Screen refresh problem on 18.04

Question

I have a DELL Vostro 1000 old notebook.

It is very slow to use but still usable, could be because of 1.8GB RAM or some video difficulty, or because the 1GB swap is usually 50%+ filled up.

But the real problem is the screen only refreshing where the mouse is over and only if there is something activetable there, like a link or a button, otherwise it wont update, quite difficult to use.

specs inxi -SG -! 31

System:    Kernel: 4.15.0-51-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Gnome 3.28.3 Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS482M [Mobility Radeon Xpress 200]
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: fbdev,ati (unloaded: modesetting,vesa,radeon)
           Resolution: 1024x768@76.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0, 128 bits) version: 3.3 Mesa 18.2.8

The problem I have (inside every window) is not the same I saw or read at:

inxi -SG -! 31? ubuntu-drivers devices? You are using the last drivers? — Pablo Bianchi, Jun 15 '19 at 17:22
It is unclear which Ubuntu derivative is in use. Some are better for old hardware, so it it important. — mikewhatever, Jun 15 '19 at 17:28
Ubuntu is not a good candidate for old machines. Xubuntu or Mate would performe better. — mikewhatever, Jun 15 '19 at 17:30
Please edit your post with the output of those commands. Also consider increasing swap, maybe with a swapfile — Pablo Bianchi, Jun 15 '19 at 17:31
@PabloBianchi thx, btw, it shouldnt be swapping so much, I will try to lower the amount of running "big" apps, swapping itself is a problem! (I think I wont be able to be back for a few hours, I will check here again as soon I can) — Aquarius Power, Jun 15 '19 at 18:14
the perf improves as long I avoid using the swap (SIGSTOP on bloating processes or just drop'em like pkill -fe "evolution|gnome-software") but I still believe the gfx could be faster, not sure tho. I will try some other WM --replace as soon I can. — Aquarius Power, Jun 16 '19 at 00:12

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '19 at 17:18

1

Currently I added xrefresh (from x11-xserver-utils) to startup apps:

bash -c 'while true;do xrefresh;sleep 1;done'

and the notebook is at least usable now.

edited Jun 15 '19 at 17:18

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

answered Jun 15 '19 at 17:12

Aquarius Power

4,011

I disabled this as latest ubuntu updates apparently fixed the problem, in a sense that this is slower (and also had some glitches) than the fixed OS/Xorg. – Aquarius Power Dec 10 '19 at 19:37
This works on Ubuntu 22.04 with a DELL D-3100 Docking Station with 2 HDMI attached. Using the nVidia HDMI output makes the D-3100 screens to freeze and makes impossible to work unless you keep the mouse in movement. Anyway I had to change the delay to sleep 0.1 in order to have a better feeling. Thanks for this partial solution. – Geppettvs D'Constanzo Apr 24 '23 at 13:48

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 18 '19 at 05:25

1

You have a general problem with your hardware acceleration on your system.

OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0, 128 bits) version: 3.3 Mesa 18.2.8

That means software rendering.

(unloaded: modesetting,vesa,radeon)

The radeon module is unloaded.

Make sure xserver-xorg-video-radeon is on your system. This should be the case.

Make sure that no kernel boot parameter like nomodeset or vag=something is active.

Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-radeon.conf.

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Radeon"
    Driver "radeon"
    Option "AccelMethod" "EXA" 
        Option "DRI" "2"
        Option "TearFree" "on"
EndSection

edited Jun 18 '19 at 05:25

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Jun 16 '19 at 12:43

nobody

5,437

I tried all that, but I had to keep "nomodeset" or the video bugs out (pseudo rainbow vertical lines w/o moving mouse). The result of inxi -SG -! 31 did not change. I still have to try some other WM. Keeping the memory unbloated (only one big app per time, and dropping everything that I am not using, like evolution stuff) helps on making it a bit faster by avoiding swapping. – Aquarius Power Jun 17 '19 at 21:42
now I wonder if there could have some video trick that could be applied on demand, like turning off "nomodeset" after the WM has fully loaded and I had login on it? just a wild thought... – Aquarius Power Jun 17 '19 at 21:43

Screen refresh problem on 18.04

2 Answers2