[kde-linux] Re: Panel widgets alwais to the left

[Alex Schuster]

I wrote:

> Duncan writes:
> > Alex Schuster posted on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:56:57 +0200 as excerpted:

[graphic distortion problems when scrolling]

> > So on-board radeon hd3200.  Which drivers?
> 
> I'm using the open source radeon drivers. Had troubles getting them to
> run for a long time, so I used the closed-source ati-drivers (fglrx).
> But they have some sort of memeory leak, after a day of KDE4 usage I had
> to log out and in again in order to free memory.
> 
> So now Im using Xorg 1.7.7-r1. Works, with graphics distortions. Quake3
> is unplayable due to stroboscopic flickering...  but now that I try
> again it actually works. The flickering happens, but only with
> compositing enabled, and I always disable it before playing Quake3 (I
> sometimes had problems when not, all plasmoids were misplaced because of
> the changed resolution). But maybe I just forgot to.
> 
> > FWIW, I've been quite happy
> > with my upgrade from an old radeon 9250 (r2xx chip) to the hd4650 I
> > have now (rv730 chip).  When I first upgraded, the native kernel/x
> > radeon r6xx/ r7xx driver was behind, especially with 3D/OpenGL, and I
> > had to run live- git built drivers (I tend to run kernel pre-releases
> > anyway), which while they produced "interesting" color effects at
> > times, didn't crash.
> > 
> > But now I'm running the latest xorg-server-1.10.1-rc (1.10.90x)
> > available in the gentoo/x11 testing overlay, kernel 2.6.38 (I tested
> > 2.6.39-rc3, but it has login, possibly pam-related, issues, that delay
> > or hang logins/ logouts at the CLI), etc, with no complaints, using
> > the latest native xf86-video-ati native driver of course, naturally
> > with kms, as I don't consider the proprietary drivers a viable option,
> > here.
> > 
> > If you're running the proprietary drivers, that could be the problem
> > for nearly all the above.  I'd suggest trying the native freedomware
> > drivers, preferably with at LEAST xorg-server-1.8 if not 1.10, and
> > kernel 2.6.37 or 2.6.38.  I only use kms mode so really can't say how
> > ums works these days, so I'd recommend kms, as well.
> 
> Xorg 1.10.0 crashes after less than a minute. Similar experiences for
> 1.9.5. I have the gallium compiled in, but deactivated, maybe activating
> this will help, but the last time I tried performance was really really
> bad.
> 
> Oh my. Currently there is Xorg 1.7.7-r1, 1.9.5 and 1.10.0.902 which I can
> try with ati-drivers and radeon-drivers (with and without gallium), that
> is 9 combinations. Oh, and I can upgrade my kernel, too (running
> 2.6.37-ck right now). But I will try this soon, working with my desktop
> is no fun at the moment.

I updated my kernel (2.6.38-ck) and installed xorg-1.10.0.902. First, I 
rebooted with gallium enabled (without nomodeset kernel parameter). In the 
early boot phase, right when the font changes, I got a distorted image of my 
grub splash screen, in wrong colors. System hangs, I can reboot with Alt-
SysRq-B.
With nomodeset kernel parameter, all looks fine. at first. But still, there 
are little distortions sometimes when scrolling. I could live with that, but 
after a few minutes, X crashes. Without Compositing (toggled by Alt-Shift-
F12), everything is okay.
Then I tried Xort 1.9.5. Without Compositing, all is fine. I think I saw a 
little distortion inthe TV-Browser application, but could not reproduce 
this. I see a little more graphic problems with compositing enabled, but it 
would be tolerable. Again, X crashes after some minutes.
So I switched to ati-drivers-11.3. This works, no graphic problems at all. 
Let's see if the memory leak problem still happens.

> > > 3) Save file dialog sometimes hangs, and has to be killed, along with
> > > the parent aplication. Kontact mostly.
> > 
> > I've not seen that, but I don't run kontact, only kmail, so...
> 
> I thought also had it in another aplication, but I don't remember. And,
> being very stupid, I just reproduced it - and had to kill kontact.
> Fortunately, the draft was saved (somewhere around 4.4 I think this did
> not work, so at least some things get better).

This does not happen now.

> 8) Sometimes, Dolphin does not update when new files appear. This used to
> work well, now I have to issue manual updates, at least sometimes. If a
> file grows, I see it growing after I hit the update button.
> It also does not show any content in most of the windows opened when
> restoring the saved sessions. This also started with 4.6.1.

This last problem is also gone now since I rebooted.

	Wonko