Only partial screen update after last stable update [2020-12-30]

[pintman]

I had issues with screen updates after the last major update. Some parts of the screen will not be updated and stay white or contain artifacts from another tab or window.

Using the control-key that highlight the cursor position will update the window.

$ mhwd -li
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
    video-nvidia-390xx            2020.11.30               false            PCI

$ inxi -Gaz
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GF108GL [Quadro 600] driver: nvidia v: 390.138 
  alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0df8 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: gnome-shell v: 3.38.2 
  driver: nvidia display ID: :1 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3200x1200 s-dpi: 90 s-size: 903x342mm (35.6x13.5") 
  s-diag: 966mm (38") 
  Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 1280x1024 hz: 60 dpi: 90 size: 360x288mm (14.2x11.3") 
  diag: 461mm (18.2") 
  Monitor-2: DP-1 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 94 size: 518x324mm (20.4x12.8") 
  diag: 611mm (24.1") 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.1 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 

$ pacman -Q|grep nvidia
lib32-nvidia-390xx-utils 390.138-1
linux414-nvidia-390xx 390.138-1
linux54-nvidia-390xx 390.138-2
mhwd-nvidia 455.45.01-3
mhwd-nvidia-340xx 340.108-1
mhwd-nvidia-390xx 390.138-1
nvidia-390xx-utils 390.138-1

$ sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300
[sudo] Passwort for pintman: 
> Skipping already installed config 'video-nvidia-390xx' for device: 0000:01:00.0 (0300:10de:0df8) Display controller nVidia Corporation GF108GL [Quadro 600]

@pintman

$ uname -r
5.4.85-1-MANJARO

I thought not to have nouveau drivers installed but the proprietary drivers.

Any ideas?

[TriMoon]

It helps to also provide the kernel info etc, especially with nVidia GPU’s…

[andreas85]

No, no idea, but i have the same issue since a short time (December ?)

mhwd -li                                                                                        [130]
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI

inxi -Gaz                                                      
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK107 [GeForce GT 740] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nouveau 
  v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0fc8 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: Gigabyte 
  driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 26:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c82 
  Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.10 driver: nouveau 
  note: n/a (using device driver) unloaded: modesetting,nouveau 
  alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo> 
  OpenGL: renderer: NV137 v: 4.3 Mesa 20.3.1 direct render: Yes 
 uname -a                                                                                             
Linux manjaro18 4.19.163-1-MANJARO #1 SMP Fri Dec 11 17:21:11 UTC 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux

maybe this has someting to do with nouveau

[pintman]

Here is my kernel information @TriMoon

$ uname -r
5.4.85-1-MANJARO

I thought not to have nouveau drivers installed but the proprietary drivers.

[TriMoon]

@pintman

Here is my kernel information @TriMoon

I unfortunately have no idea what to do in cases with older kernel+old GPU,
Maybe others can step in to help here.

[_mH]

@pintman

OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.1

I believe you might have the same situation like I had, with the driver installed but not providing hardware acceleration - [SOLVED] GT520 + linux54 5.4.85-1 + linux54-nvidia-390xx 390.138-2 = absolutely terrible performance. It may or may not be the cause of your screen artifacts, but maybe it is worth checking. And maybe the next step would be to check if the compositing is on (KDE turns it off on boot if it detects a problem with hardware acceleration, maybe it’s something similar for GNOME, I don’t know).
(You asked for ideas :))

[pintman]

Thank you very much. This exactly solved my problem.
However, I have to find out how to let the configuration survive the next update - since mhwd.conf is autogenerated.

Update: Created a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ with the FILES-section only. This will be inserted into the final configuration.

[_mH]

@pintman

Created a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ with the FILES-section only

Yes, this was my first idea, and it worked perfectly; then I moved the lines into nvidia.conf to keep it simple - from what I understand, it should survive updates. If not, I’ll go with a separate file, as you did.