problems - xfce4 with IMG BXE-4-32 MC1 GPU

Jay Young · 2023-12-06 01:23:57

I have a VisionFive2 SBC, which is a risc-v based board with the Imagination GPU.

Gnome Wayland and Gnome Xorg work fine. No issues at all.

xfce4 will start, but I have massive screen tearing, and the interface is mostly unusable. I am unsure of the exact issue as I can't find a way to monitor the GPU performance directly. It feels like xfce4 is pegging the gpu at 100% and the system is trying to catch up, but can't.

I tried Gnome in xorg to rule out a possible issue there, but gnome works without issue.

I have attempted to disable the compositor with the command line, however this did not have an effect. xfce4/xfwm4 will start and present a desktop. CPU seems to hover around 5% usage which is normal. However, trying to do anything else is very problematic. I am unable to open any setting menus at all, but programs do open from the Applications menu in the panel. The default launcher also works.

Finally, everything is yellow. Well, things that are supposed to be blue or neutral color have been shaded like the color profile in the settings is very wrong.

I realise this board is experimental, however I would like to attempt to get xfce working a bit better. If anyone has any thoughts on this issue, please advise.

ToZ · 2023-12-06 11:42:36

Hello and welcome.

Odd that gnome works but Xfce presents issues - even on an experimental board like this. Are you able to post any logs? Assuming you are running a debian-based distro on this, a complete journalctl output as well as ~/.xsession-errors might be helpful to review.

Jay Young · 2023-12-07 13:23:54

Sure thing!

Here is the output of the journalctl: https://pastebin.com/CwGweLPd

The junk at the bottom around system time 13:00+ is me sending x session over ssh, which works but its not happy about it.

There is no user .xsession, .xsession-errors or any other file in the user home directory.

Also, to try an help clarify, Gnome works under wayland, and under X11. I am only speaking about the user interface. I solved the yellow color by forcing 16bit color profile over HDMI. Right now I am logged in locally and over ssh. The board doesn't have any issues with that.

The only thing I can think of at the moment is that the video subsystem is not rendering X11 properly. The system calls when a window is clicked and dragged don't get processed.

I disabled the compositor via command line, and while I still get smearing of a window, it doesn't persist so the screen gets redrawn.

Second: I am unable to open the 'Window theme settings' or whatever its called. I can open the system settings control panel, but most buttons inside that don't work.

Finally, because of the repository I am using (dedicated mirror for starfive risc-v) it is possible that the xfce version in that repository is simply broken. I can attempt to purge the system and compile from source, however I do not have a framebuffer, and cannot drop to console so everything would have to be done inside Gnome, and then hopefully gdm will startxfce session properly.

ToZ · 2023-12-07 14:56:10

Jay Young wrote:

Sure thing!
Here is the output of the journalctl: https://pastebin.com/CwGweLPd

I'm not seeing anything Xfce related there (xfce4-session, xfwm4, xfconf, etc). How are you starting the Xfce session?

There is no user .xsession, .xsession-errors or any other file in the user home directory.

Depending on how you are starting Xfce session, you could direct output to an .xsession-errors file.

Second: I am unable to open the 'Window theme settings' or whatever its called. I can open the system settings control panel, but most buttons inside that don't work.

Try running them from a terminal window to see if you get any output:

xfwm4-settings
xfce4-settings-manager

Finally, because of the repository I am using (dedicated mirror for starfive risc-v) it is possible that the xfce version in that repository is simply broken. I can attempt to purge the system and compile from source, however I do not have a framebuffer, and cannot drop to console so everything would have to be done inside Gnome, and then hopefully gdm will startxfce session properly.

It is possible that its broken. gdm should be able to log something. Look around for gdm logs to see what they might say about the Xfce start process.

Also, have you looked on the visionfive website regarding Xfce or sought support from there? As you say, its experimental and hard to really troubleshoot unless you have access to the hardware.

Jay Young · 2023-12-07 16:19:53

Thanks for your assistance.

I start xfce4 by selecting the session in GDM, and logging in as a normal user. The session starts as normal, the mouse cursor is realtime, but moving a window either fails, or has much screen taring.

OK so I did a crazy thing. I just ran xfce4-session in my ssh terminal. It started no problem. No screen taring. No issues drawing on the screen. It must be a setting in the HDMI display driver screen thing. There probably is not an issue with xorg or xfce, but with the communication between the system and the HDMI output. I'll do some more testing. This board only has a single HDMI output as far as I know, and I don't have the time to dive into Mipi output or gpio displays.

If it works over SSH, it should work locally.

I did find out why xfwm4-settings do not load: "These settings cannot work with your current window manager (Weston WM)".

Didn't even know I was using weston, but that's a puzzle for another day.

__________________________________________________________________

Edit, played around with the refresh rate, and its definitely linked to the problem.
No I can't get a terminal window to open, the window decorations on the file manager are broken, and I still am trying to figure out weston - but hey! Seems like an interesting issue to solve.

Last edited by Jay Young (2023-12-07 16:32:12)

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#1 2023-12-06 01:23:57

problems - xfce4 with IMG BXE-4-32 MC1 GPU

#2 2023-12-06 11:42:36

Re: problems - xfce4 with IMG BXE-4-32 MC1 GPU

#3 2023-12-07 13:23:54

Re: problems - xfce4 with IMG BXE-4-32 MC1 GPU

#4 2023-12-07 14:56:10

Re: problems - xfce4 with IMG BXE-4-32 MC1 GPU

#5 2023-12-07 16:19:53

Re: problems - xfce4 with IMG BXE-4-32 MC1 GPU

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