MSI laptop, NVIDIA Geforce 8200M G, Ubuntu 11.04, persistent screen tearing

Virgil0211 · 06-07-11, 06:29 PM

I can't understand what's going on. First, it was just when the card was plugged into an HDTV via the HDMI output. Now, I can't get it to stop with the main screen. Either that, or it was just there and I didn't notice it until now. I've tried just about every setting I could find, even gone so far as to reinstall Ubuntu. I don't know what's been going on with it. What's going on?

I've attached three bug report files, one from each bug-report.sh file I was able to find. Be patient with me, I'm new to Linux. Two are for the drivers linux provided (173 and current), and the third is the proprietary Nvidia driver (unknown). I believe the third one is the one that's being used right now.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Virgil0211 · 06-08-11, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virgil0211

I can't understand what's going on. First, it was just when the card was plugged into an HDTV via the HDMI output. Now, I can't get it to stop with the main screen. Either that, or it was just there and I didn't notice it until now. I've tried just about every setting I could find, even gone so far as to reinstall Ubuntu. I don't know what's been going on with it. What's going on?

I've attached three bug report files, one from each bug-report.sh file I was able to find. Be patient with me, I'm new to Linux. Two are for the drivers linux provided (173 and current), and the third is the proprietary Nvidia driver (unknown). I believe the third one is the one that's being used right now.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Sorry for the double post, but is there anything else I need to include in order to facilitate troubleshooting?

Virgil0211 · 06-21-11, 05:52 PM

*Bump*

No ideas, anyone?

Virgil0211 · 06-21-11, 11:56 PM

Just tried to install latest drivers in that stickied thread up above, tearing got even worse.

This is getting insane. I'm apparently the only one in the world with this problem, with no solution in sight. My experience with Ubuntu so far has not been a good one.

_john_i_ · 06-23-11, 12:34 AM

It sounds like we have the exact same laptop, and I am not getting any tearing at all in kde using the kwin4 window manager. You mentioned the HDMI port .. do you have both the laptop display and the monitor on HDMI active at once with twinview? If so, the nvidia driver can only sync-to-vblank on one of the displays -- see the README.txt file that comes with the drivers. Also note you can pick the monitor to sync with via the __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE environment variable.

I don't use Ubuntu, so I am not sure what options you have for your window manager.

Also, it isn't clear from your post when you are seeing the tearing. Is it when you play video, or when you just move windows around? It may just be a matter of setting the vsync option for your window manager.

Virgil0211 · 06-23-11, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _john_i_

It sounds like we have the exact same laptop, and I am not getting any tearing at all in kde using the kwin4 window manager. You mentioned the HDMI port .. do you have both the laptop display and the monitor on HDMI active at once with twinview? If so, the nvidia driver can only sync-to-vblank on one of the displays -- see the README.txt file that comes with the drivers. Also note you can pick the monitor to sync with via the __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE environment variable.

I don't use Ubuntu, so I am not sure what options you have for your window manager.

Also, it isn't clear from your post when you are seeing the tearing. Is it when you play video, or when you just move windows around? It may just be a matter of setting the vsync option for your window manager.

I've actually been seeing the tearing in my native display now, no matter what settings I've tried, and I've tried every variant of the vsync options I could find in Xserver and compizconfig settings manager. It seems to happen whenever there is horizontal movement on screen of anything, whether it's playing video or not. I don't know if this is limited to Ubuntu or not.

Virgil0211 · 07-03-11, 06:11 PM

I still can't figure out what's causing this tearing thing. I've tried everything I know can work. It just seems like this graphics card cannot work with linux. Is anybody at Nvidia aware of this problem?

Virgil0211 · 09-20-11, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virgil0211

I still can't figure out what's causing this tearing thing. I've tried everything I know can work. It just seems like this graphics card cannot work with linux. Is anybody at Nvidia aware of this problem?

Well, it's been several months now. I've scoured the internet for a solution, even tried switching to Kubuntu thinking THAT would solve the problem. I still don't know what's going on.

It turns out I may have been a bit wrong in my initial report. I think I misread 9200m as 8200m.

When I type lspci -v | grep -i vga into terminal, I get this:

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C79 [GeForce 9200M G] (rev b1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

I apologize if that hurt anything. However, I can't seem to find too much documentation on the GeForce 9200M G. Mostly, it's the 9200M GS or GX or something. Is that significant?

06-21-11, 05:52 PM	#3
Virgil0211 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 8	Re: MSI laptop, NVIDIA Geforce 8200M G, Ubuntu 11.04, persistent screen tearing Bump No ideas, anyone?

06-21-11, 11:56 PM	#4
Virgil0211 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 8	Re: MSI laptop, NVIDIA Geforce 8200M G, Ubuntu 11.04, persistent screen tearing Just tried to install latest drivers in that stickied thread up above, tearing got even worse. This is getting insane. I'm apparently the only one in the world with this problem, with no solution in sight. My experience with Ubuntu so far has not been a good one.

06-23-11, 12:34 AM	#5
_john_i_ gtx260/8200M G/DIY Linux Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Austin, TX USA Posts: 137	Re: MSI laptop, NVIDIA Geforce 8200M G, Ubuntu 11.04, persistent screen tearing It sounds like we have the exact same laptop, and I am not getting any tearing at all in kde using the kwin4 window manager. You mentioned the HDMI port .. do you have both the laptop display and the monitor on HDMI active at once with twinview? If so, the nvidia driver can only sync-to-vblank on one of the displays -- see the README.txt file that comes with the drivers. Also note you can pick the monitor to sync with via the __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE environment variable. I don't use Ubuntu, so I am not sure what options you have for your window manager. Also, it isn't clear from your post when you are seeing the tearing. Is it when you play video, or when you just move windows around? It may just be a matter of setting the vsync option for your window manager.

07-03-11, 06:11 PM	#7
Virgil0211 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 8	Re: MSI laptop, NVIDIA Geforce 8200M G, Ubuntu 11.04, persistent screen tearing I still can't figure out what's causing this tearing thing. I've tried everything I know can work. It just seems like this graphics card cannot work with linux. Is anybody at Nvidia aware of this problem?