Screen tearing on Kde 17.3 (The miracle) - not on 18 [SOLVED]

[marlenejo]

I was struggling to remove the annoying screen tearing on my Kde desktop and trying different fixes from the internet, I just kind live with it. After the new Nvidia driver show up this week (375), I gave it another shot. I finally fix the damn thing. Switching to OpenGl 2.0 in the "configuration/desktop effects/advanced options" composite display mode = OpenGl 2.0 instead of 3.1 render the desktop smooth as baby butt. Fix also the tearing in Chromium.

I don't know what effect it could have elsewhere but I haven't found one yet.

If it could be useful for someone else.

[marlenejo]

Actually that's not really true (more testing). As soon as I reboot, the tearing return. Only by switching between OpenGl versions (or "tearing prevention" from none to other) which trigger a "desktop effects" refresh, fix the tearing until the next reboot. Go figure ????

At least I know what to do now.

[marlenejo]

Just to follow up with. I install KDE 18.1 on the same computer and the tearing is terrible so hasn't been fix. The old tric on Kde 4 doesn't work. This is very annoying so I am booting back in kde 4 only.

The "ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On" does not work either (Nvidia)

P.S The windows transition effects on Kwin (18.1) are no where near as smooth as on Kde 4. Needs a lot of work. Kde 5 is not a pleasant use right now.

[marlenejo]

Finally after googlelingling, found the permanent solution."Quidsup" has an excellent video on YT how to fix the tearing on Nvidia cards and Plasma 4, 5.
Basically, one environment variable has to be set (__GL_YIELD=USLEEP) .Repeating the procedure here ;

To have it set at startup, create a script named "kwin_env.sh" containing this and make it executable. The file has to reside in "~/.kde/env/" for Kde 4 (17.3) OR in "~/.config/plasma-workspace/env/" for Kde 5 (18.1)

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#Reduces tearing for Nvidia based systems
#Place file in ~/.config/plasma-workspace/env/ for KDE 5
#or ~/.kde/env/ for KDE 4

export __GL_YIELD=USLEEP

Now I don't know why this is not part of the standard release and one has to dig around to find the fix but definitively the Mint developers have to look into it since that existed for a year or more now.