Taskbar not showing until Alt+F2

Hi all,

since I’ve upgraded to OpenSUSE 12.3, I have some issues with the task bar. After some time, it doesn’t show up (I have it set to “automatic hiding”) when I move cursor down the screen. When I press ALT+F2 to run an application, the taskbar shows up (together with the run-command window). It then works like it should for some time and then stops again, etc.
I also noticed, that my screen blinks (redraws) when the taskbar is shown, but that does not seems to be a related issue. It’s rather slow -radeon driver, I think.

Any ideas why this happens?

Regards,

Oak

What you think doesn’t matter, we need to know what things really are. This means I’ve got a few questions:
How was the upgrade performed? From which version?
Is this on KDE/GNOME ?
Output of

/sbin/lspci -nnk

please

I sometimes see that with KDE on an older 32 bit system with radeon driver.

I am not seeing it on other systems.

The radeon driver for 12.3 seems buggy, and that’s probably the cause. But I am just guessing.

Hello,

here is the output:

# lspci -nnk                                                                      
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS880 Host Bridge [1022:9601]                     
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:843e]                                           
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (int gfx) [1043:9602]             
00:09.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 4) [1022:9608]
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport                                                                         
00:0a.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 5) [1022:9609]   
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport                                                                            
00:11.0 SATA controller [0106]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [IDE mode] [1002:4390] (rev 40)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:8443]                                                         
        Kernel driver in use: ahci                                                                                     
00:12.0 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller [1002:4397]  
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:8443]                                                         
        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd                                                                                       
00:12.2 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller [1002:4396]         
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:8443]                                                                
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd                                                                                          
00:13.0 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller [1002:4397]            
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:8443]                                                                  
        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd                                                                                              
00:13.2 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller [1002:4396]                 
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:8443]                                                                           
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd                                                                                                     
00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 SMBus Controller [1002:4385] (rev 42)
00:14.1 IDE interface [0101]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 IDE Controller [1002:439c] (rev 40)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:8443]
        Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
00:14.2 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) [1002:4383] (rev 40)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:841b]
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller [1002:439d] (rev 40)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:8443]
00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge [1002:4384] (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB controller [0c03]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller [1002:4399]
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:8443]
        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
00:15.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0) [1002:43a0]
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:15.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1) [1002:43a1]
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 0 [1022:1600]
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 1 [1022:1601]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 2 [1022:1602]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 3 [1022:1603]
        Kernel driver in use: k10temp
00:18.4 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 4 [1022:1604]
        Kernel driver in use: fam15h_power
00:18.5 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 5 [1022:1605]
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880 [Radeon HD 4250] [1002:9715]
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M5A88-V EVO [1043:843e]
        Kernel driver in use: radeon

…and radeon modules:

# lsmod | grep rad
radeon                948614  2 
ttm                    91975  1 radeon
drm_kms_helper         50840  1 radeon
drm                   293115  4 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit           13414  1 radeon

…all fglrx blacklisted. I had previously OpenSUSE 12.1 and upgraded directly to 12.3. I run fglrx-legacy drivers on 12.1 - the beta ones with watermark and they were fine. Legacy drivers didn’t work in 12.3 (and according to some posts they will never work), so I configured X myself to blacklist fglrx and load radeon.

Regards,

Oak

I think that this cannot be the case, as this seems to be an error in pointer event handling, not a graphic related stuff. The “show toolbar” (however it is called in KDE’s API) function is just not triggered.
My system is hi-spec 64bit.

One more interesting thing to add is, that I actually use two panels, one in the bottom and one at the top (for many years). They both have absolutely same problem - when one is not showing up, other doesn’t show either.

**Furthermore, I tested different KDE commands in different corners of the screen and they doesn’t work either (doesn’t matter in which corner), except for “Show desktop” and “Show Plasma workspace” commands. They don’t work AT ALL, even when taskbar are working.

**I suspect a bit, that this issue could be due to updating the system (not installing from scratch). Even though I erased ALL KDE settings after update (KDE was crashing with old settings).