ArchLabs Linux

Intel gpu, Openbox, compton and screen tearing

#1

I have an old intel iris HD3000 graphics chip. It’s normal that openbox shows screen tearing. Therefore I installed a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

Section “Device”
Identifier “Intel Graphics”
Driver “intel”
Option “DRI” “3”
Option “AccelMethod” “SNA”
Option “TearFree” “true”
EndSection

That takes care of most of the issue. However, I want to know which settings in compton.conf are needed to play nice with this graphics card. I know I must have lines like:

backend = “glx”;
vsync = “opengl-swc”;
(maybe vsync = opengl – I’m not sure)

Are there other settings that I need to change in the standard compton configuration file that comes witg ArchLabs Openbox?

Help/advice much appreciated.

#2

Vsync in compton is now a Boolean (true/false, no quotes) for Intel gpus use the xrender backend and set vsync to false.

The installer also has a flag (-t, --tearfree) to setup that xorg config for various drivers and also install drivers and touch up compton config if needed. It’s not enabled by default due to issue we were having with certain gpus during testing hence the flag.

#3

Thank you. I always thought the intel gpu needed “backend glx” but I see that the installed compton.conf already has the right settings. With my installed 20-intel.conf file, I have no screantearing and browsing/reading is very fluent.

1 Like
#4

i have intel hd4000 my intel.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "intel"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option      "TearFree" "true"
    option      "TripleBuffer" "true"
EndSection

dri3 does not need to have it in the 20-intel.conf.

[   879.055] (==) intel(0): DPMS enabled
[   879.055] (==) intel(0): Display hotplug detection enabled
[   879.055] (II) intel(0): [DRI2] Setup complete
[   879.055] (II) intel(0): [DRI2]   DRI driver: i965
[   879.055] (II) intel(0): [DRI2]   VDPAU driver: va_gl
[   879.055] (II) intel(0): direct rendering: DRI2 DRI3 enabled
[   879.055] (II) intel(0): hardware support for Present enabled
[   879.055] (II) Initializing extension Generic Event Extension
#5

Yes I know. DRI3 is the default for the driver. Does not harm to have it in the config though. What does triple buffer do? I don’t have it and all seems to run very smooth. Does it give some extra performance?

#6

From intel(4):

       Option "TripleBuffer" "boolean"
              This option enables the use of a third buffer for page-flipping.
              The  third  buffer  allows applications to run at vrefresh rates
              even if they occasionally fail to swapbuffers on time.  The  ef‐
              fect  of  such  missed swaps is the output jitters between 60fps
              and 30fps, and in the worst case appears frame-locked to  30fps.
              The  disadvantage  of triple buffering is that there is an extra
              frame of latency, due to the pre-rendered frame sitting  in  the
              swap queue, between input and any display update.
       
              Default: enabled.
1 Like