Weird X Problem

[Vaughn Treude]

Patrick C wrote:
> Sounds like a problem with your video card (not enough video RAM?) or 
> a specific application causing problems. The problem sounds like it 
> would be difficult to diagnose with just this information. Do you use 
> any "desktop effects"? What kind of video card do you have, what 
> driver are you using? Also, is the video RAM shared? In that case, you 
> could probably increase it without upgrading your hardware.
I definitely don't use any fancy effects. I find those to be more of an 
annoyance than anything.
I will have to get back to you on the video card. It's a notebook so I'm 
not sure what everything is. IIRC it had a fair bit of RAM It may 
possibly be a problem with connecting up the two disparate monitors (3:4 
and 9:16), the Philips external monitor being the limiting factor as far 
as resolution is concerned.
The problem has never occurred without the docking station, and doesn't 
always occur with it. I do suspect that it could be fixed with a 
different driver or some Xorg configuration changes. As the price of 
flat panels has decreased I will probably get one with matching 
dimensions and hope it goes away.
Thanks!
Vaughn
>
> I had similar symptoms a few years ago, but I was on Windows. I 
> upgraded the video card on it for gaming/general performance with a 
> cheap ($50), previous-gen, low-end video card that had still had more 
> video RAM and that fixed the problem. I wouldn't be surprised if a 
> higher resolution puts more of a strain on the graphics card and 
> that's why it shows up. Which monitor is higher resolution? You should 
> check to see if the problem persists with the "bad" monitor without 
> using the docking station, as well.
>
> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 6:20 AM, Vaughn Treude <vltreude at deru.com 
> <mailto:vltreude at deru.com>> wrote:
>
>     Normally when I encounter a Linux problem my first course of action is
>     to Google for a solution. This time I'm not even sure what to call it.
>     "X Windows scroll problem" and "X Windows bad repaint" don't
>     return any
>     useful information.
>     I'm running Unbuntu Hardy Heron on a Dell Latitude D830.  So far the
>     problem has only shown up when it's hooked to the docking station and
>     connected to my Philips CM800 monitor.
>     Since the screens are different dimensions (4:3 and 16:9), it
>     surprised
>     me at first that it worked as well as it did. When I boot it with the
>     monitor attached, it sets the resolution to match the Philips. On The
>     Dell, the bottom of the screen is chopped off. That's OK for my
>     purposes.
>     What's started happening is that window repainting has stopped working
>     for certain actions. When I try to scroll a document in Open
>     Office, the
>     whole thing goes black. If I minimize and restore the window, it's OK.
>     The problem also occurs when I drag a terminal window across the
>     screen.
>     That goes black as well. Again the problem can be fixed by
>     minimize/restore.
>     The first time I encountered this, I figured that X Windows had gotten
>     in a bad state, so I logged off and back on. (This has always been one
>     of my favorite features of Linux; you don't have to reboot to fix a
>     problem with the windowing system.) Now when I log off it never comes
>     back to the log on screen; it just stays black. I end up rebooting it.
>     The last couple of times I have done this, the problem is still there.
>     I've looked in the Xorg log file and all that's in there seems to
>     relate
>     to initialization of the monitors.
>     At some point I will probably get a new monitor (because of the
>     dimensional issues) and give this one to my kid, but I've got no
>     guarantee it won't also happen with the new monitor.
>     Has anyone else encountered this problem? Does it have a name?
>     Thanks in advance,
>
>     Vaughn
>
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