Screen tearing and how to get rid of it

[spectromas]

I've always needed to use compton with my laptop to eliminate screen tearing but I found this mpv script today and it eliminates almost all tearing in videos. It has got me wondering if I can get rid of the tearing globally (the script works for videos but some other things cause tearing such as audio editing/waveform scrolling as I noticed today) but I don't know where to start, whenever I've looked in to it I've been advised to use compton.

 

So where would I start, xorg config? Is it even possible?

 

According to lspci I have: VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV710/M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4330/4350/4550]

[spectromas]

You got me thinking 666threesixes666 Looks like the driver is still in development for this particular issue, I found out that the git version of x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati recently had a commit which solves this. I just emerged it and sure enough it does fix it. I've updated the wiki for the radeon drivers to reflect this, it'll be quite a big thing for people like when that commit gets released.

[sputnik]

That's going to be the place, xorg.conf.  Are you using fglrx?  If so, I believe they (like Nvidia) have quite a comprehensive manual that comes down with the driver.  And I don't mean man ati (or whatever), although that could be helpful too.  In there will be lots of reading pleasure for you, with many possible additions to xorg.conf to solve this problem or that.  

I have nvidia, the manual is located in /usr/share/doc/nvidia-drivers-<version>.  I have access to an AMD machine, but it's offline currently, but that may be a good place to look (/usr/share/doc).  equery f ati-drivers will show it also.

If you're using the open source drivers I don't know, but a quick web search should be helpful.

Oh, and man xorg.conf may help too.

[spectromas]

I'm using the open source drivers, as far as I remember the proprietary drivers were not supported after 3.8 kernel or something like that. I'm happy with the open sources ones on the whole and already now I have eliminated tearing in videos I can live with it in most other things if I ever see it at all, and I can just go back to using compton if necessary.

get-edid | parse-edid
This is read-edid version 3.0.2. Prepare for some fun.
Attempting to use i2c interface
No EDID on bus 0
No EDID on bus 2
No EDID on bus 3
No EDID on bus 4
No EDID on bus 5
No EDID on bus 6
No EDID on bus 7
1 potential busses found: 1
256-byte EDID successfully retrieved from i2c bus 1
Looks like i2c was successful. Have a good day.
Checksum Correct

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "@
                     @"
    ModelName "@
                    @"
    VendorName "CMO"
    # Monitor Manufactured week 40 of 2008
    # EDID version 1.3
    # Digital Display
    DisplaySize 340 190
    Gamma 2.20
    Option "DPMS" "false"
    Modeline     "Mode 0" +hsync -vsync
    Modeline     "Mode 1" +hsync -vsync
EndSection

I was hoping to get a bit more information from it but it's a start.

 

I see in the xorg man page that there are entries for hsync and vsync but I can't find what my monitor is capable of.

I'll probably just leave it to be honest, it's not worth the time to fix it.

 

 

 

[666threesixes666]

im trying to think of a better place for my xorg.conf.d entries

 

mkultra@spaceball1 ~/aircrack $ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50novsync.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "My Graphics"
Option "GLXVBlank" "off"
EndSection

 

you probably want to turn glxvblank on or maybe it needs to go off?  i also have an alternate resolution one somewhere.  nouveau doesn't have a control panel so its all xorg.conf.d

[uudruid74]

GLXVBlank probably should be on.  I think this tells the driver to wait for vblank to do updates, which will stop tearing.  Tearing is a result of changing the display while the hardware is reading it, so you get half of one frame and half of another.

 

The ATI binary drivers have all sorts of anti-tearing settings in the control panel, but I have not been able to get them to work with Gnome.  Mutter uses some new Xrandr call that isn't supported by the ATI drivers.  I have a couple really STRANGE problems with the radeon drivers so I'm always tempted to try the binary ones, but as long as I can't get Gnome to work, its a dead issue.

 

If anyone has fglrx and gnome 3.16 together, I want to hear from you!