eliminating tearing, for web browsers, using xfce and nvidia

English Open Chat
#1

I’m using the official Nvidia 390.25 driver.

The magic cure for tearing:
nvidia-settings -> x server display configuration -> advanced -> force composition pipeline

Magic comes at a cost of course. ;-]

Without “force composition pipeline”:

I observed that keeping applications on different desktops (workspaces) helps,
i.e. don’t have one window ontop of another.
Also, certain websites on other tabs could cause tearing,
i.e. keep tabs to a minimum.

For firefox it helped to turn off smooth scrolling. (preferences->advanced->smooth scrolling).

With “force composition pipeline”:

Chromium 64.0.3282.140 is having some performance issues (stuttering while scrolling).

qutebrowser v1.1.1 (6f028e9) doesn’t have performance issues, using (Py)Qt5.10 Webengine (Chromium 61.0.3163.140).

Firefox 52.6.0 doesn’t have performance issues.

#2

It seems that adding “force composition pipeline”
to /etc/X11/xorg.conf makes xfce hang on startup.
I can solve it by: ctrl+alt+f1 then ctrl+alt+f7
but maybe I’ll just enable it manually. >_<

#3

I found I can programmatically set it with:

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceCompositionPipeline = On }"

→ http://www.thelinuxrain.com/articles/got-tearing-with-proprietary-nvidia-try-this

Although, this leaves the screen black and I need to do ctrl+alt+f1 then ctrl+alt+f7.

To solve this, I installed xrefresh and made a script:

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceCompositionPipeline = On }"
xrefresh
#4

This could be your graphic card issue. What nvidia card do you have.
I am using xfce w/ nvidia gtx 650 Ti kind of old card now but I am not having a tearing issue.
I use xfwm4 and sometimes kwin with one led monitor, one lcd monitor and one lcd tv.

Edit:
I am using kernel 4.14.14 and 390.25 nvidia driver.

#5

It probably is. I have problems on plasma and openbox too.
At least I finally have a solution. ;-]

GTX 750
Linux 4.4.104-39

#6

Create /home/<username>/bin/fcp


nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceCompositionPipeline = $1 }"
xrefresh

chmod +x /home/<username>/bin/fcp

On:
fcp 1

Off:
fcp 0