Bug 131778 – Screen Distorting when using keyboard

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED NEEDINFO

[Description Sudharshan S 2006-04-30 02:58:29 UTC]

Portage 2203-svn (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-3.4.4, glibc-2.3.5-r2, 2.6.15-gentoo-r5 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.15-gentoo-r5 i686 AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2000+
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.14
ccache version 2.3 [enabled]
dev-lang/python:     2.4.2
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.12
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1
sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.22
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/eselect/compiler /etc/gconf /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo"
MAKEOPTS=""
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X alsa apache2 apm arts audiofile avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 cdr cli crypt ctype cups curl dba dri eds elibc_glibc emboss encode esd ethereal exif expat fam fastbuild foomaticdb force-cgi-redirect fortran ftp gd gdbm gif glut gmp gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile hal idn imlib ipv6 isdnlog java jpeg kde kernel_linux lcms libg++ libwww mad memlimit mikmod mng motif mozilla mp3 mpeg ncurses nls nptl ogg opengl oss pam pcre pdflib perl png posix pppd python qt quicktime readline reflection samba scanner sdl session simplexml slang snmp soap sockets spell spl ssl tcltk tcpd tiff tokenizer truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev usb userland_GNU vorbis x86 xine xml xml2 xmms xorg xsl xv zlib"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

Hello, my desktop is distorting when i use my keyboards in the form of random streaks appearing horizontally one line at a time, this happens when i am logged in and only in gnome, the login screen remains unaffected, so is the desktop of the root user. All non root users are affected. Fluxbox works fine. From the looks of i think its a gnome only problem and I am gnome fan :)

[Comment 1 Daniel Gryniewicz (RETIRED) 2006-05-07 12:58:40 UTC]

Try running glxinfo as yourself and as root.  I'm guessing you get this for root:
direct rendering: Yes
and this for your user:
direct rendering: No

If so, check the permissions on /dev/dri/card0.  I'm guessing you don't have perms to that.  Probably, your user needs to be in group video, or you need to add read/write for group video.  Mine looks like this:
0 crw-rw-rw- 1 root video 226, 0 Mar 28 16:59 /dev/dri/card0

[Comment 2 Sudharshan S 2006-05-07 21:40:15 UTC]

Hello,
> Try running glxinfo as yourself and as root.  I'm guessing you get this for
> root:
> direct rendering: Yes
> and this for your user:
> direct rendering: No
I have a crappy card in the name of SiS. So direct rendering isnt
supported. :(
> 
> If so, check the permissions on /dev/dri/card0.  I'm guessing you don't have
> perms to that.  Probably, your user needs to be in group video, or you need to
> add read/write for group video.  Mine looks like this:
> 0 crw-rw-rw- 1 root video 226, 0 Mar 28 16:59 /dev/dri/card0
So this file doesnt exist..All my users are already in the video group.
As I mentioned only Gnome is affected. Other WM's, both e17 and fluxbox
remains unaffected. Since the /dev/dri/card0 isnt present, which other
device node should I look for. Also updating GNOME to a newer version
didnt help too. The desktop from the Gentoo Live CD and knoppix and
others work fine. So I am assuming that some configuration file has been
messed up. Is there anyway I could flush all those configurations and
re-emerge gnome. Because my the desktops worked fine for a week or so
after installing. This problem cropped up suddenly and unacceptedly.
Thats all for now.
Thanx for your patience in helpin out guys

Regards
Sudharshan S

[Comment 3 Daniel Gryniewicz (RETIRED) 2006-05-08 13:32:05 UTC]

The simplest way to flush settings is to move (or remove)
.gnome2, .gnome2_private, .gconf, .gconfd, and .local.

The reason I thought it might be DRI is that gnome uses cairo for rendering, which results in accelerated font rendering.  Other wms don't do that yet.

[Comment 4 Sudharshan S 2006-08-10 07:38:04 UTC]

Hi again, I figured it out..Been outta internet for too long. The distortion occurs when xscreensaver daemoin is running. killin it solved the problem. Of course I would like the matrix saver pop up once in a while :D

[Comment 5 Gilles Dartiguelongue (RETIRED) 2008-03-03 00:32:06 UTC]

does it occur with gnome-screensaver ? If not, this should be reassigned to xscreensaver maintainer/herd.

[Comment 6 Rémi Cardona (RETIRED) 2008-04-08 09:34:59 UTC]

No new info for a year and a half. Please don't hesitate to reopen the bug with the info Gilles requested if you need any additional help.

Thanks