Hey all so im using debian testing "jessie" with newest nvidia drivers from repository i think it is 331 or something but anyway i have never screen tearing in gnome but i dont really like gnome 3 but i like Kde but when using kde on debian i find that i got screeen tearing from hell and i have sync to vblank in nvidia settings and i use opengl/vsync in kde settings so i dont really know what the problem is i hope someone here know a fix or something it would be really helpful! :)
Do you also get artifacts? For instance: a cluster of black dots somewhere on the screen?
i didnt really think on that.. but nothing i noticed atleast so i guess not maybe?
The reason why I ask is because a known problem in with KDM and proprietary display drivers is that those drivers - which are basically Windows drivers - are very sloppy when it comes to clearing the buffer. In KDE, that often leads to artifacts of pixels that come through and stay black, but it can also lead to an effect like screen tearing.
To remedy the situation, that's pretty easy, because the buffer will be forced clear when you switch TTY. So you basically switch to TTY2 (Crtl-Alt-F2) and then after you get the TTY screen (command prompt), you immediately switch back to TTY7 (Ctrl-Alt-F7). That usually takes care of the sloppy buffer bug.
Maybe try it out to see if it helps.
One thing though. On a proprietary driver, you should set KDE to OpenGL 3.3. It will probably work best.
Another thing that often helps, is to set the screen effects to "fast" instead of "normal", but most users do that anyway because the standard "normal" setting makes the system look slower than it is.
yeah i see zoltan thanks hmm i think i only had opengl 3.1 i will check and i try those other things its really annyoing with all this problmes that arent really related too linux itself cause i really like kde as a desktop its kinda what windows should been i really like the search function in kde so you can just type any program without click on any menu or anything
OpenGL 3.1 or 3.3 shouldn't make much difference.
The best search function by far as you describe it is in XFCE. It looks less flashy, but it's more efficient. For instance, to open the search in KDE, you can't use the Meta key, as KDE doesn't use that as a standalone key, and when you've just installed an application, it takes a while for KDE to index that application in search, whereas in XFCE, with the Whisker Menu, it's immediately there.
KDE has some cool apps, like Digikam and KDE Connect, and of course akonadi and everything around it, but with the advent of LightZone, Digikam is just not the most efficient photo editing tool anymore, and LightZone is easily heaps better than even Adobe Lightroom, for the freeform cloning tools etc it has and the extra tools and MUCH better RAW processing (RAW processing in both Lightroom and Aperture is pretty meh in comparison to RAW processing in linux in general, the quality difference is REALLY visible, even to non-professionals). LightZone should be in the Debian repos, I compile it in Arch from DEB packages that I clone from the project's git. It's a great program, and although Digikam still has the better management and fuzzy and face recognition search functions, it's not a reason to stay with KDE anymore. Darktable was becoming nicer, but was never that much of a motivated project, and never got the functionality it should have had by now. LightZone is a veni, vidi, vici type of project, it just hit the nail right on the head. I always come back to XFCE, because it's still the most efficient DE because of it's simplicity and easily highly configurable nature. It's also the DE that is best supported by Debian, there are very few problems with it in Debian, unlike Gnome and KDE.
I had the same problem. The solution was to change the scaling option. Are you using HDMI? If you use DVI, it shouldnt tear. (If you use HDMI, and if its the same problem I had)
so... i tested all the stuff and well nothing works really.. (and i use hdmi with dvi adapter to graphic card phantom) it seems like it actually work like 1 minute or something like that whenever i switch any settings at all with opengl, vsync or scailing whatever but then it comes back and its no diffrent if i would log out and in again the damn tearing is there... i have also problems with the audio as i have a other forum post about that i just cant figure out ... its that linux finds my headset and speakers as same device and i cant mute one of them cause it mutes the other one too ... and i dont want them both to play but i dont want to need to unplug headsets everytime its kinda annyoing well thanks for the help i maybe should switch to slackware lol its actually the distro i have had fewest problems with i think ..
so.... i did for not really any reason switch to gentoo linux and looking forward to a nice Not tearing kde but...... surprise surprise kde tears like hell in gentoo too ... i wonder if its my hardware or something ;(
@Silverhome
What is the output of your Xorg config, and have you tried another compositor?
well i just use the standard nvidia xorg.conf you get by nvidia-xconfig it maybe miss things? idk i have never problems in gnome 3 with tearing atleast... and yeah i should post the config i guess im on windows right now so i do that later
oh and i have not touch any compositor things so no i guess
here is my xorg.conf # nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 334.21 (buildmeister@swio-display-x64-rhel04-16) Thu Feb 27 14:37:03 PST 2014
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from data in "/etc/conf.d/gpm"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
what other compositor should i use? its weird that it is same problem on every distro with kde its like the only DE i want to use hehe
You could try enabling triple buffering; Linky
I know this method worked for some people running Kwin with GTX graphics cards especially with the latest Nvidia drivers.
With Wayland support gaining traction and Kwin/Compiz being turned into a Wayland compositor screen-tearing will hopefully be a thing of the past.
You could try using Compiz over Kwin. I've found that using a --replace with whatever compositor you're using on bootup will sometimes fix intermittent screen tearing issues.
yeah i see.. well i have a gtx 780ti i did try enabling triple buffering and that usleep thing but none worked i think i did it right? but its just so freaking annyoing so yeah when i heard about wayland tear free stuff i was happy hehe .. do compiz really run with kde good?
It's strange that Gnome works without tearing, which would lead me to believe your issues are more likely Kwin related.
Perhaps install the version of Kwin from the KDE dev overlays, or git. You can also use Wayland.
"...i think i did it right?"
If you add the boolean data to your Device section in your xorg.conf then yes.
yeah i did add it to section and i did try that other things they said make that kwin.sh file in /etc/profile.d but nothing worked and yeah its really weird kwin dont work on any distro it worked for like some year ago .. and the new gnome3 just makes me mad haha sucks cause i feels like meh when logging into gentoo now
i go and try it again just to be 100% sure it didnt work
feels like i have tested like ALL distro by now and its amazing how everyone with kde get screen tearing.... BUT not good old slackware lol but im lazy .. so not having dependencie solving feels just too annyoing sometimes and time consuming. gonna go and kill my computer now -.-" hehe...
enable tripple buffering in debian with kde seems actually too work now amazing lol so happy haha only problem is that kde gets super slow when resize window idk if its exist a fix for that or something but i just disable resize window update or what its called so it dont show the inside in real time when resizeing the window. anyway just wanted to say that maybe it work for someone else that have the same problem :)