None of the built-in compositors work right on Thinkpad T480

Support & Help Requests
#1

I’ve been trying different distributions on my Thinkpad T480, via live USB. I like Ubuntu MATE the best, but unfortunately all of the available compositors seem to be broken. The default one causes jumpy window movement; the others have various problems, such as window movement lagging behind the mouse cursor, or choppy window resizing. Not one of them works correctly on my machine.

I can boot it up again and write up a more detailed report for each compositor if that would be helpful, but I guess my immediate questions are, if I am doing something obviously wrong, or if anybody else has had more luck running on a T480, or if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

Also FWIW this is all tested on an external monitor via USB-C, 3840 x 1600 at 60 Hz. I can test on the internal display if that would be helpful. Just let me know what information would be helpful to provide as a next step.

#2

try testing on the internal display just to eliminate the possibility of it being something related to your monitor

#3

Hallo ajh3

I do not have direct experience of your situation, however…

“… via USB-C”

Don’t forget USB connections require drivers. I know of windoze sys-admins who are not looking forward to having to maintain fleets of laptops connected via USB-C “docking-stations”.

Have you done a “bare-metal” installation, or are you looking at this via a “live-USB/DVD” boot?

@Wimpy
Hello Mr. Wimpress. As far as I know you are thinking of perhaps purchasing a Thinkpad, so may be considering this sort of thing? You also seem to know all about this “compositor” subject. Any hot tipps? :slight_smile:

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#4

If you use nvidia with proprietary driver read here

#5

Thanks all, for the suggestions.

This machine does not use Nvidia, it has Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620.

I got a chance to install to my hard drive and test - same thing. Also tested on the internal display - slightly different, but mostly similar results, so the problem is not exclusive to the external monitor.

If I can provide any further information, let me know. I’d really like to be able to run Ubuntu MATE on this machine.

#6

I also noticed that if i change window manager from one with compozitor to another - i have laggy window moving. To avoid it i switch first to marco(no compositor) and then to other one. Did you try this?

#7

It’s possible that Compton would work fine, as it has a lot of options, but that the configuration file provided by Ubuntu MATE triggers specific issues with your GPU.

#8

A year later - I figured this out by sheer luck...

Was having a very similar problem in Excel under Windows 10, and found this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_excel-mso_win10-mso_o365b/why-does-my-excel-window-lag-so-much-when-moved/04b1fb97-b9da-481e-b37a-63257460c5b7?page=4

Lo and behold - it is also the problem in Ubuntu Mate.

Using a different mouse fixes this problem.

For the record, this is my problem mouse: https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/mice/microsoft-classic-intellimouse

The 1000Hz polling rate seems to be the culprit.

Can anyone advise on how to file a proper bug report?

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