Mate Compositor quirks - Grey screen and Tearing

Support & Help Requests
1

Hi All, I noticed when I use any of the Marco (Picom) compositors that upon login between entering my password and getting to the desktop the screen turns grey for a couple of seconds then renders the desktop and wallpaper is this expected behavior?

I'm trying different compositors because if I select "none" or "built-in" I eventually while moving a window get really bad screen tearing then the millions of windows with in windows spiral glitch. Anyone have any advice on either issue? Thanks in advance!

2

Hi Torkama, welcome to the community :slight_smile:

No, it is not expected behaviour, I've never even seen it before.
OTOH, almost none of my computers have nVidia hardware and I don't run proprietary drivers.
So I am not sure if it is an isolated incident or not.

Maybe you can give us some info on the hardware that you use:

Open a terminal and type: inxi -CGM

Copy and paste the answer here (then select the pasted text and click on the </> symbol to make it a bit more readable.)

3 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Notebook product: NS50_70MU v: Applicable
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Notebook model: NS50_70MU v: Applicable
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.09LWL date: 05/01/2021
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    cache: L2: 5 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 735 min/max: 400/2401 cores: 1: 556 2: 734 3: 568
    4: 785 5: 667 6: 1004 7: 475 8: 1097
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5
4

I copied the INXI output, its a standard Clevo Laptop NS50_MU with Intel Integrated Graphics.

5

Hi Torkamata,

My apologies, I misread some of your question, so I'll try to answer it again:

upon login between entering my password and getting to the desktop the screen turns grey for a couple of seconds then renders the desktop and wallpaper is this expected behavior?

The screen turning grey for a moment is unusual but not worrysome.
The fact that it takes several seconds is rather a bit on the slow side.
This is mostly dependent on the speed of the (3D) initialisation of the GPU.
The slowness is caused by either a bug/misconfig in the driver or partly failing hardware .
'no compositor' or 'built-in' should always work.

So if it (compositing) works for you despite the few seconds greyscreen: so much the better
but this behaviour is , nevertheless, a serious issue which should be addressed.

Check if you have the newest kernel. If not: update.

Follow this thread an see if it helps in your case:

Also this terrific post of @ricmarques may be of some help:

If the problem persists:
Best you can do is file a bug on the ubuntu bugtracker:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux

After a bug is filed and a fix is committed you only have to wait for a kernel update which then hopefully fixes this issue.

Further: You can explore internet for any open bug on this driver
google for:
Linux i915 bug TigerLake-LP GT2 Iris Xe Graphics

This is all I can offer at the moment.
I hope someone else on this forum chimes in with a bit more info.

2 Likes
6

my screen has a few moments when its 100% gray as well. Then again, the screen has been acting weird since I installed UM 22.04. The screen goes like:

BIOS screen graphic
Plymouth screen
Booting screen showing aspci errors
Plymouth Screen
Booting screen showing aspci errors
Gray screen
Arctica greeter screen

then its fine and I log in