[gen3] Dash background flickers on intel graphics

[Daniel Kessel]

The Unity dash flickers on my machine with intel graphics.
Chipset:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

I have also tried activating SNA, xorg.log says: (II) intel(0): SNA initialized with gen3 backend
But that does not change anything

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-0.4-generic 3.8.0-rc3
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-0-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.8-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CurrentDmesg:

Date: Thu Jan 17 22:42:15 2013
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: raring
DistroVariant: ubuntu
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-14 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Alpha i386 (20130114)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 1011
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-0-generic root=UUID=12622601-cc4f-48d2-861b-1d941ddf6b39 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
XorgConf:
 Section "Device"
   Identifier "Card0"
   Driver "intel"
   Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
 EndSection
dmi.bios.date: 07/29/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A06
dmi.board.name: CN0Y53
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A06
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A06
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA06:bd07/29/2009:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron1011:pvrA06:rvnDellInc.:rnCN0Y53:rvrA06:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA06:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 1011
dmi.product.version: A06
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.9~daily13.01.14-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.41-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0.1-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0.1-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.1.901-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.0.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.18-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.6-0ubuntu1

[Daniel Kessel (dkessel)]

i have tried previous versions of version.xserver-xorg-video-intel

xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.17-0ubuntu1
xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.16-0ubuntu1
xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.9-0ubuntu2

but that did not change anything

[Daniel Kessel (dkessel)]

Switching between UXA and SNA does not change anything, on both 2.20.18 and 2.20.9

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

ok, thanks for testing

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

You mentioned that you've ran raring only for a few days. Did you upgrade from quantal? One diff between them is the mesa release, quantal has 9.0 and raring has 9.0.1.

[Daniel Kessel (dkessel)]

I did a quick test with precise, and there can confirm that there is no flickering when using precise. I have not tested quantal.

It is not only flickering, but there is also one redraw problem in the lower left corner. I will attach a screenshot.

[Daniel Kessel (dkessel)]

I have two netbooks from different vendors, but with the identical graphics chipset. I could test/confirm bugfixes on those two devices.

[Roman Yepishev (rye)]

I can reproduce the flickering (and the rendering issue in the lower left corner) - while the whole dash is not blurred that rectangle _is_ suggesting that dash blur is rendered with an incorrect offset.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel Kessel (dkessel)]

still present in 2:2.20.19-0ubuntu1

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

I experienced the 'flickering' bug for the first time with unity 6.12.0daily13.01.11.1-0ubuntu1 (video + system info attached to bug 1100970)

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

er, bug 1098502

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Roman: which hw do you have? Daniel and Jean-Baptiste seem to be on gen3 intel (945, Atom).

[Roman Yepishev (rye)]

Timo, I have the same, Intel 945GME on Atom (that's Acer Aspire One AOA150)

Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:015b]

[Roman Yepishev (rye)]

Also the alt-tab switcher suffers from the lack of blurred background too.

[Eleni Maria Stea (hikiko)]

Just for the record, someone reported that this bug occurs in old or integrated GPUs (eg in netbooks and machines that don't have glsl support). I didn't manage to reproduce it yet.

[Eleni Maria Stea (hikiko)]

Confirmed:
I reproduced the bug on an Asus EEE 901

[Eric Zig (zuric)]

I reproduced the bug on my Vaio netbook.
I don't know if it's the same bug, in preview mode I don't have the ghost icon on background.

[chip (chipmccullough)]

Same issue with Dash flicker. Background seems okay though. When searching for an app the letters enter correctly, but when "TAB"ing to selection the highlighting is unpredictable forcing me to use a mouse for selection.

Running on 13.04 on a MacBook 2,1
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML E
X.Org X Server 1.13.2

[Markcortbass (markcortbass)]

Same issue for me. There is a 'block' in the left/under corner. And Alt , Tab had a issue. As shown in the pictures below:

http://ubuntuone.com/4UmrC0vN6SNkICdQaJhKpR
http://ubuntuone.com/0LOAR4NWN5XTwJl5ydRU2W

My Spec:
Dell mini 1018
Intel Atom N455 1.66GHz
2GB RAM
160GB HDD
Integrated Intel GMA 3150

[Markcortbass (markcortbass)]

This is still a big bug in Ubuntu 13.04!
I also have this problem on my HP Compaq nc6120. I don't know if the HP supports opengl. But my Dell mini 1018 has OpenGL 1.5 support.

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

Yeah, Mark, this bug is happening in old machines that don't support OpenGL ES 2.0. I am so regretful of having bought a netbook :(

[Eleni Maria Stea (hikiko)]

This bug occurs on netbooks with low end intel graphics cards. I did some testing on various machines but I didn't manage to locate the exact cause yet. (the effort is impeded by the fact that the only where I managed to reproduce this bug is extremely slow and each compile takes more than 2 hours). I ll try to look into it again and maybe find a faster machine that exhibits the same behavior.

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

Don't worry Eleni, I know trying to work with a netbook is frustrating :/

[Ali Najafi (alinajafi)]

Me too have an Asus EEEPC netbook and the same problem.
Have you guys noticed any problems in gradient shadow of the background which disappears and re-appears in short intervals? I posted a short video here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dash/+bug/1152604
But my bug is detected as a duplicate of this bug.

[Ali Najafi (alinajafi)]

I noticed a similar misplacement Mark (markcortbass) mentioned in comment #22. I took an screenshot:
http://ubuntuone.com/5O3f2pgcr4NN1dYRJPuFw7

@Mark, you can launch Screenshot app from Dash to make an screenshot after a delay time.

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

The misplaced blur problem has ocurred since... Precise? That should be tracked separately.

[mjchomel (mjchomel)]

Same flicker, block in lower left corner, blur problem in dash, alt-tab switcher, and new shutdown dialog on Sony Vaio VGN-FE660G with Intel® 945GM x86/MMX/SSE2.

[Virgil Q Staphbeard (vqstaphbeard)]

+1 same here on 13.04

[Markcortbass (markcortbass)]

Ali Najafi Thank you for the tip.
I confirm that the shutdown dialog has a issue since the new feature.

http://ubuntuone.com/1RhfwBKuCOBNbzxPT4rs4V

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

Ali, mjchomel, Mark: that's bug #1087534. This one is about the flicker.

[Eleni Maria Stea (hikiko)]

The flickering is caused by the wrong positioning of the blurred texture (bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1087534). When I completely disable the blur the flickering doesn't occur.

I will mark this bug as duplicated.

Also, It might be a good idea to disable the blur effect by default on low end embedded Intel GPUs, as a stopgap measure until the #1087534 bug is resolved.

Btw, the partitioning on the video forces a continuous redisplay (thus the flickering) but is otherwise unrelated to the bug.

[caprico (caprico4)]

+1
Same issue on MacMini with Intel GMA 950 graphics. Problem occurs since updating from Ubuntu 12.10 to 13.04 beta.
No problem on other system with Intel HD Graphics 3000.

[Eldar Khayrullin (eldar)]

+1
Intel GMA 3150