.net

i have done the workaround in #3 and now is firefox busy? (look shot.png) whit opera i see a "normal" webside. the font design in thunderbird is also ok. only firefox makes this sh**?

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

update: i turning on "Normal Effects" and make a reboot. and firefox shows all font designs ok. i have whit turning on "Normal Effects" a acceptable performance - my problem seams like solved

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

yet another error msg :(

karmic | IIBM T41 | 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 02)

after the workaround in #3 and the "normal settings" i have many font design errors. i go back to no 3d settings. and reboot my laptop. a few time the font design looks better. but now: i i change the desktop from 1 to 2 an back, my shell font color (white) was lost?! (look screen shot) or, i have the same look like the blender window-screen shot. in a shell.

my problems are not solved .... :(

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

at the weekend i read from a old (jaunty) bug. whit the RGB settings. On my Desktop PC (whit NVIDIA) i set after every reboot (since jaunty) the subpixel settings new. after i do this on my laptop (whit ATI) the fonds design looks ok. yet after a reboot... it this a bug or a (new) funktion?! ;)

but anyway - i love! ubuntu

[Ismael (ismael-grammenidis)]

Hi,
Last week I posted a full bug report with a similar problem over here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/486367
The ATi card is a RV280 - Radeon 9200 Pro.
Screen resolution 1280x1024px

Problems:
- Black screen and no icons after installing karmic (fresh installation). This was fixed after changing visual (desktop) effects to none.
- Compiz can't be enabled. It tries to search for a proprietary driver, but fails. Same thing when trying to change visual effects back to normal.
- Sometimes the screen freezes when using program's such as the Gimp or when watching video's.
- When booting: the screen blinks a couple of times and the white Ubuntu logo is displayed not only in the middle of the screen but also at the bottom right of the screen.
- Colors aren't as smooth as in Jaunty.

None of this affected me in Jaunty.
I tried to install proprietary drivers but they aren't supported anymore (including Catalyst not supporting this videocard).
EnvyNG failed to, tried some work-arounds that I could find on some websites around here and there. None of them worked.

[Henrique Maia (henriquemaia)]

Same problem here on my Radeon 9200 SE. Will there be any official fix?

[Jacopo Lorenzetti (jacopol)]

I'm testing 2.6.32-020632-generic from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.32/ with RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE]

kms is not enabled by default and the desktop is still black.

enabling radeon modeset=1 option fixes the black background but unfortunately visual effects can't be enabled. I could only enable metacity compositing.

performances are very good, no flash video problems and the system seems stable.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

jacopoL, would you be willing to test http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/drm-next/ also? Then please file a new bug where we can debug the KMS issue.

[Jacopo Lorenzetti (jacopol)]

ok, I installed 2.6.32-020632-generic from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/drm-next/

kms for radeon is not enabled by default but the good news is that my desktop is not black anymore.

unfortunately normal/extra visual effects still don't work (desktop effects could not be enabled).

I can't see any differences even if I turn kms on.

[Kenneth Malac (kennethm777-deactivatedaccount)]

I have the same problem on my Sony vaio PCG-GRV670 with my ATI Mobility Radeon 9000.
This is without compiz. :|

[Glyphobet (glyphobet)]

I have an ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 Pro] video card. I was experiencing these issues after upgrading to Karmic 9.10.

 * black background under Compiz
 * windows larger than 1024px were black
 * full-screen videos in VLC or Totem were black
 * very choppy (~2 frames per second) full-screen compiz effects (like the desktop cube switcher effect, or the scale effect)

The steps in comment #3, to create /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf, fixed the problem for me and returned my system to Jaunty performance levels.

[Robbie Coleman (robbie-robnrob)]

here's my lspci -vvv:
lspci -d 1002:* -vvv
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
 Subsystem: IBM Device 0509
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR+ FastB2B+ DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 66 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
 Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
 Region 1: I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]
 Region 2: Memory at d0100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 [virtual] Expansion ROM at d0120000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel modules: radeon, radeonfb

I have found that @Dominik's http://www.ode2.com/?p=44 workaround to be sufficient as long as you don't f'up by doing a sudo apt-get upgrade later as locking the jaunty dri's will be overwritten once more. damn. back to the steps for me.

[smolyak (smolyakoff)]

I have ATI Radeon 9200 64MB card. I have all the problems which have been meant earlier. I fixed this problem with configured xorg.conf but I can't say that it is even Interpid perfomance levels. On Interpid it was better with open-source drivers. I can't play 2D games (Battle Tanks for example, very slow indeed). Maybe another solution?

P.S. With KMS turned on, glxgears give less FPS then just xorg.conf configuration
Sorry for my English

[smolyak (smolyakoff)]

What is the best solution? I don't need visual effects. I just need compositing, and fast scrolling in Firefox.

[rolly (aureliano-cabiddu)]

I'm trying bjaglin/Dominik's workaround (#37/#27) after trying to SteveE (#3) that gave me usual trouble.
On my box, I have an ATI RV280 [Radeon 9200] [1002:5961] (rev 01), it seems to give better results. No font corruption, no low reactivity of cairo dock and the scores on benchmark of compiz result at least double the first workaround.

Regards

[Ryan Grange (ryangrange)]

Fix from #3 worked for me. Copy/pasted #31 to implement. I now have a background again on Karmic x64 with a RV280 (Radeon 9200 SE).

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

since yesterday i have the normal 3D settings (automatically) at a startup - after the Nouveau (and other) updates. maybe someone can tell my how does it goes. i don't no....

[rolly (aureliano-cabiddu)]

Small notes ...
I note a minor inconvenience to any advancement of kernel or better, for each cleaning of the old kernel. Usually after a small trial of the new kernel, I use delete the old, apparently without problems. When I restart the system I find this notice:
"Ubuntu is running in low-graphic mode

The following error was encountered . You may need
to update your configuration to solve this.

[EE] Failed to load /usr/libxorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so
[EE] Failed to load module "radeon" (loader failed, 7)
[EE] No drivers avaiable."
It's clearly that it does not find this module, even if I do not understand why, because I was using the new kernel for some time. After all I just removed the old.
The crude solution is still quite simple.
Unlocks libgl1-mesa-dri and update all. Then proced to re-downgrade libgl1-mesa-dri and restart Xserver.
Is it common such behavior?

[bgruber (bgruber)]

This bug is not specific to the RV200. That's why I changed the summary last November to reflect that.

[bgruber (bgruber)]

update after upgrading to lucid:

KMS is now getting turned on automatically (I can see it in my dmesg output), and so the bug is fixed from the standpoint that I no longer get a black background and no full screen apps. I do still get artifacts, but so far (a little less than a day) no freezes, so desktop effects are at least usable (before, i had a choice between black background or occasional freezes).

The other, larger problem, is that I now have horrible performance when scaling a video to fullscreen with desktop effects on. With desktop effects off, fullscreen video works, but video performance otherwise (most noticeably moving windows) is terrible.

I do not believe I had this problem under karmic when I set both KMS and desktop effects on, but I never tested for it specifically.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Doesn't seem to be a compiz issue here (at least not any more).

[bgruber (bgruber)]

The reason for the fullscreen video performance hit seems to be no XV overlay support w/ KMS turned on. Furthermore, as of xserver-xorg-video-ati 6.13.0-1ubuntu2, XV has been explicitly and completely disabled on my machine (which I believe to be a mistake, bug #562537).

Temporary workaround (for me) so as to have desktop effects and accelerated fullscreen video:
Install the jaunty version of libgl1-mesa-dri and libgl1-mesa-glx (7.4-0ubuntu3.2).
Install xserver-xorg-video-ati and xserver-xorg-video-radeon version 6.13.0-1ubuntu1 (available via launchpad at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/i386/xserver-xorg-video-radeon/1:6.13.0-1ubuntu1 and
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/i386/xserver-xorg-video-ati/1:6.13.0-1ubuntu1)

Obviously, I would prefer not to use these outdated packages, but it's the only way I know of to avoid these regressions. Hopefully XV overlay support will come to KMS soon.

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

Marking this as fixed in Lucid, as we've got KMS enabled by default and that fixes the initially reported bug. We should follow up your display artefacts and the lack of Xv overlay on separate bugs.

[rolly (aureliano-cabiddu)]

KMS on Lucid has the same low performance than on Karmic, regarding graphic effects like Compiz. To have better results (more than double, if we take compiz benchmark as reference) I have to disable KMS by starting the system with the option "nomedeset".
Then I followed the same workaround I followed on Karmic, i.e. that described by bjaglin on #37.
What I mean is that is not just about 3d effects, the whole system is now more fast and agile.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

karmic has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the karmic task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Considered Fix Released downstream.