Bug 19925

Summary:	The X graphics on a Dell xps13 9359 QHD developes "tearing" when white areas refreshed.
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	w unruh <unruh>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	Kernel and Drivers maintainers <kernel>
Status:	RESOLVED OLD	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	marja11, tmb
Version:	5	Keywords:	NEEDINFO
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:	kernel-4.4.30 ?	CVE:
Status comment:

Description w unruh 2016-12-11 15:11:53 CET

Description of problem: Dell xps13 9350 QHD graphics.
Everything seems to work ok, including at least some touchscreen functions. However there is a weid breakup of the graphics sometimes. The worst example is when I bring up the logout window (logout,reboot,shutdown menu items and a countdown display) As the countdown occurs, or if I move the mouse there are black lines (a few pixels wide, and tapering left to right and spaced randomly by about 20 pixels) that tear across that window, and at times across other light areas on the desktop. These are randomly spaced, and are very quick (maybe 1/5 of sec) but keep occuring as the mouse is moved. If I stop moving the mouse. it will often stop, but when the countdown changes the number, it may reoccur even without mouse movement.

This also occurs during use of the machine, not just with the logout window-- it is just worst there. Ie, while typing if I move the mouse, or select an area, I will get a brief (<1sec) burst of this behaviour on parts of the (black on white) konsole window but usually these are shorter random black lines (a couple of pixels wide and maybe a few hundred long-- maybe half and inch but the screen is a 4000 pixel wide screen.
For example just now I had firefox open, and a konsole (black on white) partially behind it. When I click on the konsole window I get this brief hor black line noise, which lasts maybe 1/10 sec. on the konsole window, but not on the Firefox screen. If I bring the firefox screen to the fore, I do not get that noise on either window. However on the grey app bar across the bottom of the screen the noise is very bad whether I bring firefox or the konsole to the fore.

If I use the touchscreen with my finger to bring the windows to the foreground, I do not get that visual noise.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Mageia 5.1 installed from the iso,
I have listed this as a kernel problem, but I have no idea if that is where the
problem lies.

How reproducible: Often but not always. Sometimes for a while this noise does not occur.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.put up two windows-- one a black on white console and the other a Firefox window, have them overlap, and use the mouse to bring one or the other to the foreground.

2.
3.

Comment 1 Marja Van Waes 2016-12-11 22:29:48 CET

(In reply to w unruh from comment #0)

> I have listed this as a kernel problem, but I have no idea if that is where
> the 
> problem lies.
> 

I don't know, either, but our kernel & drivers maintainers will reassign if needed. However, I do know that we have a newer kernel in 5/updates.

Please update your Mageia 5.1 system fully, so that your kernel gets updated to version 4.4.36-2.mga5, and so that everything else is up-to-date, too, and report back whether you still see this bug.

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO
CC: (none) => marja11
Assignee: bugsquad => kernel

Comment 2 Marja Van Waes 2016-12-11 22:33:48 CET

It is probably better to start with a clean 5.1 install again, before trying kernel 4.4.36-2.mga5, to make sure there are no leftovers from the 4.8.12 kernel you compiled for this install (as I understood from bug 19924 )

Comment 3 Thomas Backlund 2016-12-11 22:39:12 CET

Actually, KabyLake hw is so brand new so kernel 4.4 wont really cut it, neither is mesa & libdrm in mga5...

One thing to test is to use "xdriver=modesetting" to see if that can keep a stable display.

But basically you need the upcoming Mga6 to have proper support (hopefully -sta2 will be out somewhat soon-ish)

I do have a KabyLake laptop at work I'll "liberate from Win10" so I can see how it works out...

CC: (none) => tmb

Comment 4 w unruh 2016-12-11 23:16:57 CET

a) This is not a kaby lake laptop that I have tested this on. It is the previos version (Skylake?) which should be supported by 4.4.30/36 kernels.
I will be getting a Kaby Lake based machine (xps13 9360) next week and was testing the higher level kernel to see if it worked. on this older chipset. It did not.


b) I updated and made sure all traces of the 4.8 kernel were gone. I never did install the firmware for that. This problem with the video noise was also  there before I installed the 4.8 version. Unfortunately this is a work machine, and needs to be used for that purpose.

Updating to the 4.4.36 kernel  (urpmi --auto-select --update) and the noise is still there. 

It is noticeable if I select some area of the Konsole window (ie a black stripe on the window) then clicking on the Firefox window (no noise then) and then back on the konsole window (often very noisy.) The noise (hor black "short" (.3-2cm I would estimate-- hard to measure as the noise is just there for much les than a second) lines scattered over the screen . It seems at least at times as if it is diagonal-- ie the start of the lines seem to lie very crudely on a diagonal slanting from lower left to upper right. The noise on the Task Manager bar is all over the bar taking up close to 50% of the bar. Teh noise does not extend to the desktop background (the standard mageia 5 starry background) as far as I can see. It also does not affect the firefox screen, even though it is white and grey as well.

Comment 5 Thomas Backlund 2016-12-11 23:22:12 CET

sorry, I mixed reports...

Yeah, Sandy bridge is "supported" by 4.4 series kernels, but truth is Intel has been fixing the fallouts all the way up to the just released 4.9 series kernels.

And you really want mesa 13 on any skylake+, as older mesa triggers various buffer underruns and then some, causing glitches in display

Comment 6 w unruh 2016-12-12 01:00:24 CET

Could those mesa problem be causing the problem with the black stripe noise on this skylake machine?

Is it possible to backport the mesa from cauldron to MGA5?

I am really hesitant about putting cauldron on this machine, especially given the reports of the problem with kde5 and wayland.

Comment 7 Marja Van Waes 2018-07-12 11:51:22 CEST

Hi w unruh,

Thank you for having taken the needed time to report this issue!

Did this bug get fixed? If so, please change its status to RESOLVED - FIXED

If it didn't, then we regret that we weren't able to fix it in Mageia 5. Mageia 5 has officially reached its End of Life on December 31st, 2017 https://blog.mageia.org/en/2017/11/07/mageia-5-eol-postponed/
It only continued to get important security updates since then, because we were waiting for the big Plasma5 update in Mageia 6, that fixed many of the Mageia 5 => 6 upgrade issues.

If you haven't seen that this bug got fixed, then please check whether this bug still exists in Mageia 6. If it does, then please change the Version (near the top, at the left) to "6". If you know it exists in Cauldron, then change Version to Cauldron. If you see it in both Cauldron and Mageia 6, then please set Version to Cauldron and add MGA6TOO on the Whiteboard.

Thanks,
Marja

Comment 8 w unruh 2018-07-12 17:00:42 CEST

I have not seen this in that past year or so (Mga 6). So this can be marked as Resolved.

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => OLD