Random artifacting on Jaunty x64

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.
First: linux is only the kernel of the gnu/linux distribution, so this bug should be filed against this. Since there are graphical issues something like Xorg would have been a better choice. I'll do that now.
Second: You (as you said) use a developer version, even an alpha, and that is really not recommended to beginners. There often are nasty bugs and so you should rather use Intrepid.
And last: Your computer has an nvidia graphics chip. What driver do you use? You could try to use another driver and see if the problems exists there, too. And tell us, if you use compiz etc...
And attach this file to this bug report: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Read this: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Reporting
and there is also written what you have to report with your symptoms.
Anyway, thank you for helping Ubuntu. :)

So Gnome is built on top of Xorg which is the actual desktop-kernel interface? Hmm...didn't know that but I figured I should be reporting against the graphical interface part but didn't know what it was called.

I'm using the 177.82 nvidia drivers (which I believe are the latest). I checked and my card (7150m) says that its supported under those. I was using these drivers earlier this morning under Intrepid with no problems. It was also this morning that I did the -d flag to update to 9.04. So I guess by elimination I can surmise it's a problem with the upgrade or with Jaunty itself (or one of the numerous updated components it has).

I am using Compiz (currently in "medium" effects mode but the problem was also with "high")...let me quick "turn off" compiz by setting it to "None" - this turns it off right? - Yes I opened the terminal, closed it, and quickly clicked on firefox and the status bar went black for a brief second again.

I appologize profusely for what I just did. Reading the wiki and running the "Report" function I couldn't find where the logs were output to since FF just automatically popped up saying "File a new bug report...it will be attached automatically". I invalidated the report already but here's the files: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/306687

So there's my logs just tell me what to do next :D

_____
Yeah I know it's probably a bad idea to be running an x64 developer build but I figured that I couldn't do any more damage to my system anyways and I wanted to help Ubuntu as much as possible off the bat.

You could check if the artefacts appear also if you use the "nv" driver instead of "nvidia". "nv" supports no 3d and so on, but you can use it for testing.

Do the artefacts appear on Intrepid, too?

No I had no problems like this on Intrepid. I'll give the nv drivers a shot as soon as I get a chance but I'm of course inclined to say that it wouldn't be a permanent fix.

Yes, of course. But if we know that it works with nv, then we know, that the bug is in the nvidia driver.

I'm on the xorg 180.11 beta drivers right now with Compiz disabled and the problem remains.

This bug was fixed in the package nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 - 180.22-0ubuntu1

---------------
nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 (180.22-0ubuntu1) jaunty; urgency=low

  * New upstream version. First "stable" driver in 180 series. (LP: #315169)
    * Added support for the following GPUs:
          o Quadro FX 2700M
          o GeForce 9400M G
          o GeForce 9400M
          o GeForce 9800 GT
          o GeForce 8200M G
          o GeForce Go 7700
          o GeForce 9800M GTX
          o GeForce 9800M GT
          o GeForce 9800M GS
          o GeForce 9500 GT
          o GeForce 9700M GT
          o GeForce 9650M GT
          o GeForce 9500 GT
    * Added initial support for PureVideo-like features via the new VDPAU API (see the vdpau.h header file installed with the driver).
    * Added support for CUDA 2.1.
    * Added preliminary support for OpenGL 3.0.
    * Added new OpenGL workstation performance optimizations.
    * Enabled the glyph cache by default and extended its support to all supported GPUs.
    * Disabled shared memory X pixmaps by default; see the "AllowSHMPixmaps" option.
    * Improved X pixmap placement on GeForce 8 series and later GPUs.
    * Improved stability on some GeForce 8 series and newer GPUs.
    * Fixed a regression that could result in window decoration corruption when running Compiz using Geforce 6 and 7 series GPUs. (LP: #306605)
    * Fixed an nvidia-settings crash when xorg.conf contains Device and Screen sections but no ServerLayout section.
    * Fixed a problem parsing the monitor sync range X config file options.
    * Fixed a problem with the SDI sync skew controls in nvidia-settings.
    * Fixed a problem that caused some SDI applications to hang or crash.
    * Added support for SDI full-range color. (LP: #218736)
    * Improved compatibility with recent Linux kernels.
  * debian/rules:
    - Create patches directory in case it wasn't present in orig.tar.gz

 -- Mario Limonciello <email address hidden> Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:26:09 -0600

After upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 with nvidia drivers 180.44 I get black artefacts and lines in my screen. With the nv driver I do not see them so far. I'm running Ubuntu 'Jaunty' (kernel 2.6.28-11-generic) on a HP laptop with an AMD64 cpu and a 64 bit distribution. The gpu is a GeForce 6150 GO, the xorg log shows no errors or warnings. Compiz is not running. Everything worked fine under Intrepid.

I'll be glad to provide any extra information, just ask.

Same problem on my Dell 64-bit box here at work. The problem is *really* bad with the proprietary drivers. I disabled them and moved to the stock nv driver; problems are not as bad but are still present.

From the X log, my device is identified as:

NV: Found NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285 at 07@00:00:0

Ubuntu 8.10 ran without problems, even with the proprietary nvidia driver.

Most unfortunate.

-- david

Same problem on my 64-bit Sony Vaio laptop (GeForce Go 7600) and 64-bit Jaunty with all updates. Linux kernel is 2.6.28-11-generic, nvidia drivers are 180.44, no compiz in use.

Intrepid worked just fine.

Same problem on 64-bit Dell Dimension 9200 (GeForce 7900 GS), 64-bit up-to-date Jaunty. The problem seems independent of the driver used: nvidia 173, nvidia 180, nv, even running the live cd without installing a driver. The problem occurs only using Jaunty.

I gave up on Jaunty the other day as the trouble is occurring on my work
machine and I just couldn't stand it any longer. I'm currently running
Fedora 11 64-bit and have no troubles.

-- david

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
 -- 1 Corinthians 13:13

"They made us many promises, more than I can remember,
but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land,
and they took it."
 -- Red Cloud (Oglala Sioux chief)

To produce without possessing, to work without expecting,
to enlarge without usurping. This is the supreme virtue.
-- Lao-Tzu

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 1:20 PM, Peter Verraedt <email address hidden> wrote:

> Same problem on 64-bit Dell Dimension 9200 (GeForce 7900 GS), 64-bit up-
> to-date Jaunty. The problem seems independent of the driver used: nvidia
> 173, nvidia 180, nv, even running the live cd without installing a
> driver. The problem occurs only using Jaunty.
>
> --
> Random artifacting on Jaunty x64
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/306605
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Same issues on HP Pavilion TX2000, amd64, GeForce Go 6150.
NVIDIA Driver Version: 185.18.14 on Linux-x86_64

All patches installed.
I'm also running compiz, but without it's the same thing.

This issue really drives me crazy since I had a similar problem with Ubuntu 8.10. I think that issue was fixed in 8.10 by updating the nvidia drivers to 180.xyz

Downgrading xorg to the version in Intrepid seems to solve the problem, however it lead's to a high cpu load. This is what I did:
* apt-get remove 'xserver-*'
* Replaced 'jaunty' by 'intrepid' in /etc/apt/sources.list
* apt-get update
* apt-get install 'xserver-*'
* Restored original /etc/apt/sources.list
* apt-get update
* reboot
After the reboot, there were no more artefacts (In fact, I saw artefacts, but much less). However, xorg used 50% of one cpu core all the time.

I've posted a new version of the -nvidia driver to our xorg-edgers PPA,
would you mind testing it either on Jaunty or Karmic and see if it
resolves this bug?

Get nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 - 185.18.14 here:

  https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

Bryce,

I've updated to the nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 185.18.14 from xorg-edgers PPA but nothing seems to be changed. I've seen black artifacting just after ~15 minutes of working this new version (in Pidgin, then in Firefox). I'm still on Jaunty amd64 with all current updates and have no compiz activated.

Can I provide you with some information that can be helpful to deal with this problem?

I can confirm Dmitry's comment. no changes on the artifact-issues.

I have this too. I have a fresh install of Jaunty on an Acer Aspire 7520 (AMD Athlon 64, Geforce 7000m, 64 bit). Because of problems with previous drivers, I just downloaded and installed the proprietary Nvidia driver from their website (NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.06). The black bars don't appear very frequently, but they are noticeable.

What can I do to most effectively test or report information about this problem?

I have the same problem since Ubuntu 9.04 although I have an ATI graphic card. Maybe not a driver bug.

I have the same problem with an NVidia on-board chipset GeForce 6150 (Asus N2NPV-VM, latest bios 1401) since upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 amd64.

The problem is apparent, regardless of the used xorg-driver (have xorg-edgers in my apt-sources and tried everything: nouveau, nvidia 180, 173, 96 and even nv!) or regardless of compiz being turned on.

I made a few screenshots to illustrate the problem. In the attached screenshots, you can see that apparently refreshing a widgets background fails, so the problem occurs on a widget level and results in the background being drawn partially black with garbage at its edges. The foreground (i.e. text etc.) is always rendered fine.

I can trigger the error when e.g. resizing a window or changing the focus (mine follows mouse) back and forth. It does not happen every time, but in about every 20th situation (average), sometimes more frequently.

As this occurs in exactly the same way with and without compiz enabled (which fundamentally determines how the screen is rendered - either via GL textures or via pixmaps) and with different drivers including nv, I would agree with last post and would think that the driver is NOT causing the error during hardware rendering but that the error is caused at some X-layer before (some timing-related issues when refreshing a widget's background).

Definitely happens with the nv drivers and the nvidia proprietary ones. Happened after I upgraded to Jaunty. I would suspect this to be an X server issue. It happens a lot when using Firefox and scrolling on pages heavy with images... like Facebook.

yes, I feel the same way.
I found another thread:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23387

but nothing solved my problems there. does anyone have found a solution or idea?

For what it's worth, and I know this sounds lame, but my guess is just that this is a bug in the nvidia driver when used in 64-bit mode, and if I'm right there is likely not much we can do about it at the distro level.

However, could those of you experiencing it please check if it is still an issue in Karmic? It can't hurt for us to at least continue to track the bug if it is still present. If anyone has tried manually installing the 190 driver from nvidia's site (or envyng) I'd like to hear whether that resolved it.

Well in my post #23, I've written that the bug occurs with the nvidia-driver as well as with the nv and nouveau one, so it cannot be the nvidia-driver.

However, I recently upgraded to Karmic and the error is gone. Using the default recommended nvidia driver 185 there.