Desktop corruption

[Wykzl]

Hi,
I'm experiencing a desktop problem, not quite line another topic here reports. I have desktop effects on, and randomly the desktop just gets all scrambled.
The only solution is to logout and login again - desktop is fine and works for hours (sometimes only minutes...).
I have a ATI Radeon HD 4890 and I'm using proprietary drivers (if I disable it, the screen flickers).
Already tried to disable desktop functionality checks and that seemed to solve the problem, but alas...

I'm posting a screenshot of the whole desktop and a close-up of vlc (no windows decoration, shows thunderbird window below and if I take the mouse to the application window, it tries to redraw part of the window but it get all scrambled).

Anyone have seen something like this ?

Thx,

[schnelle]

Re: Desktop corruption

Maybe kwin config file got corrupted. Remove ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc and then alt+f2 and enter command kwin --replace. Doing this kwin (desktop effects) will be back to its defaults.

[Wykzl]

Re: Desktop corruption

Ok done that.
However, the last command never finished (let it be for a minute or more), so I've tried to logout and from console remove the file and then, after startx, run kwin --replace.
When I logout I got a crash report.
After the startx I ran kwin --replace and the command never stops.
Only 1 difference...this time I got some output:

$ kwin --replace
OpenGL vendor string:          ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string:         ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series      
OpenGL version string:         2.1 (3.3.11005 Compatibility Profile Context)
Driver:                 Catalyst
Driver version:             2.1
GPU class:               R700                                         
OpenGL version:             2.1                                          
X server version:            1.10.4
Linux kernel version:          3.0
Direct rendering:            no
Requires strict binding:        yes
GLSL shaders:              no
Texture NPOT support:          yes
kwin(8572): Shaders are not supported 
kwin(8572): Shaders are not supported 
kwin(8572): Shaders are not supported 
kwin(8572): Shaders are not supported

If I cancel the command...windows decoration are gone. In fact...all desktop stops working.
Anyway I'm going to try for a while to check if it works.

[schnelle]

Re: Desktop corruption

Run kwin --replace from krunner (alt+f2). If you run it from konsole then kwin --replace& and then you should be able to stop command (ctrl+c).

Or just delete kwinrc and then reboot system:

rm ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc
sudo reboot

[schnelle]

Re: Desktop corruption

Note that you have to do this only once. When kwin is reseted to its defaults you can go to SystemSettings>Desktop effects and tweak effects to your needs.

[Wykzl]

Re: Desktop corruption

Or just delete kwinrc and then reboot system:

rm ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc
sudo reboot

Done that.
I don't have any tweaks on the desktop effects...just the "plain vanilla".
I did had a decoration (glowglass-cupertino) but now I have Oxygen and the error still happens.

My guess now is this is a KDE bug.
Is there a log directory to look for plasma desktop log ?
I've been looking at /var/log but there is no obvious clue to what happens (especially as the log entries don't have a timestamp).

The only weird thing that I've found at Xorg.0.log and kdm.log was this:

Warning: LookupWindow()/SecurityLookupWindow() are deprecated. Please convert your driver/module to use dixLookupWindow()

(only got my attention as it mentions a driver working with windows)