trouble with Kate and other K Editors

[grasper]

Hello All,

I am having trouble with Kate editor. Further I observed the same problem with other K editors, Kile and KWrite. I am running Kubuntu 9.04 on a Toshiba Protege.

I believe the problem is something to do with refreshing. When I open a text file using Kate it seems fine. It displays the text normally. I have attached a screen snapshot of it - NewlyOpen.png. But when I move the cursor through the text present, the text disappears from the view. I have attached a screen snapshot after running the cursor through all the text - AfterMoving.png. As one can the text is not properly refreshed. Only the first word is displayed.

The same thing happens in Kile and KWrite. Actually I observed this refresh problem with other applications such as firefox, dolphin etc. But in all these applications, I just move the cursor over the distorted image twice or thrice, then everything is restored to normal. But that doesn't happen with the K editors.

For now I am using gedit. Fortunately for me it works perfectly fine.

So has anyone faced a similar problem? I searched through the archives. But so far I did not see anyone reporting this problem !
Any suggestion is welcome. Thanks!

[dibl]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

That is almost certainly a fault of your graphics driver, in combination with your graphics chip. What chip is in the Protegé?

[grasper]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Thanks Dibl for replying.

I did not know the chipset present. So I did lspci -v and looked for VGA, which is as follows:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device 000d
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at ff400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at cff8 [size=8]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device 000d
Flags: fast devsel
Memory at 80000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1M]
Capabilities: <access denied>

So what would you suggest my next step would be?

But I am surprised. If there was a problem with graphics driver then this problem should occur with all the applications. Why is this happening only with the text editors. Yes it happens with other applications, but it is only for a brief moment. Moreover gedit works fine. So I don't have any idea as of now !

Hoping for the best!

[grasper]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Oh, I am sorry about the huge font. I think something in the lspci output caused the font to get increased.

Anyway I am reposting the text in huge font:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device 000d
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at ff400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at cff8
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device 000d
Flags: fast devsel
Memory at 80000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1M]
Capabilities: <access denied>


So what would you suggest my next step would be?

But I am surprised. If there was a problem with graphics driver then this problem should occur with all the applications. Why is this happening only with the text editors. Yes it happens with other applications, but it is only for a brief moment. Moreover gedit works fine. So I don't have any idea as of now Roll Eyes!

Hoping for the best!

[GreyGeek]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Just as a comparison, my Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E/H has the same chip:

jerry@jerry-sonylaptop:~$ sudo lspci -v
[sudo] password for jerry:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device 9035
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information <?>
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
Kernel modules: intel-agp

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device 9035
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 2296
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at 6140 [size=8]
Capabilities: [90] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable+
Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device 9035
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at d0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3

and my editors work fine.

[dibl]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Since the X.org 1.6 was released, there have been a considerable volume of problem reports concerning the Intel graphics drivers:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...graphics+issue

http://www.h-online.com/open/Ubuntu-...eatures/113196

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/onli...aphics_drivers

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=NzIyMA

http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/01...youre-screwed/

etc. etc.

I assume that particular Toshiba model has some issue with KDM/X.org and the Intel driver -- since gedit works, probably that's the right answer for the moment. There is also nano which is a reasonably friendly CLI editor -- you'll have to "sudo apt-get install" it if you want to use it.

[josefko]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

I had a similar problem with Kate and several other Kde programs along with the other problem see http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3104274.0 and after System Settings - Desktop effects - switch off the problem disappeared.
[img width=400 height=269]http://www.volny.cz/jkotarba/kjaunty_kate.jpg[/img]

[grasper]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Thanks josefko, dibl and GreyGeek for your replies.

Well in my machine 'Desktop effects' have been turned off by default. So in this case probably it has something to do with driver as dibl had suggested. Well let me hope that this issue gets fixed sometime in near future.

Right now I am using gedit. But my real requirement is Kile. I edit and use many Latex file. Kile is a front end for using latex files. But Kile uses Kate as its editor. So for now KIle is unusable for me. I tried to see if I can change the default editor for Kile, but I could not :-(! So I hope this gets resolved sometime soon.

[dibl]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Depending on how adventuresome you feel, you might want to make a Xubuntu Live CD and boot that and play with the editors. It uses GDM instead of KDM -- it might like your Protegé better than KDE4 does.

[josefko]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

You could try also live CD Kubuntu 8.10. If only downgrade is reasonable. Or Ubuntu 9.04.
I think that problems with Intel onboard graphics started with Kubuntu 9.04. As the problem is related only to a few types of computers I don't think it will be solved in weeks, you could wait for months or more.

[grasper]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

That is good idea. While waiting for the fix, I will try Ubuntu or Xubuntu when I can. Thanks!

[grasper]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Dibl and Josefko, a question regarding installation. Well right now I have Kubuntu 9.04.

But if I wish to ubuntu 9.04, should I reinstall the entire Ubuntu or will it suffice that I install GDM? In other words if I install GDM on Kubuntu will it solve all these problems?

[dibl]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

To install Gnome on your Kubuntu system, Ctrl-Alt-F1 to the console, then

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop

to shut down X.

Next,

sudo apt-get update

and

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Then,

sudo shutdown -r now

to restart the system. When you get the login GUI, you should be able to click the menu and choose KDE or Gnome for the login session.

So it says here ..... in the fine print .... no guarantees .... your mileage may vary ....

[grasper]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

Great, I will install GDM and see how it works. So this closes this post for now.

Thanks again Dibl.

[GreyGeek]

Re: trouble with Kate and other K Editors

You could try also live CD Kubuntu 8.10. If only downgrade is reasonable. Or Ubuntu 9.04.
I think that problems with Intel onboard graphics started with Kubuntu 9.04. As the problem is related only to a few types of computers I don't think it will be solved in weeks, you could wait for months or more.

I purchased my Sony VAIO VGN-140E/H laptop as a birthday present to myself last August. It came with VISTA Home Premium. I purchased it because a) it had 1600X900 for a display and b) it was full HD - 1080p, and c) a news report that announced it said that a Linux driver was available for the GM45 video chip.

I partitioned it and installed Mandriva 2009 PWP. I was disappointed when Mandriva's xorg-x86-intel-video driver didn't configure my acceleration to work properly. I could only get a light gray screen even though I could hear the desktop music playing, indicating the desktop was ready. I reported it to the xorg bugzilla and discovered that there were several models from various OEMs that had the same chip but would display a proper video. I also discovered that VISTA would barf a video lung on occasion, complaining that it couldn't find the display. Turned out to be a bug in the Sony video firmware. I watched for several months as progress was being made in the bugzilla to work around it. About the middle of February a fix was found and all I had to do was wait for it to filter down to the Mandriva developers and for them to incorporate it into their distro. I figured it would take till the next release, sometime this summer or early fall. Other than that I had no complaints with Mandriva 2009, which ran KDE 4.1.3. KDE4 worked great and I was anxious to see KDE 4.2 about the same time.

A week later I saw a notice that Kubuntu 9.04 was released it it featured KDE 4.2. I downloaded the distro and ran it as a LiveCD. I was surprised and stunned to see it automatically detect and configure my GM45 chip, including accelerated video. Instead of 250 fps I was now getting 760fps, which is acceptable for this chip. I investigated and found that Kubuntu used the i915 driver, whereas Mandriva was using the i8xx driver. (I forgot what the xx was.).

I switched to Kubuntu, which soon upgraded to KDE4.2.4 and I've been a happy camper every since. 8)