[SOLVED]Screen tearing horrible in Linux Mint

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
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I have been running Ubuntu on my main machine, but my best friend apparently, wants Linux Mint.

I don’t mind installing that for him, but he watches alot of videos.

I have the AMDGPU-PRO drivers for Ubuntu, and enabled TearFree. I tried to do this in Mint, and now the desktop just hangs and does nothing on bootup. Just sits there with a “_” blinking in the left side of the screen.

I know all about getting it to install with editing the installer from ubuntu to linuxmint.

I’ve read around, and it seems on these forums, people think the stock drivers in Mint work well, and not to install amdgpu-pro. But with the drivers Mint comes with, there’s horrendous stuttering, and massive screen tearing.

Anyone know how to solve this? I don’t know what to do. I would stick with the default drivers, but don’t know how to stop this massive screen tearing.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to re-install Mint to get back to where you guys want me to start out, but that’s fine. I’m sure I’ll have Mint back up and installed when you respond.

Thank you in advance!

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The gpu drivers are rolled into the kernel for amd cards.

Linux mint does not like to use a recent kernel. It is highly likely that this is an issue related specifically to linux mint. You should highly consider something else; something that uses the >=4.10 kernel (4.12 preferred).

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As an addition to @Dynamic_Gravity 's comment, as of about a week ago, Cinnamon (the desktop environment Mint uses) was not compatible with 4.10+, so you probably won’t get it to even look the same. They might have fixed some of the bugs since then, but it’s likely you might have to install something else like XFCE or KDE if you go with a server version of some kind. I used XFCE with Ubuntu Server 16.04.3 with 4.10.something about a week ago and got pci passthrough to work with my rx580, so barring some kind of craziness, you should be ok with any Desktop Environment other than Cinnamon. EDIT: Read on to @blackfire 's comment.

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Just to add. Mint uses as of writing 16.04 LTS Ubuntu as base which is why the kernal is so far behind. But you can put cinnamon on ubuntu 17.04 which does have thy higher kernel


Which in theory would also fix the problem.

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If you want amd gpu driver support from the kernel in linux mint,
then you have to go to the kernel manager and install the latest hardware enablement kernel.
Linux mint includes a very handy kernel manager tool in their update manager.
But it will also be depending on which particular AMD gpu he has.

If you use Linux mint with XFCE or Mate desktop.
then you might need to enable compositing aswell.

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Have your friend try out Solus. No, I am not talking shit about Mint. Just curious what your friend thinks. :slight_smile:

https://solus-project.com/download/

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Then there’s different screen comopistors, like compton for example

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Linux mint only has 4.11 kernels, so I can’t use 4.12. I am nervous about messing with kernels, but if it will fix the issue, then I am wiling to try it.

MysteryAngel, I’m running standard Mint with Cinnamon. Is there a setting somewhere, that has those options in Cinnamon?

Dot404, I showed him Solus but he did not like it. Although, I am tempted to try it on my machine some time later.

Baz, I understand that. I just don’t know how to access those in Cinnamon.

It could be the answer is staring me in the face, but he’s determined that Mint is what he wants. And said he could live with the tearing for the time being. I just want to fix this. Because I am stubborn like that and don’t like leaving someone’s computer partially done.

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Doesn’t really explain how when I use Fedora 26 that I still experience screen tearing myself. I am fairly certain that Fedora 26 is using an up to date kernel.

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Well thats mint for ya. Its purposefully out of date and missing things for… ahem, “Stability”. Ask your friend if he wants mint, or the cinnamon DE.

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That would be an issue with the compositor that you’re using then.

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Compositor? I don’t follow.

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That’s the conundrum. Because he likes Mint for the stability, but also likes it for the integration of making Linux simple.

I actually agree with him. Linux Mint is very stable, and seems to be the only OS or Distro I’ve found that has all his PC components all install easily with no hassle.

But the look of cinnamon is a factor. Because it looks familiar. And I would love to stick with familiar for him to get used to and using Linux.

Linux Mint has a compositor? How the hell do I get to it? Change settings, and such?

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@DrewSaga, @Smerrills

Heres a great tldr from stackexchange

When using a compositing window manager, each application window has an off-screen buffer that the application draws into. It is the task of the window manager to create a “composition” of windows on screen, with each window reflecting the contents of the buffer the application has written into. The window manager does of course not compose the screen out of its free will; the windows are placed by the user using the mouse or keyboard commands.

With this arrangement an application can draw to its window as if it was the only graphical program running, and it is the task of the compositor to make several programs coexist on the same screen, by placing the windows and clipping them if they overlap.

Before the introduction of compositing window managers, stacking window managers were typically used. With a stacking window manager, when a window belonging to an application needed to be redrawn, the application itself had to be send a message informing that (part of) the window had been exposed. When this happened, the application was expected to do the redrawing. If the application failed to do so, the area would typically retain its old, now garbled contents.

I’m not much into games, but it is my understanding that they typically use the display in full-screen mode. In this case the compositor is not very relevant, and the compositor may even be disabled altogether.

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No idea. I used mint for a day and couldn’t install anything but 2 year old firefox and a broken steam package.

Use ubuntu cinnamon. Its the same thing but actually up to date.

And, you know, not lazy garbage.

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This maybe the problem. I did enjoy my GNOME setup, but honestly, I feel like I should move away from it too now, because GNOME seems a bit inconvenient on a 4K monitor where I am dragging my mouse quite a bit.

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Ok, so we have tried everything. I can eliminate tearing in Ubuntu 16.04, but nothing else.

Trying to install the amdgpu-pro driver in anything but Mint 18 and Ubuntu 16.04 breaks shit.

Tried Ubuntu 17.04 just to see what Wayland does, and while screen tearing is far less, it’s still there. Is there a way to edit wayland settings or turn something on?

Why can’t this be as simple as it is in windows? Just enabling a goddamned setting to turn on vsync or something? I know, I know how dare I mention the heathen OS. But it would seem something logical to do. Make a graphical window, that lets you enable or disable gpu options like vsync?

I mean isn’t this a similar problem that we have in games? Enabling that same option in windows makes YouTube videos stop tearing.

Yeah, I’m a noob. And yes, I get that Linux is mostly run by Uber Nerds and tons of people who know what the hell they’re doing.

But there are TONS of Linux ditros out there that are trying to be ‘‘user friendly’’ and when it comes to settings that matter that seem to be easy fixes in that other poplular OS’s? They tend to be extraordinarily complicated fixes in Linux. Even in those ‘‘user friendly’’ OS’s.

And isn’t the ultimate goal of most people in Linux, to make it an operating system that’s ubiquitous or at least as popular as Windows is? To offer the everyman the choice to use something that is free and won’t spy on them, or do nefarious deeds with their data?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Linux guy through and through now. I only use Windows to appease my kids in the games they want to play, and the few games that I play that simply do not work yet on Linux.

Everything else, I do in Linux. And I’d LOVE to convert other people over to Linux I know because it really is the superior OS.

But when you’re trying to convert the masses, they generally just want something that works and won’t throw up these tiny, yet annoying problems. No, it’s not a giant problem, and for the most part doesn’t affect everyone, but something like this would be a BIG problem for a few people I know, because it’s a problem that seems like it doesn’t have an easy fix…

Edit: Maybe @wendell could chime in? Maybe he’s got an idea or two?

Edit2: GPU he has is the RX 470. Don’t think I mentioned this earlier, sorry.

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18

Dude install compiz and turn on anti-tear this isn’t hard.

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Will I have to uninstall anything else if I do that?

Is it in the repositories for Ubuntu or Mint?

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No you won’t. Should just be apt-get install compiz. Might need to google “How to install compiz in ubuntu whatever version you are using” because you might need to add a PPA now.