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#1 2019-08-16 11:32:31

alexo
Member
Registered: 2019-08-16
Posts: 4

[Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

Hey there,

I recently ran into a problem with (likely) the compositor:
Transparency graphic artifacts

Everytime something in a drawn window changes or shall be repainted, the respective screen portion is cluttered with these artifacts.
I'm having a second display connected via HDMI, and these artifacts show up on both screens then.
If I don't have the second display connected, no problems occur!

As soon as I disable the compositor, everything is back to normal (except a less pretty rendering).

Could it be some render offsets, or mismatching pixel formats between two different displays?
Or buffer mapping problems, or even leaks?

Thanks in advance, and always keep doing up the good work! smile


My hardware:

System:
  Host: linuxacer Kernel: 5.3.0-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Nitro AN515-43 v: V1.03 
  serial: <root required> 
  Mobo: PK model: Octavia_PKS v: V1.03 serial: <root required> UEFI: Insyde 
  v: 1.03 date: 06/12/2019 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 58.2 Wh condition: 58.1/57.5 Wh (101%) 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3550H with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx 
  bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  Speed: 1355 MHz min/max: 1400/2100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1355 2: 1275 
  3: 1223 4: 1225 5: 1375 6: 1314 7: 1223 8: 1226 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Baffin [Radeon RX 460/560D / Pro 
  450/455/460/555/555X/560/560X] 
  driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
  Device-2: AMD Picasso driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.5 driver: amdgpu,ati unloaded: modesetting 
  resolution: 2560x1440~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.33.0 5.3.0-1-MANJARO LLVM 8.0.1) 
  v: 4.5 Mesa 19.1.4 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
  Device-3: ASUSTek Xonar U3 sound card type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.0-1-MANJARO 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  driver: r8169 
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: 08:97:98:6c:5b:68 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter 
  driver: ath10k_pci 
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: e8:d0:fc:81:fc:a1 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 942.70 GiB used: 158.02 GiB (16.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital 
  model: PC SN520 SDAPNUW-512G-1114 size: 476.94 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 
  size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 84.45 GiB used: 8.17 GiB (9.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 46.1 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
  GPU: device: amdgpu temp: 46 C device: amdgpu temp: 39 C 
Info:
  Processes: 244 Uptime: 24m Memory: 13.67 GiB used: 1.54 GiB (11.3%) 
  Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.35

Last edited by alexo (2019-08-16 12:28:09)

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#2 2019-08-16 11:51:43

alexo
Member
Registered: 2019-08-16
Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

Seems my issue has been reported in the redhat forums as well:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1739863

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#3 2019-08-16 11:57:21

ToZ
Administrator
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-06-02
Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

Hello and welcome.

Does running either of the following commands, with the compositor enabled, make a difference?

xfwm4 --vblank=xpresent --replace

or

xfwm4 --vblank=off --replace

In xfwm4, glx is the default vblank mode, but it also supports xpresent (which I believe works best for ati cards) and you can also turn it off.

If either of those work, you can make it permanent via:

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/vblank_mode -t string -s "MODE" --create

...where MODE is one of: "xpresent", "off", or "glx".

Edit: For xpresent, you need to have the libxpresent libraries installed.

Last edited by ToZ (2019-08-16 11:58:37)

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#4 2019-08-16 12:27:38

alexo
Member
Registered: 2019-08-16
Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

Hey ToZ,

thank you for this quick help!
Both setting the blanking mode to xpresent and off work and fixed the problem!

That's really awesome, I'm gonna spread the word then smile

Anyway, since glx may somewhat be related to graphics hardware and/or drivers,
things should be watched again, shouldn't it?


ToZ wrote:

Hello and welcome.

Does running either of the following commands, with the compositor enabled, make a difference?

xfwm4 --vblank=xpresent --replace

or

xfwm4 --vblank=off --replace

In xfwm4, glx is the default vblank mode, but it also supports xpresent (which I believe works best for ati cards) and you can also turn it off.

If either of those work, you can make it permanent via:

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/vblank_mode -t string -s "MODE" --create

...where MODE is one of: "xpresent", "off", or "glx".

Edit: For xpresent, you need to have the libxpresent libraries installed.

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#5 2019-08-20 19:31:19

Ekynox360
Member
Registered: 2019-08-20
Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

I have the same problem as alexo. However, ToZ's solution doesn't work for me. After typing 

xfwm4 --vblank=xpresent --replace

these errors appear on a new ArchLinux install. 

xfwm4-CRITICAL : Xfconf could not be initialized
xfwm4-WARNING: Missing data from default files

The file ~/.xsession-errors.log shows https://imgur.com/J3mJuti. My windows no longer have a menu bar and I can't overlay them anymore among others side issues.

Original post on Arch forums : https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=248543

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#6 2019-08-20 19:57:33

ToZ
Administrator
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-06-02
Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

Can you post back results of the following?

whoami
ps -ef | grep $USER
pstree
journalctl --no-pager | grep xfconf
xfwm4 -V
/usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd -V

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#7 2019-08-21 15:53:30

Ekynox360
Member
Registered: 2019-08-20
Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

As me from my broken virtual terminal :

[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ whoami
alexandre
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ ps -ef | grep $USER
root     22755     1  0 17:40 ?        00:00:00 login -- alexandre
alexand+ 28754 25964  0 17:39 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-terminal --geometry=80x24 --display :0.0 --role=xfce4-terminal-1566321012-3695530098 --show-menubar --show-borders --hide-toolbar --active-tab --working-directory /home/alexandre --sm-client-id 2038ffa94-21c5-44ac-97d0-e0c187da2aee
root     30616 30612  0 17:41 ?        00:00:00 sshd: alexandre [priv]
alexand+ 30622 30616  0 17:41 ?        00:00:00 sshd: alexandre@pts/1
alexand+ 30831 30820  0 17:50 pts/3    00:00:00 grep alexandre
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ pstree
systemd─┬─NetworkManager───2*[{NetworkManager}]
        ├─dbus-daemon
        ├─lightdm─┬─Xorg───8*[{Xorg}]
        │         ├─lightdm─┬─xfce4-session─┬─Thunar───2*[{Thunar}]
        │         │         │               ├─firefox─┬─Web Content───23*[{Web +
        │         │         │               │         ├─Web Content───24*[{Web +
        │         │         │               │         ├─Web Content───17*[{Web +
        │         │         │               │         ├─WebExtensions───21*[{We+
        │         │         │               │         └─65*[{firefox}]
        │         │         │               ├─polkit-gnome-au───2*[{polkit-gnom+
        │         │         │               ├─xfce4-panel─┬─panel-14-action───2+
        │         │         │               │             ├─panel-6-systray───2+
        │         │         │               │             ├─panel-9-power-m───2+
        │         │         │               │             └─2*[{xfce4-panel}]
        │         │         │               ├─xfce4-terminal─┬─2*[bash]
        │         │         │               │                ├─bash───pstree
        │         │         │               │                └─2*[{xfce4-termin+
        │         │         │               ├─xfdesktop───2*[{xfdesktop}]
        │         │         │               └─2*[{xfce4-session}]
        │         │         └─2*[{lightdm}]
        │         └─2*[{lightdm}]
        ├─login───bash
        ├─lvmetad
        ├─polkitd───7*[{polkitd}]
        ├─rtkit-daemon───2*[{rtkit-daemon}]
        ├─ssh-agent
        ├─sshd───sshd───sshd───bash───su───bash
        ├─systemd─┬─(sd-pam)
        │         ├─at-spi-bus-laun─┬─dbus-daemon
        │         │                 └─3*[{at-spi-bus-laun}]
        │         ├─at-spi2-registr───2*[{at-spi2-registr}]
        │         ├─dbus-daemon
        │         ├─gpg-agent
        │         ├─pulseaudio─┬─gsettings-helpe───3*[{gsettings-helpe}]
        │         │            └─{pulseaudio}
        │         └─xfconfd───2*[{xfconfd}]
        ├─systemd-journal
        ├─systemd-logind
        ├─systemd-timesyn───{systemd-timesyn}
        ├─systemd-udevd
        ├─upowerd───2*[{upowerd}]
        ├─xfce4-power-man───2*[{xfce4-power-man}]
        └─xfsettingsd───2*[{xfsettingsd}]
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ journalctl --no-pager | grep xfconf
août 20 19:08:56 archlinux xfconfd[663]: Name org.xfce.Xfconf lost on the message dbus, exiting.
août 20 19:16:02 archlinux sudo[829]: alexandre : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/alexandre ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/pacman -S xfconfd
août 20 19:51:47 archlinux xfconfd[1469]: Name org.xfce.Xfconf lost on the message dbus, exiting.
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ xfwm4 -V
	This is xfwm4 version 4.14.0 (revision ed87ef663) for Xfce 4.14
	Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
	Compiled against GTK+-3.24.10, using GTK+-3.24.10.

	Build configuration and supported features:
	- Startup notification support:                 Yes
	- XSync support:                                Yes
	- Render support:                               Yes
	- Xrandr support:                               Yes
	- Xpresent support:                             Yes
	- Embedded compositor:                          Yes
	- Epoxy support:                                Yes
	- KDE systray proxy (deprecated):               No
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd -V
Xfconfd 4.14.1

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#8 2019-08-21 16:08:07

ToZ
Administrator
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-06-02
Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

There is some output missing from the "ps -ef | grep $USER" command. There must be more. Are you running the command from within an X session? Can you try it again from xfce4-terminal? If you are having corruption issues, try disabling compositing then run the command.

--

One more thing to try:

pkill -9 xfconfd
/usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd

Do you get any output?

--

And finally, can you post the contents of your /var/log/pacman.log file since the beginning of August (pre-Xfce release)? Just want to make sure that upgrade went okay:

cat /var/log/pacman.log  | grep 2019-08

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#9 2019-08-21 16:26:37

Ekynox360
Member
Registered: 2019-08-20
Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

These commands were entered from the xfce4-terminal. I disable composing with "xfwm4 --vblank=off --replace". My windows menu bars are back and the terminal doesn't give me control back. I open a new tab and re-enter :

whoami
ps -ef | grep $USER
pstree
journalctl --no-pager | grep xfconf
xfwm4 -V
/usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd -V

which gives me :

[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ whoami
alexandre
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ ps -ef | grep $USER
alexand+   731   634  0 18:15 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-terminal --geometry=80x24 --display :0.0 --role=xfce4-terminal-1566321012-3695530098 --show-menubar --show-borders --hide-toolbar --active-tab --working-directory /home/alexandre --sm-client-id 2038ffa94-21c5-44ac-97d0-e0c187da2aee
alexand+  1015  1012  0 18:21 pts/1    00:00:00 grep alexandre
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ journalctl --no-pager | grep xfconf
août 20 19:08:56 archlinux xfconfd[663]: Name org.xfce.Xfconf lost on the message dbus, exiting.
août 20 19:16:02 archlinux sudo[829]: alexandre : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/alexandre ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/pacman -S xfconfd
août 20 19:51:47 archlinux xfconfd[1469]: Name org.xfce.Xfconf lost on the message dbus, exiting.
août 21 17:53:59 archlinux xfconfd[26043]: Name org.xfce.Xfconf lost on the message dbus, exiting.
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ xfwm4 -V
	This is xfwm4 version 4.14.0 (revision ed87ef663) for Xfce 4.14
	Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
	Compiled against GTK+-3.24.10, using GTK+-3.24.10.

	Build configuration and supported features:
	- Startup notification support:                 Yes
	- XSync support:                                Yes
	- Render support:                               Yes
	- Xrandr support:                               Yes
	- Xpresent support:                             Yes
	- Embedded compositor:                          Yes
	- Epoxy support:                                Yes
	- KDE systray proxy (deprecated):               No
[alexandre@archlinux ~]$ /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd -V
Xfconfd 4.14.1

--

The following commands give me no output. The terminal doesn't give me control back.

pkill -9 xfconfd
/usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd

--

I can't give you the contents of /var/log/pacman.log since the beginning of August because I did my installation the day before yesterday.

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#10 2019-08-21 16:29:25

Ekynox360
Member
Registered: 2019-08-20
Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

I just rebooted the system. I don't see alexo's issue. I didn't make change permanent with "xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/vblank_mode -t string -s "off" --create.

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#11 2019-08-21 16:35:43

ToZ
Administrator
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-06-02
Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

How is your system configured? Are you using a display manager or are you starting manually? Are you running anything as root?

Maybe post these back to double-check:

ps -ef | grep xfwm4
ps -ef | grep xfconfd

Here is the results of my "ps -ef  |grep $USER" on a fresh log in to Xfce from a display manager. Notice the many different processes that are running under my account?

oz    524     1  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
toz    525   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 (sd-pam)
toz    530   524  2 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/mpd --no-daemon
toz    532   476  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-session
toz    536   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation --syslog-only
toz    549   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfsd
toz    554   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfsd-fuse /run/user/1001/gvfs -f -o big_writes
toz    562   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/at-spi-bus-launcher
toz    568   562  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --config-file=/usr/share/defaults/at-spi2/accessibility.conf --nofork --print-address 3
toz    570   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
toz    572   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/at-spi2-registryd --use-gnome-session
toz    589     1  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent -s
toz    592   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/gpg-agent --supervised
toz    600   532  3 12:31 ?        00:00:00 xfwm4
toz    601   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no
toz    609   601  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/pulse/gsettings-helper
toz    616     1  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 xfsettingsd
toz    617   532  2 12:31 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-panel
toz    623   532  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 Thunar --daemon
toz    628   617  3 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libwhiskermenu.so 1 14680071 whiskermenu Whisker Menu Show a menu to easily access installed applications
toz    629   532  4 12:31 ?        00:00:00 xfdesktop
toz    630   617  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libmpc.so 16 14680072 xfce4-mpc-plugin MPD Client Plugin A client for MPD, The Music Player Daemon
toz    631   617  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libsystray.so 8 14680073 systray Notification Area Area where notification icons appear
toz    632   617  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libclipman.so 5 14680074 xfce4-clipman-plugin Clipman Clipboard manager
toz    634   617  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libnotification-plugin.so 9 14680075 notification-plugin Notification Plugin Notification plugin for the Xfce panel
toz    636   617  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libpulseaudio-plugin.so 11 14680076 pulseaudio PulseAudio Plugin Adjust the audio volume of the PulseAudio sound system
toz    637   617  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libdatetime.so 12 14680077 datetime DateTime Date and Time plugin with a simple calendar
toz    639   617  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libxfce4powermanager.so 10 14680078 power-manager-plugin Power Manager Plugin Display the battery levels of your devices and control the brightness of your display
toz    664   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/notifyd/xfce4-notifyd
toz    670   532  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/polkit-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
toz    673   524  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/tumbler-1/tumblerd
toz    678   532  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/geoclue-2.0/demos/agent
toz    693     1  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-power-manager
toz    694   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
toz    749   549  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfsd-trash --spawner :1.5 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/0
toz    755   524  0 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfsd-metadata
toz    867     1  1 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/exo-2/exo-helper-2 --launch TerminalEmulator
toz    870   867  3 12:31 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal

You should have many more than 2 processes running under your account. Something isn't adding up.

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#12 2019-08-21 16:57:52

Ekynox360
Member
Registered: 2019-08-20
Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

I can now enter "xfwm4 --vblank=xpresent --replace" without error. I'll write back a new post if the issue comes back. What does "--vblank=xpresent, --vblank=glx or --vblank=off" mean ?

Last edited by Ekynox360 (2019-08-21 16:59:50)

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#13 2019-08-21 17:12:46

ToZ
Administrator
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-06-02
Posts: 11,491

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

Ekynox360 wrote:

What does "--vblank=xpresent, --vblank=glx or --vblank=off" mean ?

Have a read through this thread for more information.

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#14 2019-10-19 20:54:53

Andrew Aladjev
Member
Registered: 2019-10-19
Posts: 1

Re: [Solved] Compositor: Transparency artifacts

Hello. I was working with xfce for about 9 years and today it destroyed all my day completely.

I've updated system (xfwm4 4.14.0 become "stable" in gentoo) and saw glitches. I've updated to kernel 5.2.20, rebuilt all system from scratch and nothing happens. I've updated BIOS, cleared CMOS and reconfigured everything - nothing changed. I've found several bugs in new BIOS, fought with motherboard vendor - nothing changes.

Than I was downgrading programs one-by-one according to portage history and found that the problem is in xfwm4.

I've removed all xfce related config, sessions, etc and launched startx... everything works fine, no glitches! Than I pressed log out + save session, restarted startx and saw glitches. I've dived a bit into the code and found that vblank_mode is actually VBLANK_XPRESENT at the first lauch and VBLANK_GLX on the second launch.

The bug exist somewhere in src/compositor.c but I can see that this file is 5000 lines long and full of nesting ifdefs. There are no tests for this compositor. I am sure that this approach is wrong, this compressor will never be stable. You can fix it if you like, but I am moving away from xfce, goodbye.

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