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Topic: [SOLVED] video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1 (Read 2154 times) previous topic - next topic
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[SOLVED] video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

After doing a full upgrade yesterday I started seeing video distortions when trying to use firefox. All packages are up-to-date and I am not using testing repos. Downgrading mesa-20.0.2-1 to  mesa-19.3.4-2 solves the problem. Normally I would wait for the fix, but after almost 24 h no one else is posting about the problem either here or on the Arch forum. Is anyone else seeing this? Thanks!

 
Code: [Select]
% lspci -knn | grep -iA4 vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 (Desktop 9 Series) [8086:3e98]
	DeviceName: Onboard - Video
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:7b17]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #1 –
Are you using any fancy compositing tricks like shadows/blurs by any chance?

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #2 –
No, no compositers. At work I haven't taken the time to switch from Arch to Artix yet. It is happening on Arch too, for dwm and jwm, but not cinnamon.

Work computer has built-in intel graphics, too, but an earlier version:

Code: [Select]
% lspci -knn | grep -iA4 vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 [8086:1912] (rev 06)
	DeviceName: Onboard IGD
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company HD Graphics 530 [103c:8299]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #3 –
Is it just Firefox?

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #4 –
Quote from: artiong – on
No, no compositers.

Oh that's the issue then. I thought maybe there was some issue with some special blur effect, but if you aren't using any compositing at all then glitches like this are certainly possible (it's an xorg feature). Cinnamon has compositing which is why you don't see it there. Now why this specifically started with mesa 20 is unknown, but it's probable the intel guys changed something about the driver that leads to this kind of graphical glitch in certain cases. You can report it upstream, but they may just tell you to use compositing. Dunno.

Edit: Although, I just tried i3 with no compositing and didn't see anything. But then again my firefox themes aren't configured like yours.
Edit2: Oh yeah this is an amdgpu computer not an intel one so it was a dumb comparison to begin with. I'll try my laptop.
Edit3: Okay I don't see anything on my laptop either (intel).

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #5 –
Didn't Mesa 20 switch to the new Intel Iris driver? Maybe you could try switching back to the old one and see if that helps?

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #7 –
@dnkl Yes switching back to mesa-19.3.4-2 solves the problem (Arch and Artix). I could just hold mesa but who knows how long that would work.

ndowens, yes of the programs I checked, it only effected Firefox. It made it very hard to enter my first post in this thread.

Dudemanguy, you were correct, installed picom and called in my ~/.xprofile, problem gone. I hope I can get used to all the fancy transitions and translucent menus. I don't really need them.   EDIT: I just looked at the wiki article about how to disable some of that stuff.

Will still have to try it home where I have Artix.

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #8 –
I meant that you could try the old Intel driver from the latest Mesa.

There are two different Intel drivers and Mesa 20 changed which one is used by default.
 

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #9 –
Oh I see. I have vulkan-intel installed only. Are you referring to xf86-video-intel? I thought that was only for older hardware.

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #10 –
Quote from: dnkl – on
Didn't Mesa 20 switch to the new Intel Iris driver? Maybe you could try switching back to the old one and see if that helps?

Oh you're right. I had totally forgotten about this. I bet my laptop is way too old to use iris. This is almost certainly the issue then.

Quote from: artiong – on
Oh I see. I have vulkan-intel installed only. Are you referring to xf86-video-intel? I thought that was only for older hardware.

xf86-video-intel is the 2D driver (some people still do better with this than with the generic modesetting but that's another topic). For 3D (which is what's relevant in your picture; firefox renders with gl), it uses mesa. The old intel driver was i915, but for whatever reason, they decided to rewrite a new one from scratch for newer-ish hardware. Probably what happened here was that mesa by default picked the Iris driver for your card instead of i915. I don't remember the exact environment variable to override this. It might have been MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i915?

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #11 –
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i965 (i915 is the fbcon/drm driver).

It's all in the link I posted above  ;)

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #12 –
How do I indicate double solved!

Either one of these two methods (by themselves) solves the issue:

1. Install and start picom from my ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xprofile (providing it was sourced from ~/.xinitrc)
2. export MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i965 (I used /etc/profile)

Thank you all for your help!

Re: video distortions with mesa-20.0.2-1

Reply #13 –
Using a compositor is probably a better solution for most people. Composition ensures that video rendering glitches like this don't happen. For example without a compositor, you will have screen tearing if you smooth scroll in firefox. If you don't need or want compositing, then using the older driver is probably fine. It's not like it'll go anywhere anytime soon and it worked just fine for you before. Supposedly, the newer Iris driver has slightly better performance.