[SOLVED] Nouveau: Video tearing even with "GLXVBlank" "true"

[lynx13]

Hello!

I got ugly video tearing when watching movies in VLC. VLC is already configured, so it must be an issue with the nouveau-driver.

I have an Nvivia Geforce 330M, nouveau driver is nouveau Gallium (8.0.2) from March, the one and only you find in Mageia 2 so far.

Here is my xorg.conf:

Code: Select all

# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Plug'n Play"
   
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
   
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 6100 to GeForce 360"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "DPMS"
    Option "DynamicTwinView" "false"
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals"
    Option "GLXVBlank" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection


I also set something in /etc/environment:

Code: Select all

#
# This file is parsed by pam_env module
#
# Syntax: simple "KEY=VAL" pairs on separate lines
#
CLUTTER_PAINT=disable-clipped-redraws:disable-culling
CLUTTER_VBLANK=True

However, tearing still persists.

I don't think changing to the proprietary Nvidia-driver would make a difference. Thing is, I already tried this driver and my X was huge, about 0,9GB. With Nouveau, X only needs 68MB.

Thanks in advance!

All the best,
lynx

[doktor5000]

I don't think changing to the proprietary Nvidia-driver would make a difference. Thing is, I already tried this driver and my X was huge, about 0,9GB. With Nouveau, X only needs 68MB.

Why are you so sure it won't change? And for X being 0,9GB, how did you measure that?

Here, my normal X session looks like this via top, with nvidia driver:

Code: Select all

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                                           
[...]                                                                     
 1302 root      20   0  178m  67m  24m S    6  1.7  18:04.12 X

And no video tearing ...

[lynx13]

I found out about the 0,9GB with the "System Information"-Tool (Ctrl + Esc).

After you said the proprietary driver would be okay, I gave it another try and failed miserably.

I used the following tutorial:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2826

I ran into A LOT of problems:

Could not integrate custom medium. The nvidia-files did not appear in the search bar when using URPMI.

I installed the files manually from within the folder. Here is rpm -qa | grep nvidia

Code: Select all

x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-295.59-1custom.nvidia.mga2
nvidia-current-cuda-opencl-295.59-1custom.nvidia.mga2
dkms-nvidia-current-295.59-1custom.nvidia.mga2
nvidia-current-doc-html-295.59-1custom.nvidia.mga2


So the files seem to be installed, but when using drakx11 I get no message that there is a new proprietary driver. I can not choose anything.

Replacing the xorg.conf with an older one (I already tried the nvidia-driver 295.49 which is available via the official sources) my system crashed, did not boot and I had to replace it with the backup of xorg (see above).

Now my system is using nouveau and I have no idea how to change this.

Any help is appreciated.

Regards,
lynx

[doktor5000]

Actually this is not the recommended way. Just try via https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Setup_the_graphical_server
after you have removed all nvidia packages and that custom medium you've added.

And FWIW, where in system monitor do you see 0,9GB? Mind to post a screenshot of what you're seeing there?

[lynx13]

Well, I did what you recommended: Removed the local folder, installed the official Nvidia-Driver via the Mageia-Control-Center. Right now I am using 295.49, but the tearing-problem is still there.

And I did recognize other issues:

1) No temperature-sensor for the Nvidia-card. The nouveau driver let me see its temperature.
2) No correct frequency: The nouveau driver synchronized my monitor correctly with 60Hz. Now, I got 50Hz with the proprietary driver and I can not change this in the KDE control center.
3) No external monitor settings anymore: Although I can activate cloning now via the graphic setup, I can not change the settings of it. I use a Sony TV via HDMI and the nouveau driver let me change the resoultion and the frequency.

Well, I do not know what you think, but as I said: The nouveau driver was much better.

At least right now X is not running mad, I'll send you a screenshot with it, when it's going wild again.

All the best,
lynx

[tom_]

hi,
have you tuned your configuration using the task nvidia-settings?

[lynx13]

Yeah, I found out about the nvidia-settings yesterday.

So it seems the proprietary driver does not integrate very well into KDE4. I recognized the settings just disappeared and are summarized in this new Nvidia-window.

Unfortunately, the problem with video tearing still exists, although I enabled VSync twice in this setting.

[doktor5000]

What videos are you watching which give tearing problems, and what did you select as monitor in graphic server configuration?
FWIW nvidia-settings doesn't integrate at all into any of the DE's as it's desktop-agnostic and a proprietary component, so it can't really be integrated.

[lynx13]

So far I've only tested avi-videos. But due to the fact that there is tearing I didn't test other formats.

I chose "Plug'n'Play"-Monitor in the graphic settings. But I configured anything else with the Nvidia-tool, so this should be no problem.

Regards,
lynx

[doktor5000]

.avi is no video format, .avi is only a container. What's inside there, Xvid, DivX, WMV or something else?
And can you please post a screenshot of that tearing?

[lynx13]

These are Xvid/Divx-videos.

Getting a screenshot is hard, you find almost no tearing on the computer screen (very little, small 15,6''-monitor, but it is there), on TV (32''-Sony-LCD) it is much more present. Often when the camera is moving fast from left to right or in action scenes. It's annoying while watching.

Additional info: Watching videos with Windows 7 isn't much better; no tearing, which is great, but the colors are greyish; not very suitable for the TV-screen, so I stick to Linux and VLC anyway for watching videos.

Regards,
lynx

[lynx13]

Alright, I solved it by myself.

The Nivida-driver can only sync to vblank one screen at the time. The second one needs the exact same refresh rate. This is impossible and only works when you have two screens of the same manufacturer. And here comes the variable that must be set to /etc/environment, so that the tearing on the second screen disappears:

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__GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE="DFP-0"

Where "DFP-0" is the name of your second screen. In my case it was "DFP-1", you find out about that in the xorg.conf.

Here is the link where I found out about the solution: http://askubuntu.com/questions/125245/how-do-i-stop-video-tearing-nvidia-prop-driver-non-compositing-window-manager/140036#140036 It acually took me three days to figure that out...

The xorg.conf is best configured with nvidia-settings. But the changes with vsync won't affect your second screen unless you set that variable.

Have fun!

All the best,
lynx

[doktor5000]

Thanks for the feedback, and glad you got it sorted