Bug 24604

Summary: Radeon 9600 screen distortion with recent X,org version
Product: xorg Reporter: V0id <getbusy>
Component: Driver/RadeonAssignee: xf86-video-ati maintainers <xorg-driver-ati>
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG QA Contact: Xorg Project Team <xorg-team>
Severity: normal    
Priority: medium    
Version: 7.4 (2008.09)   
Hardware: x86 (IA32)   
OS: Linux (All)   
Whiteboard:
i915 platform: i915 features:
Attachments:
Description Flags
photo of distortion
none
Xorg.0.log
none
xorg.conf none

Description V0id 2009-10-18 09:09:52 UTC
Created attachment 30531 [details]
photo of distortion

After switching from openSUSE 11.0 (with x.org 7.3) to openSUSE 11.1 (with x.org 7.4) I got problems with my Radeon 9600 - all screen is covered with vertically running waves, especially noticeable on sharp edges such as window edges, fonts, mouse pointer and etc. Such distortion is very unpleasant for eyes. Until now, I was using proprietary ati drivers which where fine, but now I had to switch to opensource drivers for obvious reasons. I tries to upgrade x.org, libdri, libdrm and kernel from openSUSE repositaries couple times, but it didn't help.
Comment 1 V0id 2009-10-18 09:10:33 UTC
Created attachment 30532 [details] [review]
Xorg.0.log
Comment 2 V0id 2009-10-18 09:11:09 UTC
Created attachment 30533 [details] [review]
xorg.conf
Comment 3 Alex Deucher 2009-10-18 12:45:34 UTC
Doe it work better if you remove the custom modelines in your config or perhaps try a modeline generated with cvt or gtf? E.g., 
Modeline "1024x768_85.00cvt"   94.50  1024 1096 1200 1376  768 771 775 809 -hsync +vsync
Modeline "1024x768_85.00gtf"  94.39  1024 1088 1200 1376  768 769 772 807  -HSync +Vsync

You also might try switchin gto some of the other 1024x768 modes that you have defined.
Comment 4 V0id 2009-10-18 16:52:51 UTC
Ok. With the first modeline that you suggested it works fine, but it is really more mensurable for eyes to work with 100Hz refresh rate on CRT monitor, so I tried to generate new modelines (modeline from my xorg.conf with working form me for years without any problems) with cvt and gtf:

# 1024x768 99.97 Hz (CVT) hsync: 81.58 kHz; pclk: 112.25 MHz
Modeline "1024x768_100.00cvt"  112.25  1024 1096 1200 1376  768 771 775 816 -hsync +vsync
# 1024x768 @ 100.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 81.40 kHz; pclk: 113.31 MHz
Modeline "1024x768_100.00gtf"  113.31  1024 1096 1208 1392  768 769 772 814  -HSync +Vsync

Both producing same distortion as I described in my initial post. Then I switched back to your modeline ("1024x768_85.00cvt") to get good screen and then tried to switch to 800x600 mode with systemsettings from kde4 (it's really annoying to restart X every time, moreover it is refuses to start after two restarts and I have to reboot my computer).

In 800x600 mode screen is also distorted. Here is a modeline from xvidtune:
"800x600"      56.30    800  832  896 1048    600  601  604  631 +hsync +vsync

After switching back to 1024x768@85 it works fine again.

P.S. I'm sure that my monitor and videocard is fine as it was working fine in 1024x768@100 mode for years in Linux and still working fine in this mode in Windows. So it's really desirable to get back 1024x768@100 in Linux.
Comment 5 V0id 2010-02-27 06:08:50 UTC
It was a hardware problem with bad capacitors on motherboard. Why there wasn't a distortion in windows is still a mister though.

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