[SOLVED] Upgraded to 13.37 - Taskbar is flickering and not responding to clicks

em21701 · 05-15-2011, 03:08 PM

I upgraded my wife's machine (nearly identical to mine) and her KDE taskbar is flickering and not responding to mouse clicks. The mouse works on the programs that start at login, but I can not open the k-menu. There are flickering boxes at either end of the taskbar. Has anyone else seen this problem? My machine upgraded without issue.

Didier Spaier · 05-15-2011, 03:27 PM

It can be related to the video driver and video card in use.

Please provide output of following command:

Code:

lspci -k|grep -A 3 VGA

em21701 · 05-15-2011, 03:56 PM

Code:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1862
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915

em21701 · 05-15-2011, 03:58 PM

For comparison here is the same command on my machine:

Code:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1862
        Kernel driver in use: i915
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

Didier Spaier · 05-15-2011, 04:11 PM

It can be Intel and/or KDE related... What happens if you use XFCE or fluxbox instead of KDE ?

em21701 · 05-15-2011, 04:23 PM

So the taskbar seems to be frozen all together. The clock has not updated, using alt-tab to switch and close windows does not change the applications listed. I'm not sure this is a video driver problem.

Didier Spaier · 05-15-2011, 04:30 PM

To make sure, start Linux at runlevel 3, log in as regular user, 'xwmconfig' to choose either Xfce or Fluxbox, then 'startx' and see what you come up with.

jordanGSU · 05-15-2011, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by em21701

So the taskbar seems to be frozen all together. The clock has not updated, using alt-tab to switch and close windows does not change the applications listed. I'm not sure this is a video driver problem.

I was having similar problems with KDE freezing up completely...stopped happening completely after I went into Desktop Effects and unchecked "Enable desktop effects". Not an optimal solution, but it has allowed me to keep going until enough time to properly debug the cause.

The flickering sounds like something I was seeing after enabling "SWcursor" in xorg...quickly turned that back off.

em21701 · 05-15-2011, 04:36 PM

OK, so I fired up XFCE and that worked. I went back to KDE and now everything is OK.