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imschmeg

Member

Registered: 2019-12-04

Posts: 12

xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

Running Xfce 4.18 in Debian bookworm (12)

When switching back to a TTY running Xfce by using Ctrl-Alt-FN or chvt, xfdesktop blanks the background after a 1 sec pause.  The background is redisplayed if I run xfdesktop -R.  Clicking on the desktop works (raises menus) when it is blank.  It does not matter if xfdesktop is showing wallpaper or solid color, or whether icons are displayed or not (however, if icons are displayed, they remain visible during the background blanking).  The blanking happens every time: I run  sessions in multiple TTYs, one of which is Xfce, and switch between them frequently.

Running xfdesktop -e to show debug output does not show anything interesting happening around the blanking event.

Last edited by imschmeg (2023-08-29 16:14:45)

imschmeg

Member

Registered: 2019-12-04

Posts: 12

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

Some other info: if I uncheck "Enable Display Compositing" in Settings->Window Manager Tweaks->Compositor, the problem goes away.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

What video card and driver do you have?

Try the options listed in this post to see if any of them help.

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imschmeg

Member

Registered: 2019-12-04

Posts: 12

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

inxi -G says:

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 770] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Display: server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: intel dri: iris
    gpu: i915 resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 770
    (ADL-S GT1)

vblank was set to auto.  I am trying it with glx now...

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

If you are using the intel driver (xserver-xf86-video-intel), try uninstalling it. The system will revert to the built-in kernel driver which is better and more recent.

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imschmeg

Member

Registered: 2019-12-04

Posts: 12

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

I have xserver-xorg-video-intel installed, and did not know I didn't need it.  I will try uninstalling.  The vblank=glx seems to have fixed my xfdesktop blanking issue.

imschmeg

Member

Registered: 2019-12-04

Posts: 12

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

I remove xserver-xorg-video-intel, and commented out the Driver "intel" line in xorg.conf.  Now inxi -G says:

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 770] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Display: server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 770
    (ADL-S GT1)

Seems to be working, but now there's a 3 second delay when switching TTYs, which was nearly instantaneous with the intel driver.

Why is modesetting believed to be better than xserver-xorg-video-intel?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

Why is modesetting believed to be better than xserver-xorg-video-intel?

The intel driver isn't really being worked on anymore, so the modesetting driver has more recent bug fixes and patches. The intel driver, as I understand, still uses SNA so it might be faster, but buggier. Test both drivers with the various xfwm4 vblank modes to see which gets the better performance for you (and solves your blanking issue).

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imschmeg

Member

Registered: 2019-12-04

Posts: 12

Re: xfdesktop blanks when switching (Ctrl-Alt-FN) to xfce tty

It seems like I can switch between the two (intel vs. modesetting) using xorg.conf instead of removing xserver-xorg-video-intel.  That makes it easier to compare the two.  Thanks for the advice and info!