Random graphics corruption -- related to logo feature?

[uhoh]

Occasionally (like twice a week) I get some random display corruption at the bottom right part of the screen (actually, at both my screens - i run bigdesktop/pairmodes). The display corruption does not show up in a screen shot. The best way to describe it would be "random but static memory contents being used as a bitmask for inverting pixels", i.o.w. it looks like random static garbage that will invert the colours of whatever is shown in that area.

I just recently stumbled upon http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...ntry&item=4100 which shows some photos of a "logo" config option, and I'm pretty sure this is related to the display corruption I'm seeing -- it's in the exact same spot (lower right corner). (To make it perfectly clear, I don't use this "logo" feature, have never used it, wasn't even aware that it existed until right now)

When this happens, it's typically coupled with some random corruption of the mouse pointer.

A quick fix, that hasn't failed yet, is to switch to the text console (ctrl+alt+f1) and back again.

Is anyone else getting this?

[nomadder]

I'm seeing this much more often than twice a week -- more like 10 times a day. The cursor corruption is incredibly annoying. And unlike you, switch to a text terminal and back doesn't always work. I have a Thinkpad T60 with the X1400.

I've spent several hours tweaking xorg.conf setting to no avail. Looks like I'm going back to the vesa driver. I'll miss big desktop, but at least I'll be able to get some work done.

[uhoh]

Do you only get cursor corruption, or the bottom-right corruption as well? I've seen lots of people complain about the cursor thing but no mention of the screen corruption.

Did you try to tweak that undocumented logo option?

[sundown]

I know what you're talking about.

I concluded it only happens when you have a second display enabled and use the bigdesktop option. The thing didn't show to me when the 2nd display was connected but whenever I used only my laptop, it occurred every now and then. Restarting X was fixing it. However the pointer corruption was frequent with 2nd display connected.

Recently, when I had a fresh install of Feisty Fawn, without the 2nd display being connected, everything was running perfectly -- no pointer corruption, no annoying lower right corner display corruption.

Then I connected my 2nd display. At first without bigdesktop being enabled, not having fglrx reinstalled and not running in native resolution, everything was fine. But then, when enabled with drivers reinstalled, the corrupted pointer only appeared at log out. I haven't used only my laptop ever since and can't comment whether the lower right corner display problem has vanished but the pointer corruption on the 2nd monitor used to occur more often before the fresh install and now it's gone (excluding the log out part). So maybe it's partly fixed in the latest combination of xorg, kernel, and fglrx of Feisty?

[nomadder]

Do you only get cursor corruption, or the bottom-right corruption as well? I've seen lots of people complain about the cursor thing but no mention of the screen corruption.

I get the bottom-right corruption as well. Rarely, I see the cursor corruption first, but that's a pretty certain indicator that the bottom right is about to go, too.

Did you try to tweak that undocumented logo option?

I tried enabling the logo, and that didn't work. I also built my own logo and logo_mask files so that the logo would be completely transparent, and that didn't work either.

[nomadder]

[QUOTE=sundown;8501]I know what you're talking about.

I concluded it only happens when you have a second display enabled and use the bigdesktop option. The thing didn't show to me when the 2nd display was connected but whenever I used only my laptop, it occurred every now and then. Restarting X was fixing it. However the pointer corruption was frequent with 2nd display connected.

I've seen this running connected to a second screen and when not. Enable and disabling "Big Desktop" in xorg.conf didn't see to make a difference. The only consistent factor I've been able to track down is that it almost always starts to happen when I'm doing something in Firefox.

Recently, when I had a fresh install of Feisty Fawn, without the 2nd display being connected, everything was running perfectly -- no pointer corruption, no annoying lower right corner display corruption.

I'm on FC6, and fully updated. Good to hear you're problem seems to be resolved -- gives me hope.

[sundown]

Recently I tried to work only on my laptop and the problem occurred again; only, and only when logging out -- corrupted pointer+lower right corner. No problems during the entire other time, though.

Before reinstalling the drivers when I had the 2nd display connected and adding "bigdesktop", this didn't occur on log out.

Personally, I think that they should fix all the bugs that appear with two displays before adding any "eye candy" solutions.

Do people with two displays also experience an awful 2d excelleration when video files are played on their 2nd display (excluding the 8.36 drivers)?

[Vakilik]

I haven't used a dual monitor setup under ati hardware before, so I don't know how much of a help I'll be, but, I found a good howto on how to get big desktop going on Ubuntu, take a look at it, maybe you missed that one little thing, happens to me all the time hehe.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1773544

If this is pretty much everything you've done, then the only thing left are those bad ATI drivers.

[sundown]

OK, I'll try the first method once the new driver is out, though I'm using the 2nd method described there right now.

[Dipy]

Has someone found a solution to this problem ?

Since I switch to xorg-server-1.3 and last ATI's drivers, I've setup my xorg to use dual head and I'm encountering the bug quite every time, but with a little strange thing:

my dual head is setup like following:
my laptop's internal screen is 1280x768, and my external CRT screen is 1280x1024. And the strange thing is that the corruption appears only on the external screen, but not a bottom right of it: it's located at the middle right (exactly, it's at the 768 pixels height position, which corresponds to the bottom right of the laptop's screen resolution). I hope those information will help finding where the bug comes from.

Is there a solution to prevent this ?

Thanks