Hi,

Iv been trying to use linux for a year now. I decided i loved KDE and so thats where i stuck (mint 17.3 kde) but although i keep coming back to it i just cant get rid of screen tearing. I am just a noob because i have not had a chance to learn much with all the problems so far so please go easy on me.

There are years worth of 100's of suggestions when searching on this one (how many years does it take to fix this im wondering) I have tried a lot of things of which many may not even have applied to my setup but i dont know.

I have played with such things as:-

KWIN_TRIPLE_BUFFER=1
export __GL_YIELD="USLEEP"
nVidia X Server Settings VSync
KDE's SystemSettings -> Desktop Effects -> Advanced Tab
--Compositing type
--Qt graphics system
--Tearing Prevention
bumblebee
driver changes proprietary and non-proprietary

I cant remember them all or exactly where or how i used them now, however i would like to have 1 last go at this before i give up.

System: Host: fred-B43-HD3 Kernel: 3.16.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Console: tty 1 Distro: Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela
Machine: Mobo: Gigabyte model: B85-HD3 version: x.x Bios: American Megatrends version: FC date: 01/17/2014
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-4790 CPU (-HT-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 28735.4
Clock Speeds: 1: 3992.765 MHz 2: 3988.125 MHz 3: 1782.421 MHz 4: 3877.453 MHz 5: 4006.687 MHz 6: 3991.640 MHz 7: 3964.640 MHz 8: 3987.843 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GK104 [GeForce GTX 770] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.org: 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) tty size: 82x17 Advanced Data: N/A out of X

I have 1 main monitor and a secondary TV , both simultaneously attached to my Nvidia GTX770 (one on DVI , other HDMI). I had to disable my integrated vid card because it was throwing really angry sounding bios beeps and hanging when shutting down or restarting so its only the GTX770 to think about.

Of course you may want more info but i dont know what or how so pls ask. I would dearly love to get rid of the tearing so any and all help is really appreciated.

which Nvidia drivers have you tried and which are you currently using?

have you seen these 2 posts:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic. ... 37#p906436
http://www.iwillfolo.com/finally-nvidia ... fix-found/

i assume you did not mean the actual post you linked but it sounds like a great idea and will prob be what i try after giving kde one last go.

OK, so i just installed "LM 17 MATE" on on a spare partition. Wow, what a difference! I am running Compiz and Nvidia 331 driver and everything is peachy! The system is extremely responsive and I have ZERO screen tearing. There are some issues with the current version of Compiz in the repo's (3D windows don't work properly and some animations fail) but most of the good stuff works great. I forgot just how good Compiz was... please God don't let it die...
So I guess I'm leaving the KDE camp for now. Gonna check out LM 17 XFCE next and see how well that behaves with Compiz. I will report back with my feeble opinion sometime soon, if only to bring some sort of closure to my recent grumblings!

I shall try Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }" but this does look familiar, will post back tomorrow after iv been through both threads and tried all suggestions , cheers.


EDIT :- o yea and iv tried all of the drivers and i am currently using the latest proprietary 352.63

Ok iv stayed awake to tinker

It looks like at least one of the xorg.conf changes has fixed my 0:0 display but the TV still tears like a good'en. Could the problem be with the fact that my 2 monitors refresh rate do not match ? my main display is @ 60Hz but my TV is at 50Hz , i have tried setting the Nvidia setting (Xserver Xvideo settings) to sync to my HDMI-0 (TV) instead of the main monitor but still the same result on the TV. I dont know how to change the refresh rates on them to match as the display configurations say my TV only goes to 30Hz although i know its at 50Hz atm cos it says so on the actual TV when i switch it to computer source.

my xorg.conf currently looks like :-

Code: Select all

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 352.63  (buildmeister@swio-display-x64-rhel04-11)  Sat Nov  7 22:00:19 PST 2015

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Default nvidia Device"
    Driver     "nvidia"
    Option     "NoLogo" "True"
    Option     "CoolBits" "1"
    Option     "TripleBuffer" "True"
    Option     "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
EndSection
   
Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection


but i think that this only happening on the TV output now is interesting , gives me a little hope ^^

this should force separate refresh rates on the monitors (guessing as I don't have >1)

systemsettings -> display and monitor -> display configuration -> select display -> advanced settings -> refresh rate -> change from auto to nn -> apply

http://i.imgur.com/f81xYrR.png
there is no advanced settings, the only thing to change the refresh is just a pull-down that has the options you can see for my TV?

you running KDE 4 or 5?

in that pic you can change the refresh rate from auto to 30mhz (I know you say its 50mHz but try it and see what happens)

ah ha, i lowered the rez of my TV and that allowed me to choose 60Hz for it (same as the monitor). That worked for most things except video apps & games that create a new X but i change the "sync to this display" to the TV and its looking pretty dam good (not 100%) but i believe i can live with this
Hopefully i wont be back saying "that was a 1 off" and its doing it again (i have before) , fingers crossed.
I dont know how i can thank you for your help on this one . i owe you a pint , cheers.

Now how is Wayland coming on cos it sounds interesting.

if you want to follow Wayland progress I would suggest following Martin's blog https://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/

what happens if you keep the higher resolution and lowered the refresh rate (with both monitors refresh not = auto)? Personally I'd be more inclined to a higher resolution

I cant because the lowest my monitor goes (according to the drop-down) is 60Hz (60Hz or auto are the only options for my monitor)

Cheers.

o yea do i need to move /etc/x11/xorg.conf somewhere? iv read in many places its becoming obsolete and needs to go in a .d folder (whatever them .d files/folders are all about) but yea something like /etc/x11/xorg.conf.d/xorg.conf ?

Fyi, you cannot sync one GL context against both outputs; that's a hardware limitation.
The refresh rates of the outputs don't matter, since they're not inter-synced (ie. you'd have to make display #1 and #2 vblank at exactly the same moment, what's not realistic on independent devices)

G-Sync (requires special monitors) works around that, but other than that you could at best create custom usage schenarios, where one output is uncomposited (but windows must not be on both outputs)
This is also about the only scenario where fullscreen unredirection makes some sense (if you only run your video player FS on the TV, you can have the compositor and everything else sync to the other screen and adjust the VDPAU_NVIDIA_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE and __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE environment variables of the videoplayer process to sync to the Tv.