[gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Andrew Gaydenko]

There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):

http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png

which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some moment 
crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from kernel video 
driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself (~amd64). As a 
result, I'm not sure where to dig in.

Has anybody ideas about a reason of such "beauty" panels? :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):
>
> http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png
>
> which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some moment
> crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from kernel video
> driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself (~amd64). As a
> result, I'm not sure where to dig in.
>
> Has anybody ideas about a reason of such "beauty" panels? :-)

I had very similar screen corruption when using NX with KDE4. Recently
when I changed to Qt live ebuilds from qting-edge overlay with the
"qt-copy" USE flag enabled, these corruptions went away.

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Andrew Gaydenko]

On Saturday 02 May 2009 00:11:50 Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> > There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):
> >
> > http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png
> >
> > which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some
> > moment crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from
> > kernel video driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself
> > (~amd64). As a result, I'm not sure where to dig in.
> >
> > Has anybody ideas about a reason of such "beauty" panels? :-)
>
> I had very similar screen corruption when using NX with KDE4. Recently
> when I changed to Qt live ebuilds from qting-edge overlay with the
> "qt-copy" USE flag enabled, these corruptions went away.

Thanks, I'll try! 
Have you noticed any side-effects after adding qting-edge to overlays?

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Andrew Gaydenko]

On Saturday 02 May 2009 00:11:50 Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> > There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):
> >
> > http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png
> >
> > which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some
> > moment crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from
> > kernel video driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself
> > (~amd64). As a result, I'm not sure where to dig in.
> >
> > Has anybody ideas about a reason of such "beauty" panels? :-)
>
> I had very similar screen corruption when using NX with KDE4. Recently
> when I changed to Qt live ebuilds from qting-edge overlay with the
> "qt-copy" USE flag enabled, these corruptions went away.

In fact PyQt4 is upgrading only (insisting on turning qt3support flag on).

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 3:26 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> On Saturday 02 May 2009 00:11:50 Paul Hartman wrote:
>> On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
>> > There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):
>> >
>> > http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png
>> >
>> > which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some
>> > moment crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from
>> > kernel video driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself
>> > (~amd64). As a result, I'm not sure where to dig in.
>> >
>> > Has anybody ideas about a reason of such "beauty" panels? :-)
>>
>> I had very similar screen corruption when using NX with KDE4. Recently
>> when I changed to Qt live ebuilds from qting-edge overlay with the
>> "qt-copy" USE flag enabled, these corruptions went away.
>
> Thanks, I'll try!
> Have you noticed any side-effects after adding qting-edge to overlays?

Only good side-effects. GUI performance in NX is _much_ faster, and
all of the corruption problems are completely gone. It used to a lot
of unnecessary redraws which seems to be gone now, too. I have seen no
bad side-effects so far.

But it is using CVS Qt code so your experience may differ based on the
hour or the day that you emerge. :)

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 3:47 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> On Saturday 02 May 2009 00:11:50 Paul Hartman wrote:
>> On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
>> > There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):
>> >
>> > http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png
>> >
>> > which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some
>> > moment crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from
>> > kernel video driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself
>> > (~amd64). As a result, I'm not sure where to dig in.
>> >
>> > Has anybody ideas about a reason of such "beauty" panels? :-)
>>
>> I had very similar screen corruption when using NX with KDE4. Recently
>> when I changed to Qt live ebuilds from qting-edge overlay with the
>> "qt-copy" USE flag enabled, these corruptions went away.
>
> In fact PyQt4 is upgrading only (insisting on turning qt3support flag on).

Hmmm, I already used qt3support flag in make.conf so I did not notice that.

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Andrew Gaydenko]

> Only good side-effects. GUI performance in NX

What is that "NX"? :-)

> is _much_ faster, and
> all of the corruption problems are completely gone. It used to a lot
> of unnecessary redraws which seems to be gone now, too. I have seen no
> bad side-effects so far.
>
> But it is using CVS Qt code so your experience may differ based on the
> hour or the day that you emerge. :)

Hm... As I have said, PyQt4 was updated only (with qt-copy flag in make.conf). 
Nothing from CVS.

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
>> Only good side-effects. GUI performance in NX
>
> What is that "NX"? :-)

A very fast remote desktop, way faster than RDP or VNC. Check out
www.nomachine.com

>> is _much_ faster, and
>> all of the corruption problems are completely gone. It used to a lot
>> of unnecessary redraws which seems to be gone now, too. I have seen no
>> bad side-effects so far.
>>
>> But it is using CVS Qt code so your experience may differ based on the
>> hour or the day that you emerge. :)
>
> Hm... As I have said, PyQt4 was updated only (with qt-copy flag in make.conf).
> Nothing from CVS.

probably you need to unmask the -9999 versions. Check the documention
in qting-edge overlay.

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Stroller]

On 1 May 2009, at 20:49, Andrew Gaydenko wrote:

> There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):
>
> http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png
>
> which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some  
> moment
> crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from  
> kernel video
> driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself (~amd64).  
> As a
> result, I'm not sure where to dig in.

Looks like an overheating GPU to me.

Do you have accelerated graphics on for those panels?
I'll bet if you turn it off the problem will disappear.

The graphics card failed here on my Mac a year or two ago, and rather  
than pay £200 for an Apple-branded replacement, I found a regular PC  
graphics card on which a hacked firmware could be flashed. I have to  
under-clock it a little, and if I'm not careful I get a very similar  
effect to that in your pictures, but all over the screen.

If you're able to boot to Windows it might be worth playing an FPS -  
if it crashes with graphical glitches then you may be able to get the  
card (or m/board?) replaced under warranty.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Andrew Gaydenko]

On Saturday 02 May 2009 06:21:20 Stroller wrote:
> On 1 May 2009, at 20:49, Andrew Gaydenko wrote:
> > There is a shot of my screen (1.4MB, look at bottom and right panels):
> >
> > http://gaydenko.com/tmp/shot01.png
> >
> > which I get periodically after few hours working under KDE - at some
> > moment
> > crazy things happen :-) There is very long software chain from
> > kernel video
> > driver (intel in my case for on-board G965) to KDE4 itself (~amd64).
> > As a
> > result, I'm not sure where to dig in.
>
> Looks like an overheating GPU to me.
>
> Do you have accelerated graphics on for those panels?
> I'll bet if you turn it off the problem will disappear.

Say, bottom panel hasn't something special: std menu, lancelot, tasks, tray 
and clock. Can overheating be such selectable? - I mean only KDE4 panels- 
related problem takes place (say, my sone plays few games without any 
problems, as well as, say, OOo/Qt/KDE and so on emerging ). And I didn't 
overclocked something. But have added few additional silent coolers inside a 
case :-)

> The graphics card failed here on my Mac a year or two ago, and rather
> than pay £200 for an Apple-branded replacement, I found a regular PC
> graphics card on which a hacked firmware could be flashed. I have to
> under-clock it a little, and if I'm not careful I get a very similar
> effect to that in your pictures, but all over the screen.
>
> If you're able to boot to Windows it might be worth playing an FPS -
> if it crashes with graphical glitches then you may be able to get the
> card (or m/board?) replaced under warranty.
>
> Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Stroller]

On 2 May 2009, at 09:39, Andrew Gaydenko wrote:
>> ...
>> Looks like an overheating GPU to me.
>>
>> Do you have accelerated graphics on for those panels?
>> I'll bet if you turn it off the problem will disappear.
>
> Say, bottom panel hasn't something special: std menu, lancelot,  
> tasks, tray
> and clock. Can overheating be such selectable? - I mean only KDE4  
> panels-
> related problem takes place (say, my sone plays few games without any
> problems, as well as, say, OOo/Qt/KDE and so on emerging ). And I  
> didn't
> overclocked something. But have added few additional silent coolers  
> inside a
> case :-)


Can overheating be so selective? I can't say for sure, but I can't see  
it having so much work to do when displaying the wallpaper as if those  
panels fade or slide. I presume they can be auto-hidden one way or the  
other when not in use, and that effects would be enabled by default if  
you have GPU acceleration available.

Speckles are somewhat characteristic, and most any videogamer will  
recognise them - once you've had a graphics card or a Playstation  
(type) console die on you, they are very recognisable.

The emerging won't have any effect on speckles, only GPU-related  
activity. It depends on the particular games that your son plays  
whether I'd say they're relevant. I'm no expert on Linux graphics (I  
don't use it on the desktop myself), but I'd guess TuxRacer probably  
does use the GPU whereas Frozen Bubble does not.

If you're able to turn the GPU's acceleration features off in X11 (or  
the kernel?) and just treat it as a framebuffer device, then please  
prove me wrong!

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Andrew Gaydenko]

On Saturday 02 May 2009 16:23:48 Stroller wrote:
> On 2 May 2009, at 09:39, Andrew Gaydenko wrote:
> >> ...
> >> Looks like an overheating GPU to me.
> >>
> >> Do you have accelerated graphics on for those panels?
> >> I'll bet if you turn it off the problem will disappear.
> >
> > Say, bottom panel hasn't something special: std menu, lancelot,
> > tasks, tray
> > and clock. Can overheating be such selectable? - I mean only KDE4
> > panels-
> > related problem takes place (say, my sone plays few games without any
> > problems, as well as, say, OOo/Qt/KDE and so on emerging ). And I
> > didn't
> > overclocked something. But have added few additional silent coolers
> > inside a
> > case :-)
>
> Can overheating be so selective? I can't say for sure, but I can't see
> it having so much work to do when displaying the wallpaper as if those
> panels fade or slide. I presume they can be auto-hidden one way or the
> other when not in use, and that effects would be enabled by default if
> you have GPU acceleration available.
>
> Speckles are somewhat characteristic, and most any videogamer will
> recognise them - once you've had a graphics card or a Playstation
> (type) console die on you, they are very recognisable.
>
> The emerging won't have any effect on speckles, only GPU-related
> activity. It depends on the particular games that your son plays
> whether I'd say they're relevant. I'm no expert on Linux graphics (I
> don't use it on the desktop myself), but I'd guess TuxRacer probably
> does use the GPU whereas Frozen Bubble does not.
>
> If you're able to turn the GPU's acceleration features off in X11 (or
> the kernel?) and just treat it as a framebuffer device, then please
> prove me wrong!
>
> Stroller.


OK, as Stroller has suggested, I have cleaned heatsink, replaced heat-
conducting paste and so on. Now it would be nice to have something for quick 
GPU load testing (instead of long-long KDE session). Can anybody suggest an 
appropriate sw or, may be, some game with "hard and heavy" (wrt GPU load) 
demo?

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Paul Hartman]

On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> On Saturday 02 May 2009 16:23:48 Stroller wrote:
>> On 2 May 2009, at 09:39, Andrew Gaydenko wrote:
>> >> ...
>> >> Looks like an overheating GPU to me.
>> >>
>> >> Do you have accelerated graphics on for those panels?
>> >> I'll bet if you turn it off the problem will disappear.
>> >
>> > Say, bottom panel hasn't something special: std menu, lancelot,
>> > tasks, tray
>> > and clock. Can overheating be such selectable? - I mean only KDE4
>> > panels-
>> > related problem takes place (say, my sone plays few games without any
>> > problems, as well as, say, OOo/Qt/KDE and so on emerging ). And I
>> > didn't
>> > overclocked something. But have added few additional silent coolers
>> > inside a
>> > case :-)
>>
>> Can overheating be so selective? I can't say for sure, but I can't see
>> it having so much work to do when displaying the wallpaper as if those
>> panels fade or slide. I presume they can be auto-hidden one way or the
>> other when not in use, and that effects would be enabled by default if
>> you have GPU acceleration available.
>>
>> Speckles are somewhat characteristic, and most any videogamer will
>> recognise them - once you've had a graphics card or a Playstation
>> (type) console die on you, they are very recognisable.
>>
>> The emerging won't have any effect on speckles, only GPU-related
>> activity. It depends on the particular games that your son plays
>> whether I'd say they're relevant. I'm no expert on Linux graphics (I
>> don't use it on the desktop myself), but I'd guess TuxRacer probably
>> does use the GPU whereas Frozen Bubble does not.
>>
>> If you're able to turn the GPU's acceleration features off in X11 (or
>> the kernel?) and just treat it as a framebuffer device, then please
>> prove me wrong!
>>
>> Stroller.
>
>
> OK, as Stroller has suggested, I have cleaned heatsink, replaced heat-
> conducting paste and so on. Now it would be nice to have something for quick
> GPU load testing (instead of long-long KDE session). Can anybody suggest an
> appropriate sw or, may be, some game with "hard and heavy" (wrt GPU load)
> demo?

use the overclocking tweaks in nvidia-settings to blow it up :P

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Dale]

Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
>   
>> OK, as Stroller has suggested, I have cleaned heatsink, replaced heat-
>> conducting paste and so on. Now it would be nice to have something for quick
>> GPU load testing (instead of long-long KDE session). Can anybody suggest an
>> appropriate sw or, may be, some game with "hard and heavy" (wrt GPU load)
>> demo?
>>     
>
> use the overclocking tweaks in nvidia-settings to blow it up :P
>
>
>   

You may can use glxgears or some other test program for your card.  I
know glxgears works mine pretty good here.  Even about maxes out my CPU.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Sonntag 03 Mai 2009, Dale wrote:
> Paul Hartman wrote:
> > On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> >> OK, as Stroller has suggested, I have cleaned heatsink, replaced heat-
> >> conducting paste and so on. Now it would be nice to have something for
> >> quick GPU load testing (instead of long-long KDE session). Can anybody
> >> suggest an appropriate sw or, may be, some game with "hard and heavy"
> >> (wrt GPU load) demo?
> >
> > use the overclocking tweaks in nvidia-settings to blow it up :P
>
> You may can use glxgears or some other test program for your card.  I
> know glxgears works mine pretty good here.  Even about maxes out my CPU.
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)

that is pretty much the only thing it does - maxing the cpu.

There are the ut demos in portage. They stress the card. Or some other fps. 
Vegastrike, not in portage, installed from svn is an incredible load for every 
card.

[gentoo-user] Re: crazy KDE4 panel

[Nikos Chantziaras]

Andrew Gaydenko wrote:
> OK, as Stroller has suggested, I have cleaned heatsink, replaced heat-
> conducting paste and so on. Now it would be nice to have something for quick 
> GPU load testing (instead of long-long KDE session). Can anybody suggest an 
> appropriate sw or, may be, some game with "hard and heavy" (wrt GPU load) 
> demo?

Look into the Phoronix Test suite.  It has graphics benchmarks too.  So 
pick your poison and hope it won't fry (which is something NVidias 
sometimes love to do, heh heh.)

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Dale]

Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> On Sonntag 03 Mai 2009, Dale wrote:
>   
>> Paul Hartman wrote:
>>     
>>> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> OK, as Stroller has suggested, I have cleaned heatsink, replaced heat-
>>>> conducting paste and so on. Now it would be nice to have something for
>>>> quick GPU load testing (instead of long-long KDE session). Can anybody
>>>> suggest an appropriate sw or, may be, some game with "hard and heavy"
>>>> (wrt GPU load) demo?
>>>>         
>>> use the overclocking tweaks in nvidia-settings to blow it up :P
>>>       
>> You may can use glxgears or some other test program for your card.  I
>> know glxgears works mine pretty good here.  Even about maxes out my CPU.
>>
>> Dale
>>
>> :-)  :-)
>>     
>
> that is pretty much the only thing it does - maxing the cpu.
>
> There are the ut demos in portage. They stress the card. Or some other fps. 
> Vegastrike, not in portage, installed from svn is an incredible load for every 
> card.
>
>
>   

I thought glxgears was a GPU test not a CPU test. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Sonntag 03 Mai 2009, Dale wrote:
> Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > On Sonntag 03 Mai 2009, Dale wrote:
> >> Paul Hartman wrote:
> >>> On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Andrew Gaydenko <a@gaydenko.com> wrote:
> >>>> OK, as Stroller has suggested, I have cleaned heatsink, replaced heat-
> >>>> conducting paste and so on. Now it would be nice to have something for
> >>>> quick GPU load testing (instead of long-long KDE session). Can anybody
> >>>> suggest an appropriate sw or, may be, some game with "hard and heavy"
> >>>> (wrt GPU load) demo?
> >>>
> >>> use the overclocking tweaks in nvidia-settings to blow it up :P
> >>
> >> You may can use glxgears or some other test program for your card.  I
> >> know glxgears works mine pretty good here.  Even about maxes out my CPU.
> >>
> >> Dale
> >>
> >> :-)  :-)
> >
> > that is pretty much the only thing it does - maxing the cpu.
> >
> > There are the ut demos in portage. They stress the card. Or some other
> > fps. Vegastrike, not in portage, installed from svn is an incredible load
> > for every card.
>
> I thought glxgears was a GPU test not a CPU test.
>

it tests almost nothing from the gpu - and the resulting fps are very depent 
on the CPU.. so...

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sunday 03 May 2009 02:58:08 Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> On Sonntag 03 Mai 2009, Dale wrote:

> > I thought glxgears was a GPU test not a CPU test.
>
> it tests almost nothing from the gpu - and the resulting fps are very
> depent on the CPU.. so...

The only thing glxgears tests is if OpenGL is working (aka enabled or 
disabled).

Other than that it measures nothing. Even the numbers are suspect.

It's like calling out to your 5 year old kid "Are you being naughty?" and they 
answer "no". You know the kid is in the house, but still have no idea what 
they are doing. And their answer is definitely not to be trusted :-)

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] crazy KDE4 panel

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Sonntag 03 Mai 2009, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Sunday 03 May 2009 02:58:08 Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > On Sonntag 03 Mai 2009, Dale wrote:
> > > I thought glxgears was a GPU test not a CPU test.
> >
> > it tests almost nothing from the gpu - and the resulting fps are very
> > depent on the CPU.. so...
>
> The only thing glxgears tests is if OpenGL is working (aka enabled or
> disabled).
>
> Other than that it measures nothing. Even the numbers are suspect.
>
> It's like calling out to your 5 year old kid "Are you being naughty?" and
> they answer "no". You know the kid is in the house, but still have no idea
> what they are doing. And their answer is definitely not to be trusted :-)

well, you know they are alive and still able to talk...