Re: Some unresolved but important X.org problems

2015-02-11 Beeblebrox wrote:
> I have been having problems described below since March of 2014, but
> did not have much of an option other than to wait for gradual
> improvements. Considering that 11 is nearing official RELEASE, I would
> think these problems would be worth consideration. I'm posting in
> current rather than xorg, because if there were many others with these
> problems, it would have been brought up a long time ago.
> 
> PROBLEMS:
> 1. PDF viewers fail to display pdf/ps files correctly. Many files get
> displayed as blank pages, and I can only get the pdf to display after
> closing/re-opening the file several times, or by repeatedly scrolling
> up/down past the seemingly blank page. Pages with an image have more
> problems than pages with text-only.
> 
> 2. With the exception of Opera (which is out-dated), all remaining
> Browsers fail to display most web pages in a sane manner (Firefox,
> Seamonkey, Epiphany, Midori). Chrome is the worst because even with
> just a blank page it flickers, goes completely white, comes back as a
> partial image and sometimes locks X for 1/2 second or so.
> Problems with the other browsers usually have something to do with
> sites using php (rather than static content) and I have many problems
> with images being correctly displayed. Among the symptoms:
> * Page phases out. Mouse-over or scroll up/down resets the display
[...]

Some of the symptoms that you describe sound familiar.
I was using FreeBSD 10-STABLE with GeForce 7600 GS and the 'nv' driver.
After upgrading x11/xorg in December 2014:

   /usr/ports/UPDATING:
   20141219:
     AFFECTS: users of x11/xorg and all xorg ports
     AUTHOR: dumbbell_at_FreeBSD.org
     The X.Org server (x11-servers/xorg-server) is updated to 1.14.

the effect was that while editing a text with emacs, large parts
of the editing window would disappear / fail to refresh (like after
scrolling) and would remain of the background color. Stepping with
a cursor through 'hidden' lines would get them redrawn one after
another. I guess this matches your statement "Page phases out.
Mouse-over or scroll up/down resets the display". And yes, Opera
kept working fine. Don't remember how other browsers and okular
behaved - if necessary, I can try switching back to 'nv' for a test.

I 'solved' my problem by switching from 'nv' to nvidia-304 driver,
which works fine with GeForce 7600 GS (but not with GeForce 7300 GT).

   Mark



> (midori-on-linuxquestions.png:
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxs_eepbMt6qNTdaQm1pTFZTMWM/view?usp=sharing)
> * PHP sites either loose track of last scroll point and jump appx one
> page up (example Facebook goes up 4-5 posts to what I just read and
> repeats action as I try to scroll down), OR they are only partially
> displayed and need to be either refreshed (F5) or up/down scrolling to
> get some kind of display (epiphany-on-forums.freebsd.png:
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxs_eepbMt6qbFJWMW1RZzJsYVU/view?usp=sharing)
> * I get the same problem when trying to view an image, or a site with
> many images. The tab with the image displays one of: a black screen, a
> single color with vertical interference lines, or a mixture
> (seamonkey-google-image-search.png:
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxs_eepbMt6qUUJvem11U3c3MVk/view?usp=sharing)
> * As a result of all the above, logging in to sites, doing any
> transactions which require clicking buttons and check-boxes or filling
> text fields becomes extremely difficult.
> 
> 3. In Gnome3, menu text is garbled (gnome3-text.png:
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxs_eepbMt6qWklaSUZLd0luUFk/view?usp=sharing)
> 
> 4. Chromium causes other programs to mis-behave and display gets
> corrupted in the old Win-XP style (chrome-corruption.png:
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxs_eepbMt6qMktnOWo3bV93SGM/view?usp=sharing)
> 
> 5. An update about a month ago is causing problems with /dev/ums0 on
> Desktop (not vt). When I move the mouse it sometimes gets stuck on a
> menu item of a program or an item on the Browser (for example a result
> in google search). I have to move the mouse and repeat the previous
> action in order to get it unstuck. Sticky lasts about 1/5 of a second.
> 
> 6. Last week I was getting jpeg file corruption when doing simple
> processing (crop, rotate) in graphics/gthumb. Resulting file would
> have vertical interference lines. After updating the ports/packages
> yesterday I don't get that now. Probably unrelated, but worth
> mentioning.
> 
> MY_SYSTEM:
> + Desktop is usually Fluxbox. Free Memory was 5 GB when screen shots
> were taken (not a low-mem issue).
> + GPU is RS880 [Radeon HD 4250], with loaded modules: drm2.ko, agp.ko,
> radeonkms.ko, radeonkmsfw_RS780_pfp.ko, radeonkmsfw_RS780_me.ko,
> radeonkmsfw_R600_rlc.ko
> + These already in /etc/sysctl.conf:
> #_Enhance shared memory X11 interface
> kern.ipc.shmmax=67108864
> kern.ipc.shmall=32768
> #_Enhance desktop responsiveness under high CPU use (200/224)
> kern.sched.preempt_thresh=224
> #_chromium_browser_issue
> kern.ipc.shm_allow_removed=1