Image tearing in Mint 14

system · 26 January 2013 07:42

Hi guys

I’m not sure if this should be posted here or in the official Mint forums or maybe the Gramps mailing lists, but I’ve posted here for initial advice

I use a genealogy program called Gramps that I have installed on 2 pc’s one running Mint 14 the other peppermint 3, the program works fine on both PC’s except for one thing, In Mint 14 the ancestry view is a mess, some images are greyed out until I hover a mouse over them and some of the text is torn (for want of a better word), it seems that this is some kind of windows compositing issue but I’m not sure, It’s not really a big deal but it would be nice if it was fixable because it does spoil the enjoyment of using the program.

I’ve attached 2 screenshots one showing the view in peppermint and the other in Mint

Many thanks

Graeme

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 26 January 2013 10:31

You may be right … it may be an issue with compositing (which peppermint doesn’t do by default) but it’s ikely a graphics driver issue.

Which graphics drivers are you using:

sudo lshw -C display

?

system · 26 January 2013 11:16

Hi Mark

Thanks for your help

graeme@Linux1 ~ $ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for graeme:
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:16 memory:fe980000-fe9fffff ioport:dc00(size=8) memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:fe940000-fe97ffff
graeme@Linux1 ~ $

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 26 January 2013 11:56

Have you tried going into Cinnamon settingss and turning OFF “Desktop Effects” ?

[EDIT]

You might be better off with Mints MATE desktop +/- Compiz

Or Peppermint <— Sorry couldn’t resist that

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system · 26 January 2013 12:37

Have you tried going into Cinnamon settingss and turning OFF "Desktop Effects" ?

I tried that it makes no difference

You might be better off with Mints MATE desktop +/- Compiz

That’s not really a route I want to go down I know cinnamon has it’s issues but i like the mindset behind it’s development and where I see it going and In my view cinnamon will be the best desktop around given time, although I think E17 looks good don’t you ?

Or Peppermint <--- Sorry couldn't resist that

Mark you are peppermints greatest advocate and I too like peppermint, I have it installed as a second OS on this PC, on my grand-daughters PC and on my old laptop, but I do like the polish of Mint / cinnamon although I have to say that Mint 14 is the only version I’ve been a little disappointed in

Graeme

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 26 January 2013 12:42

Is this a desktop ?

If so, have you got another graphics card you can try ?

system · 26 January 2013 14:35

Is this a desktop ?

Yes

If so, have you got another graphics card you can try ?

I have a few options for graphics cards but I’m not sure if I have any spare PCI or AGP slots but I’ll check it out out and get get back to you if you think it will help

Many thanks

Graeme

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 26 January 2013 14:42

Your onboard Intel graphics chip isn’t very powerful and may be struggling with compositing and desktop effects.

So worth a shot if you have something better

At the very least it’ll tell us if it’s a graphics card/driver issue.

…

system · 28 January 2013 19:17

Hi again

I have 1 spare AGP slot on my motherboard and 3 graphics cards

(1) Rage XL 21SR3LASB22

(2) SIS305 W/32MB

(3) Radeon 9250 256MB

Can you tell me which one you wouls suggest ?

Many thanks

Graeme

SeZo · 28 January 2013 19:58

Can you tell me which one you wouls suggest ?

Do not know the other cards, but would suggest the Radeon to try ( I got a 9600 in mine)

system · 28 January 2013 20:56

Hi SeZo
Thanks for your advice , unfortunately I’ve given completely wrong information I don’t have a spare AGP slot as I thought, but I freed up a PCI slot but I only have 1 PCI graphics card which is a Creative CT735-VBQ, so I’ve installed that , do you think that will serve the purpose ?

Graeme

SeZo · 28 January 2013 22:52

I only have 1 PCI graphics card which is a Creative CT735-VBQ, so I've installed that , do you think that will serve the purpose ?

I doubt the Creative CT735-VBQ card will do much with Cinnamon, but hey, there is one way to try it ;D

Have you tried switching themes, to see if they make any difference?

system · 28 January 2013 22:59

Hi SeZo

Sorry i took a while to respond I was called out to work, I’ll try the card anyway and see if it makes a difference tomorrow and if that fails I’ll try changing themes as you suggest and let you know

many thanks

Graeme

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 29 January 2013 12:48

No point in a PCI card (unless it’s PCIe), it will be slower than what you already have onboard.

I don’t think there’s much you can do … Mint Cinnamon is just too heavy for your graphics card

Is there a 2D fallback mode for Cinnamon ?

system · 29 January 2013 16:54

Hi Mark

Is there a 2D fallback mode for Cinnamon ?

I’m pretty sure there isn’t a fallback mode for Cinnamon, to be honest I’m getting pretty fed up with Mint with this latest version (14 Nadia) it’s just been one annoying issue after another since I installed it, which is a shame because all the previous versions I’ve used have been bullet proof, so I’m finding myself using Peppermint more and more, It’s not as shiny and polished as Mint but it works, and I can wait till Mint 15 arrives and maybe then try Mint again

Many thanks

Graeme

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 29 January 2013 17:41

O0 Peppermint FTW!!! O0

Nothing stopping you shinying up Peppermint (is that even a word)

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system · 29 January 2013 17:48

Nothing stopping you shinying up Peppermint (is that even a word)

It May be in Cornwall but not up here in the civilised part of the UK where we speak the Queens English

I’m sure peppermint is shinyable I’ll have to work on that so don’t be surprised if I call on your expertise

Graeme

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 29 January 2013 17:50

Queens English … “Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the Fandango”.

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SeZo · 29 January 2013 21:25

This might be more to do with gtk2 vs gtk3 rather than Cinnamon

Gramps was written with GTK 2 toolkit. This has been replaced upstream with GTK 3, so Gramps should convert to GTK 3.

(source) You might be better off asking the question on the Gramps front.

Also are the packages on the same version?

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · 29 January 2013 21:34

Peppermint 3 is gtk3 (12.04 based), and he says it works fine in that ???

To me it looks like a compositing issue … ie. a lot of what looks wrong is where I’d expect drop shadows … Peppermint 3 hasn’t got compositing by default, though (a light compositor) it can be added by by switching to the xfwm4 window manager.

I’ll try it in Peppermint/xfwm4 with drop shadows.

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