Steam Big Picture not centered.

[hellwoodfire]

In the Steam Client, when I go in "Big Picture" mode, the screen is not centered. It is on bottom left instead. Also, the mouse position is detected at a different location (hovering and clicks affect the wrong widgets).
Please see the screenshot (I have a 19" 1280x1024 screen, I know it old but I like it).
Anyone with the same problem ?
Any idea what should I do ?
Mint 17.3 Cinnamon.

steam-bigpicture-not-centered.png

[rene]

Never experienced anything of the kind no. If the full black rectangle is 1280x1024 then it seems the picture part may be 1024x600, a standard Netbook resolution. So are we talking about a Netbook here with an external 1280x1024 monitor? If yes, I guess a question might be whether or not this happens also when the system is booted from off-state with the external monitor already attached, or just when plugging it in later. And/or whether or not the special keyboard-combinations wrt. enabling/disabling external monitor do anything.

Any possible further suggestions will likely (also) require the output of inxi -Fxz. Please paste it in in between code tags: see the </> button above this edit field.

[hellwoodfire]

Not a Netbook. It is a Desktop (Custom Build).

Code: Select all

System:    Host: MSI Kernel: 4.4.0-128-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.4)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana) Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine:   Mobo: MSI model: H81M-P33 (MS-7817) v: 1.0
           Bios: American Megatrends v: V1.7 date: 07/18/2014
CPU:       Dual core Intel Pentium G3220 (-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 11999
           clock speeds: max: 3000 MHz 1: 2998 MHz 2: 2935 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Desktop
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-128-generic
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1250.3GB (50.1% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_850 size: 250.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD10EZEX size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 225G used: 146G (69%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.71GB used: 0.01GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 308 Uptime: 11:12 Memory: 2011.3/3642.2MB
           Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4 Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28 

[rene]

You are using the old "intel" graphics driver which has these days been deprecated in favour of "modesetting"; I'd try that first. That's to say...

[edit] I would first try upgrading the kernel to the latest in the 4.10 series: Update Manager, View, Linux kernels. then.... [/edit]

You're on Mint 17 and the "modesetting" drive advise I've seen given mostly or perhaps even exclusively in the context of Mint 18+. That is, I shan't be promising that this actually works (well) on 17 but if you're not overly scared of potentially having to repair the system from a text console boot:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel

and reboot. If the X server won't start upon reboot try Ctrl-Alt-F1 or -F2, login as your user on the console, and reinstall the intel driver with

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

and again reboot: sudo reboot.

The fact that you're on Mint 17 is however also the reason the first bit of advise is not removing the repository version of Steam (-installer) and using the flatpak version instead: flatpak support was new to I believe 18.2 or 18.3. Steam is the kind of application that fits the flatpak model very well though: flatpak means a well-defined and well-tested environment for applications, and Steam is an application that certainly likes one.

Seeing as how I expect not a lot of additional advise will be forthcoming if switching to "modesetting" doesn't help, you may as such want to use this as an excuse to try out the newly released Mint 19...

[hellwoodfire]

Sorry I did not tried what you suggested because I installed a graphic card instead (GTX 750Ti)
However with the GTX card, the problem is still there but horizontal alignment has changed:

with_gtx_750ti.png

Since it now use the nvidia drivers instead, I did not tried what you suggested because you refer to the intel driver.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: MSI Kernel: 4.4.0-128-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.4)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana) Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine:   Mobo: MSI model: H81M-P33 (MS-7817) v: 1.0
           Bios: American Megatrends v: V1.7 date: 07/18/2014
CPU:       Dual core Intel Pentium G3220 (-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 12000
           clock speeds: max: 3000 MHz 1: 3000 MHz 2: 3000 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
           GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.130 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 NVIDIA Device 0fbc driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-128-generic
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1250.3GB (49.2% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_850 size: 250.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD10EZEX size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 225G used: 146G (69%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.71GB used: 1.14GB (24%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C gpu: 0.0:36C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 195 Uptime: 41 min Memory: 3586.7/3896.2MB
           Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4 Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28 

[rene]

Since it now use the nvidia drivers instead, I did not tried what you suggested because you refer to the intel driver.

Quite. Faulty DDC for your monitor comes into mind but I take it the issue's limited to Steam big picture mode or, probably, that and some full-screen games run under it. Although I'm not even sure that Big Picture Mode uses it (for video; it does for input) I'd suspect SDL -- but frankly, given lack of the problem, lack of internet hits on the problem AND lack of Mint 17 to look at I'll only reiterate my previous advise to try the flatpak version of Steam.

Installing flatpak manually on 17 is not not for the faint of heart, https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/956, so this would normally be to say Mint 18 or 19. Your problem appears likely to be a very local issue concerning non-standard DDC data for your, presumably, old monitor and whatever framework Steam uses in Big Picture Mode so this is not guaranteed to help. Yet for the same reason remote debugging via the internet is very unlikely to help.

One thing; hanging on to a 1280x1024 display probably means it's something special: until maybe three years ago I hung on to an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 19" CRT largely due to its colours. Indeed I ran it at 1280x1024 -- and indeed it had a DDC issue where in my case it by default came up in an unreadable 2560x1600 (or so) resolution until I fixed/faked the DDC-data Linux-sides. I have it documented how I did somewhere; if your situation is comparable I'll go dig that up.

[hellwoodfire]

Thank you rene! I'll give Mint 19 a try.

[trytip]

yes test a slightly higher resolution, the first one up the scale that looks in focus