Hello, all!

I am trying to run Kubuntu 14.04 on a computer utilizing an R9 280X and the AMD Catalyst proprietary drivers. I switched to Kubuntu after experiencing random freezes and being unable to watch videos in Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon. But I have been unable to watch any video well in KDE either due to screen tearing issues.

It's not just videos either. Moving a window results in tearing, so it seems to be system-wide.

I have scoured the internet looking for solutions, but the only ones I have found so far have been geared for Intel Integrated graphics and Nvidia GPUs. Could you people please lend me a hand in this?

Thanks in advance!

This kind of problem can be a bear to track down, but I'll take a crack.

First, let's confirm that you've got 3D acceleration working. Go into KDE and type this in a terminal:

If "yes", then it's working. If "no", then that's a place to start.

Also, have you tried doing these things using the open-source driver? Sometimes the proprietary drivers can be "cantankerous". Have you ever had it working with the proprietary drivers? If not, go back to using the OSS ones and see what happens.

Next, try to verify that your card and CPU aren't overheating. This can cause what you've described. Install a temperature monitoring application, and check the temp while you're trying to do these tasks. Compare them to the safe operating specs for your card and CPU. If in doubt, take your computer apart and blow it out with an air compressor or can of air (hold the fans so they don't spin too fast!). This can do wonders for performance!

Then, check out your video settings in your playback program. I've found that, paradoxically, it can often work better if you turn off 3D accelerated rendering.

Finally, check out Adobe's page on Flash for Linux configuration. It can do very odd things with 3D acceleration, too.

Good luck!

--Dane

Thanks! I'll go test that ASAP.

Sorry for the delay!

Your command answered "yes":
There were screen tearing issues before I installed the proprietary drivers (I actually installed these drivers because I thought they would fix the problem). As for setting it back, can you tell me how to do that? I tried using the driver manager (I switched back to Mint, more about that further down the post), but it won't let me switch back to the open source driver.

All the temperature sensors within the computer are giving me a reading of about 30° C, so the problem isn't there.

I tried disabling hardware acceleration within Flash, and that didn't fix the issue, either. Keep in mind that I noticed that the problem is across everything, not just Flash.

Also, sorry for the confusion, but I switched back to Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon after I used KDE to see if the exact same issues were there, and there were more: with Cinnamon, my screen completely freezes after switching to fullscreen mode with Flash, so I'm going to try Linux Mint 17 KDE. Any suggestions on that side?

Thanks in advance!

How about diabling compositing? Plasma, Compiz, or Marco (with compositing enabled) can cause problems on some systems.

What hardware do you have for CPU, RAM, and video card (including how much onboard memory for your video card)? What motherboard chipset? If in doubt, post the output of these commands:
How old is your system?

There might be some quirk with Linux compatibility for your hardware that requires special workarounds.

Have you ever had it working well using another OS?

I tried using Xfce, which doesn't have compositing. The screen tearing issues were still there.

My CPU is an i7-4790K.
I have 8GB DDR3 ram (I believe it's DDR3-2400; I'm not at my computer to check right now).
I have an R9 280X with 3GB GDDR5 memory.
My motherboard is a Z97-AR (hence using the Z97 chipset).

As for how old it is, I built it about a month ago.

It works fine using Windows 8.

It looks like it could be an issue of using new hardware that doesn't yet have proper Linux support. There may be hope, though: according to AMD's page, there's a beta driver that claims to support that card. (The page I found may or may not be the latest version; check around on their site to be sure.) You'll have to uninstall fglrx, then install the latest (beta) version from their web page.

The AMD page I found:
http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-arti...ta-driver.aspx

People complaining about the r9 280x on Linux. Note that it's from March, 2014, and their problems are more severe, implying that AMD is working on the issue.
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showt...h-asus-r9-280x

Let me know if that helps.

I have the AMD Catalyst 14.9 drivers, updated from the 14.6 beta you showed me. The support should be there.

You think I should use Windows, then, for a couple more months?

Hmmm...so no help with the new drivers? Have you emailed AMD? They might be able to point you to a fix. Otherwise, unfortunately, you might consider using Windows a bit longer.

Does anyone else have some suggestions?

Thanks for the help so far. Guess I'll wait for a couple of months before trying to watch videos on linux (most everything else works, so I'm going to try and continue using it). I'd prefer not to email AMD just quite yet. Maybe if it isn't fixed after a few releases, I'll send them an email.

So long, then. That is, until I have another question.

Sounds like a reasonable plan. I wish you the best.