UbuntuSolutions : Category compiz, everything about compiz

Fix for Firefox flashing when in full screen

Mon, 11 May 2009 18:52:00 -0700

Since Jaunty, when Firefox is displayed in full screen (F11), any of the following actions will result in Firefox disappearing for a second and the background desktop image replacing it:

right click
alt-tab
hovering over a link with a tool tip

That happens if compiz is in use and I verified the problem both on machines using Intel and Nvidia video cards.

The fix is easy:

go to System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager -> General
uncheck "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows"

Screen flickering with nvidia on ubuntu

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:27:00 -0800

Another nasty side effect of using compiz with an nvidia video card is the screen flickering. Right when a compiz 3D effect kicks in or 30 seconds after it, the screen goes black for a fraction of a second. This is not a new issue, I have struggled with it since hardy and it happens with all nvidia driver versions I can remember (173, 177 and 180).

Cause The cause the is the Powermizer feature of the nvidia driver. It adjusts the GPU speed depending on the usage that is being made of the desktop. Every time Powermizer decides to change the frequency, the screen flickers. You can easily verify that by going to the "Nvidia X Server Settings" panel, Powermizer. Watch the "Performance Levels" and see how the level changes every time the screen flickers.

Solutions There are many related posts on the web. The most common solution that gets reported is described for example at Linux Outlaws Forum. Add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/options:

options nvidia NVreg_RegistryDwords='PerfLevelSrc=0x2222'
options nvidia NVreg_Mobile=1

It didn’t worked for me in Intreprid or older Ubuntu releases.

So the real solution that does completely works for me is to freeze the powermizer performance level to 0 through the "Nvidia X Server Settings" panel in the "Clock frequencies" pane. But that panel is only available after setting the "Coolbits" option in /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the screen section. For example, this is what I have:

Section &quot;Screen&quot;
       Identifier     'Default Screen'
       Device         'nVidia Corporation G72M [Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300]'
       Monitor        'Generic Monitor'
       Option         'AddARGBVisuals' 'True'
       Option         'NoLogo' 'True'
       Option         'RenderAccel' 'True'
       Option         'Coolbits' '1'
       Option         'RegistryDwords' 'PowerMizerLevel=0x3'
       Option         'AddARGBGLXVisuals' 'True'
       DefaultDepth    24
       SubSection 'Display'
               Depth       24
               Modes      '1680x1050'
       EndSubSection
EndSection

Then after restarting X, you can open the Nvidia setting panel and do the following:

Go to "Clock frequencies"
Check the "Enable Overclocking" box and accept the warning
Select "3D clock frequencies" and pick a GPU and Memory frequency
Apply

On my 7300 card, setting GPU to 100MHz and Memory to 400MHz works just fine, compiz 3D effects are still very smooth. Unfortunately, this needs to be done every time you restart X. If somebody finds a better solution, please let me know.

Update for Jaunty 9.04 and nvidia 180 (4/24/2009): in Jaunty with 180.44 and xorg 1.6, where the flickering is worst than ever, the solution above with /etc/modprobe.d/options actually works and no there is no need to lock the 3D clock frequency.

Nvidia driver and image corruption in Intrepid

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:24:00 -0800

Compiz is a must have on a Linux desktop. It brings the end user experience up to the MacOSX level. Unfortunately it sometimes comes with nasty side effects. On my Inspiron 6400 with a 7300 video card, it started misbehaving in Intrepid with driver 177. Window titles would either disappear or get painted with weird pink stripes. It happens only sometimes and only with a few applications. It may happen when the focus switches from one window to another or just when typing.

Thunderbird is the application where it happens the most. The definitive test is to start a new email and type the subject: the titlebar of that window will systematically get corrupted. It’s really ugly when it happens.

Nvidia driver version 177 is clearly the worst. Reverting to 173 improves things a bit but it still won’t pass the Thunderbird compose email test. You can easily switch to 173 by going to System/Administration/Hardware Drivers.

But today, as I was experimenting with the newest nvidia driver, 180.29, everything got fixed. Big thanks to Nvidia for fixing this!

How to setup the 180 driver in Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex?

I followed the instructions in Adam Michael Roach webpage. Basically, do the following: Append those 2 lines to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/anders-kaseorg/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/anders-kaseorg/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

and run the following commands:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 026491A5DD081BDC6CDFC0DE6298AD34413576CB
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-180

Reboot and you’re done:

me@myhost ~ $ dmesg | grep -i nv
[   16.183016] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[   16.438964] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[   16.438974] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   16.439174] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  180.29  Wed Feb  4 23:44:25 PST 2009