Bug#499206: xserver-xorg-video-radeon: R580 + EXA = screen flicker

[Alex Deucher]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 8:25 PM, Zack Weinberg <zackw at panix.com> wrote:
> Package: xserver-xorg-video-radeon
> Version: 1:6.9.0+git20080826.a3cc1d7a-1
> Severity: normal
>
> With EXA enabled on a Radeon R580 (or possibly an X1900, ATI's numbering
> conventions confuse me) I see several sorts of display flicker:
>
>  - Most frequent: the mouse pointer appears to vibrate up and down by
>   about half its vertical height, or has rapidly changing horizontal
>   stripes drawn over it.
>
>  - Some window boundaries wiggle continuously and rapidly.  The effect
>   appears only at the edges but seems to depend on what is drawn in the
>   window: a boring gnome-terminal doesn't do it, but OO.o calc did it
>   a lot.
>
>  - Occasionally the entire display goes to black or garbage for a split
>   second.
>
> None of these phenomena occur if I drop back to XAA.
>
> The problem *might* depend on having both of the card's DVI outputs
> active simultaneously; I didn't try EXA until after I got the second
> monitor.
>
> The "most recent X server log file" below is with XAA active.  Below
> that is a log with EXA active.

This is very likely related to multiple monitors.  Please try EXA with
one monitor and see if you still have the same problem.

Alex