Screen tearing on Linux Mint 18

[fainec]

Hello everyone,

I just upgrade my laptop which was in Linux Mint 17.3 to Linux Mint 18, everything works fine except one thing: I got screen tearing and I can't remove it.
So, on my laptop I got a nvidia GTX850 card, previously on Linux Mint 17.3 it worked without tearing by having this lines in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Code: Select all

Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
Option "TripleBuffer" "true"

However now in Linux Mint 18, even if I add this lines, the screen tearing won't go.
I also tried many others solution like running this command:

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nvidia-settings -a 'CurrentMetaMode=nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }'

or

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nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="eDP-1:1600x900+0+0 { ForceCompositionPipeline = On }"

But nothing works.

Otherwise with nouveau driver the problem gone away, but I need to use the proprietary drivers.
Please can you help me, it's driving me insane.

Thank you

Specs:
Laptop Asus R752L
8Go Ram
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4510U
GPU: GTX850M
OS: Linux Mint 18 64bit Cinnamon edition
Driver used: Nvidia-361

[Pjotr]

What version of the closed Nvidia driver did you use in Mint 17.3? If another (older?) version, try the same version in 18.

You might also disable some 3D visual effects in Cinnamon:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... al-effects
(item 6, right column)

[fainec]

Hello Pjotr,
I tried with the closed driver nvidia-352 and the ForceFullCompositionPipeline line of xorg.cong but nothing new.
I also tried to disable 3D setting of cinnamon, thanks to your guide, but here again there is still screen tearing.

However, thanks for your answer

[fainec]

Okay I finnaly downgrade to linux mint 17.3. Althought I was wrong when I speak about ForceFullCompositionPipeline, there is no need of this line.

However there is a line that does the trick in screen section(but only on 17.3, I tested on LM 18 and it does not work)

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[b]Option "TearFree" "on"[/b]

I left the screen section of my xorg.conf it may help someone from that tearing hell.

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Section "Screen"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Device "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "on"
    Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT"
    Option "TripleBuffer" "On"
    #Option "metamodes" "1600x900_60 +0+0; {ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On}, viewportin=1600x900, viewportout=1600x900+0+0"
    Option "TearFree" "on"
EndSection

[DeMus]

Have left this forum.

[fainec]

Yeah I presume your GC is on pc desktop (mine is in the laptop). I heard on GamingOnLinux that laptop using a nvidia graphic card and PRIME haven't vsync support yet, and that's why ForceFullCompositionPipeline isn't useful.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/ ... 2#comments

[DeMus]

Have left this forum.

[Ascaris]

Is it just in Firefox by any chance?

I had generalized tearing with my Nvidia using the prop drivers too, but the usual tricks (like in this thread so far) took care of that, except in FF... at first I assumed I was still getting system-wide tearing, but it was FF itself. The solution to that is in the software forum in a thread with a title like "why is hardware acceleration disabled in firefox" or something similar. I can't remember exactly at the moment; I will find it if necessary.

[fainec]

No it was on all software. However, the tearing problem may be caused because of nvidia-prime (thanks to others forum), I will try to use bumblebee instead in the following days and post the result.

[Yfrwlf]

Is it just in Firefox by any chance?

I had generalized tearing with my Nvidia using the prop drivers too, but the usual tricks (like in this thread so far) took care of that, except in FF... at first I assumed I was still getting system-wide tearing, but it was FF itself. The solution to that is in the software forum in a thread with a title like "why is hardware acceleration disabled in firefox" or something similar. I can't remember exactly at the moment; I will find it if necessary.

Wow, thanks for the info, let me explain what's going on here for some of those reading this thread...

Linux Mint had put a stop to all tearing in all applications by default for most cards. I'm the one who actually poked the Linux Mint devs to implement it, and they implemented that and put the option in Settings > General > Disable compositing for full-screen windows. There were apparently some chipsets where the screen tearing didn't get stopped, but normally by default, for MOST USERS, from a fresh installation, you should have no reason to make any config file tweaks as you should have no tearing at all. I'd advise you to try a fresh installation and check if tearing is gone already before trying to make any additional tweaks. Fainec probably is using one of the drivers that doesn't work with the Muffin change the Mint devs made to implement tear-free.

With 18 I too noticed that tearing was back in Firefox. Is this the thread you meant?

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=225420&p=1189192

Looks like the solution is to start Firefox with: env MOZ_USE_OMTC=1 firefox

Could just edit the launch icon.

[Yfrwlf]

Yep, changed my Firefox launch icon command to:

env MOZ_USE_OMTC=1 firefox %u

and tearing is gone.

[berkiy0]

I too am getting screen tearing and low performance. Cinnamon 3.0.7 should be faster than it is. Also the tear is diagonal.

Specs: i3 3227u, 12gb ram, 240gb ssd

[Pjotr]

I too am getting screen tearing and low performance. Cinnamon 3.0.7 should be faster than it is. Also the tear is diagonal.

Specs: i3 3227u, 12gb ram, 240gb ssd

I also had this in Mint 18 Cinnamon: a diagonal tear. I don't have this problem in Mint 18 Xfce....

[Ascaris]

Yep, changed my Firefox launch icon command to:

env MOZ_USE_OMTC=1 firefox %u

and tearing is gone.

Yes, that was the thread I was thinking about. Glad it helped!

[Yfrwlf]

Yep, changed my Firefox launch icon command to:

env MOZ_USE_OMTC=1 firefox %u

and tearing is gone.

Yes, that was the thread I was thinking about. Glad it helped!

Doesn't seem to have completely gotten rid of it, but mostly. Very strange. Either way I hope this behavior gets reverted in the future as no tearing in any app is a killer feature of Mint in my opinion!

[Portreve]

This thread got me to thinking because I don't have an nVidia graphics card, but I do get a fair amount of screen tearing, and I'm pretty well sick of it.

I found a solution to this for those of us with Intel chipset graphics cards. I'm going to write out the directions here so that basically anyone of any knowledge level can follow them.

Create a Intel graphics-specific configuration file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d, and title it "20-intel.conf":

Step 1: Open your terminal emulator, and enter the following command:

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf


Step 2: Copy from here and paste into nano, using [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [V]:

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Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
EndSection

The reason I added emphasis above to [SHIFT] is that straight [CTRL] + [V] will not work as you think in a terminal window. It tries to send CTRL + V directly to the program you're running.

Step 3: Exit nano, saving changes:

[CTRL] + [X], y for "Yes, save changes", and [ENTER] to execute this.


Step 4:

exit [ENTER] to close the terminal window.

Step 5: Restart your computer.

Step 6: There is noooooooo... step number six.

[Ascaris]

Doesn't seem to have completely gotten rid of it, but mostly. Very strange. Either way I hope this behavior gets reverted in the future as no tearing in any app is a killer feature of Mint in my opinion!

I did have some tearing in Cinnamon in programs other than Firefox with the proprietary Nvidia drivers, but some of the usual settings for Ubuntu/Mint to take care of that seem to have worked, as I have not seen tearing in a long while (and I am really sensitive to it, so I'd be very likely to notice it).

A decent write-up can be found at:

viewtopic.php?t=174237&start=20

[Yfrwlf]

Doesn't seem to have completely gotten rid of it, but mostly. Very strange. Either way I hope this behavior gets reverted in the future as no tearing in any app is a killer feature of Mint in my opinion!

I did have some tearing in Cinnamon in programs other than Firefox with the proprietary Nvidia drivers, but some of the usual settings for Ubuntu/Mint to take care of that seem to have worked, as I have not seen tearing in a long while (and I am really sensitive to it, so I'd be very likely to notice it).

A decent write-up can be found at:

viewtopic.php?t=174237&start=20

Cool I will try more fixes if I find any more tearing, thanks! For me the only tearing seemed to have been in Firefox, and it now seems to have been fixed by setting:

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gfx.xrender.enabled;true

in about:config. I have smooth scrolling turned on and so far I haven't noticed any tearing, so for anyone else who only has the issue with Firefox, give it a try!

[cogsncogs]

Cool I will try more fixes if I find any more tearing, thanks! For me the only tearing seemed to have been in Firefox, and it now seems to have been fixed by setting:

Code: Select all

gfx.xrender.enabled;true

in about:config. I have smooth scrolling turned on and so far I haven't noticed any tearing, so for anyone else who only has the issue with Firefox, give it a try!

I've been experiencing diagonal screen tearing in Firefox on LM18 Cinnamon on my machine that has integrated Intel graphics. This appears to have fixed it. Thanks!

[Yfrwlf]

Cool I will try more fixes if I find any more tearing, thanks! For me the only tearing seemed to have been in Firefox, and it now seems to have been fixed by setting:

Code: Select all

gfx.xrender.enabled;true

in about:config. I have smooth scrolling turned on and so far I haven't noticed any tearing, so for anyone else who only has the issue with Firefox, give it a try!

I've been experiencing diagonal screen tearing in Firefox on LM18 Cinnamon on my machine that has integrated Intel graphics. This appears to have fixed it. Thanks!

Glad to hear it! I wonder why this is needed in Mint 18 though, or if it's something recent in Firefox that changed.