[SOLVED] plasma-desktop rendering problem

[claydoh]

Re: [SOLVED] plasma-desktop rendering problem

for ati Mobility gpu's, especially as they have 32mb or less of vram, I have been testing and tweaking my xorg.conf since Intrepid. I used these steps to both temporarily fix the screen and tweak xorg to make it all nice:

Open any program (or Right-click somewhere on your desktop to bring up the context menu, so you can select "Desktop Settings", or anything with a titlebar). Then you can right-click on the currently garbled titlebar, and select "configure Window Behavior", once there you can try Kwin effects, which will bring back your plasma
(This may or may not work for all gpu's,but is worth a try)

Now if you have a clean karmic , you won't have an xorg.conf file . If you don't, then you can create one , just open kate with kdesudo: type alt-f2, and enter

kdesudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and paste this in:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "radeon"
Option "AccelMethod" "XAA" #either XAA or EXA. "XAA" is the default
Option "RenderAccel" "off"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true" #only works with accelmethod "XAA".
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

You can try just adding the line to the "Device" section

Option  "AccelMethod"  "EXA"

and leaving out any other lines with 'Option" in them, but it does pose a definite performance hit, and possibly a stability hit on systems with <32mb vram, but at least for my Compaq Evo N610c's gpu, the combination of XAA and the other options in the "Device" section cures the plasm rendering problem AND a garbled image that flashes on my system during login. Plus desktop effects work just dandy , as long as I don't go overboard on the bling

[erehwon]

Re: [SOLVED] plasma-desktop rendering problem

Thanks for that advice claydoh. I've changed my xorg.conf (and removed the modeset from boot) and my desktop is working better than ever.

I did try to turn on some desktop effects but my machine locked up. I don't know the best way to recover from this so I'm reluctant to try again. What effects have you enabled?

Enjoying my Kuddly Koala!

[claydoh]

Re: [SOLVED] plasma-desktop rendering problem

I believe I have the defaults, plus 'wobbly windows' and 'slide back'.

This is with a Mobility 7500 gpu, 32mb ram. Unfortunately this may vary from computer to computer, so though we may have the same or similar GPUs, the tweaks needed may be different

erehwon, what do you have for a system?

[erehwon]

Re: [SOLVED] plasma-desktop rendering problem

I have a Sony Vaio which has a Mobility 7500 GPU. 32MB I believe. I turned on desktop effects, left all defaults and hit apply. It locked up pretty quickly!

I thought I might try again with everything turned off and then add one or two effects to see how it goes. If it does lock up, do you which file I need to edit/restore to get my desktop back to normal?

It would be nice to have some desktop effects but I'm pleased to have such a good working system on such an old laptop.

[claydoh]

Re: [SOLVED] plasma-desktop rendering problem

the file is /home/<username>/.kde/share/config/kwinrc

Also try some of the other advanced settings in the desktop effects section, it may help as well.

[erehwon]

Re: [SOLVED] plasma-desktop rendering problem

Excellent! I'll give it a go.

Thanks very much for your help claydoh. It's much appreciated.