Hi there,

I'm using Arch Linux with KDE 4.2 and every now and then I experience a strange graphic bug that corrupts some of my UI labels. Check out the following screenshots:
http://omploader.org/vMTlmaQ
http://omploader.org/vMTlmaw
http://omploader.org/vMTlpdA
http://omploader.org/vMTlmag

That does also happen when I turn off the desktop effects.

My machine is a Dell Latitude D620 with the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M.
I've installed the proprietary NVIDIA drivers and apart from this little (but annoying) problem everything is working fine including 3D acceleration in games.

My xorg.conf looks like this:

Code: Select all

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder63)  Tue Jan  6 10:03:55 PST 2009

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

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    #Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
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"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LPL"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 75.0
    VertRefresh     60.0
    Option         "DPMS"
    Option         "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE"
    Option         "DPI" "100x100"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "Quadro NVS 110M"
    Option         "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "1440x900_60 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

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

I'd be grateful for any help, because this problem is driving me nuts.

TIA,
Blackhole

Your font cache might be corrupt. Try removing ~/.fontconfig/

bcooksley wrote:Your font cache might be corrupt. Try removing ~/.fontconfig/

OK, I've deleted ~/.fontconfig/ but the problem remains. After a while the corrupted fonts just appear. Windows that are already present on my desktop and which looked fine earlier, all of a sudden get corrupted fonts.

Usually I can get back to normality by minimizing and restoring them a few times, until they come back with normal fonts. But sometimes it's so bad that only a STRG+ALT+Backspace can save me, which is most annoying, especially when I have crucial documents opened which I cannot read anymore. Saving them becomes an adventure then.

If I could only solve this problem, I could make the final move to Linux. But unless I can work normally, this is impossible. I hope someone is coming up with a solution for me.

Could it be a problem with the NVIDIA driver? I mean it's obviously been installed properly and I even have the nice NVIDIA X Server Settings Tool which shows the correct details about my graphic chip.
However I've read some threads about NVIDIA drivers having a hard time with KWin and vice versa.

I'm getting the same issues with fonts and have yet to work out a solution myself. Luckily for me it only happens once a week or so.

Zarin wrote:I'm getting the same issues with fonts and have yet to work out a solution myself. Luckily for me it only happens once a week or so.

Oh no! And that's coming from a KDE developer. That's shattering me. So there's no hope for little noobish me? I'm still hoping that someone is coming up with a solution.
This problem is happening daily on my machine. Usually it starts after a couple of minutes. I can force it to appear though by opening a lot of applications/windows.

Allright, as written in the PM, here my xorg.conf:

Code: Select all

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig                                 
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder63)  Wed Oct  1 15:09:35 PDT 2008             

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder3)  Thu Feb 14 18:21:33 PST 2008
#Section "InputDevice"                                                               
#        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"                                         
#        Driver          "synaptics"                                                 
#EndSection                                                                           

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

Section "Files"
    RgbPath         "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection                                 

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
        Load    "glx"       
EndSection                   

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
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 "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Synaptics Touchpad"
    Driver         "synaptics"         
    Option         "SendCoreEvents" "true"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux" 
    Option         "Protocol" "auto-dev" 
    Option         "HorizEdgeScroll" "1" 
    Option         "SHMConfig" "true"     
    Option         "VertTwoFingerScroll" "True"
    Option         "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "True"
EndSection                                     

Section "Monitor"

    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"                         
    VendorName     "Unknown"                         
    ModelName      "LPL"                             
    HorizSync       30.0 - 75.0                       
    VertRefresh     60.0                             
    ModeLine       "1440x900" 106.5 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine       "1368x768" 85.9 1368 1440 1584 1800 768 769 772 795 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine       "1280x1024" 108.9 1280 1360 1496 1712 1024 1025 1028 1060 -hsync +vsync
    ModeLine       "1280x960" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync     
    ModeLine       "1280x800" 83.5 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828 -hsync +vsync     
    ModeLine       "1280x768" 80.1 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795 -hsync +vsync     
    ModeLine       "1152x864" 81.6 1152 1216 1336 1520 864 865 868 895 -hsync +vsync     
    ModeLine       "1024x768" 64.1 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795 -hsync +vsync     
    ModeLine       "1024x600" 49.0 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -hsync +vsync     
    ModeLine       "800x600" 38.2 800 832 912 1024 600 601 604 622 -hsync +vsync         
    ModeLine       "768x576" 35.0 768 792 872 976 576 577 580 597 -hsync +vsync           
    ModeLine       "640x480" 23.9 640 656 720 800 480 481 484 497 -hsync +vsync           
    Option         "DPMS"                                                                 
EndSection                                                                               

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
        Driver  "nvidia"       
        Option  "IgnoreDisplayDevices"  "TV"
        Option      "Coolbits"  "1"         
        Option      "RandRRotation"     "true"
        Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
        Option      "TripleBuffer"      "false"
        Option      "DynamicTwinView"   "true"
        #BusID "PCI:1:0:0"                     
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"       
    BoardName      "GeForce Go 7300"           
EndSection                                     

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "metamodes" "1680x1050 +0+0"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0; 1600x1024 +0+0"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "1680x1050 +0+0; 1600x1024 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection


Section "Extensions"
        Option      "Composite" "enable"
#       Option      "RENDER"    "disable"
EndSection


And the output of inxi -v5 on my siduxbox:

Code: Select all

Kernel 2.6.28-7.slh.1-sidux-686 i686 (32 bit) Distro sidux 2008-01 Νυξ - kde-lite - (200804112323)
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 T5600 (SMP) cache 2048 KB flags (sse3 nx lm vmx)
           Clock Speeds: (1) 1833.00 MHz (2) 1833.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card nVidia G72M [Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300] X.Org 1.4.2 Res 1680x1050@50.0hz
           GLX Renderer GeForce Go 7300/PCI/SSE2 GLX Version 2.1.2 NVIDIA 180.29
Audio:     Card Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller driver HDA Intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.18rc3
Network:   Card-1 Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection driver iwl3945
           Card-2 Realtek RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ driver 8139too
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 100.0GB (40.1% used) 1: HTS541010G9SA00
Partition: ID:/ size: 15G used: 4.4G (32%) ID:/home size: 40G used: 13G (34%) ID: swap:/dev/sda6 size: 1.08GB
Info:      Processes 134 Uptime 2:04 Memory 414.1/2025.4MB Client Shell inxi 1.0.2


Greez w.

Edit:@blackhole: I just see, that my signature wasn't correct - maybe the newest nVidia driver could solve your problem 180.29! Correct it!

Thanks widux. The whole issue seems to have healed itself. I've worked a lot on my font configuration over the last two weeks in order to get sharp fonts on my machine (see http://www.sharpfonts.com/).

Somehow the corrupted part must have been cured.

Thanks a lot to all of you guys. Especially to bcooksley who seems to spend a lot of time in this forum. Thanks, mate.

Man, how I hate that. It's back:


I can use Xfce for hours without ever getting this problem. In fact it's never happend in Xfce at all.
And I can reproduce this error in KDE 4 within one minute:

1.) Start lots of applications by mass-clicking application icons in panel
2.) Take a Dolphin window, move it around a bit.
3.) Click on a folder in Dolphin so that a new directory is displayed
4.) Voila: We've got corrupted fonts.
5.) Wait two seconds then carefully move Dolphin window around: fonts are fine again.

Sometimes the font corruption is more persistant and it takes more time and GUI actions to get back to normality.
And whenever the bug turns up, it spreads and affects other applications, too.

This happens regardless of having desktop effects activated or not.

It is probably related to your Graphics drivers if you are using NVidia.

bcooksley wrote:It is probably related to your Graphics drivers if you are using NVidia.

Okay, but here I have two logical problems:

1.)My screen flickering issue only with the proprietary nvidia drivers. The font problem also occurs when using the open source drivers.

2.) Why would a driver problem only affect font characters? I mean the driver just renders graphics, it can't distinguish characters from let's say icons, right? And the bug only affects fonts as you can see in my screenshots.

So for me this seems to be unrelated to the driver problem or am I wrong? Please feel free to correct me, I'm always happy to learn more about the technical background.

blackhole wrote:2.) Why would a driver problem only affect font characters? I mean the driver just renders graphics, it can't distinguish characters from let's say icons, right? And the bug only affects fonts as you can see in my screenshots.

To improve speed and lower memory usage font glyphs are stored in X and are displayed by the graphics driver.

Zarin wrote:To improve speed and lower memory usage font glyphs are stored in X and are displayed by the graphics driver.

Hm, that makes sense. Do you still experience the same problems? According to your signature you're using a different Nvidia card but with the same Nvidia driver.

As mentioned in my PM earlier today I no longer experience the problem but my work habits have changed since a month ago. The problem could be related to incorrect termination of OpenGL applications.

sorry, didn't see the PM until now. *blush*