Yeah, I think there at least a few bugs in the 5.10.x kernels. There are several threads here in the Slackware forum with different symptoms (some Intel, some nvidia, some dual monitor, ...).

My guess (just a guess) is that switching to the modesetting driver works around one bug (maybe in the kernel, maybe in the intel driver, who knows). Luckily for me, it fixes the bug I was seeing. But it sounds like there are still some other problems lurking.

Someone (sorry, I forget who) pointed out that new kernel versions always have some problems, and they generally get sorted out.

From today's (2021 Jan 19) ChangeLog.txt, PV has recognized the issue:

That should be this thread where most of the complaints are posted.

Well I compiled kernel 5.10.9 and tried running it under Slackware 14.2. The X freezes when using Zoom returned. Besides, I'm sometimes experiencing screen artifacts when scrolling in Firefox or Palemoon. This is new.

Another bad news is that my bluetooth problems also returned with 5.10.x. My bluetooth earphone used to stop working after a while with timeout error messages in dmesg. This happened under 4.19. Only a reboot or suspend/wakeup would allow me to reconnect. It finally got fixed in 5.4. I did not try any other kernels until 5.10 came out but somewhere along the way it must have got broken again. But this time even suspend/wakeup isn't enough, I need a reboot to connect the device.

It appears that when Slackware 15.0 comes with kernel 5.10 I will have to downgrade to 5.4, unless some big fixes are made in the kernel.

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Are you using an Intel graphics card? If so, this is probably due to the recent (Mon Jan 18 13:50:16 UTC 2021) switch from the intel to the modesetting driver. I'm also experiencing the same issue.

Since the modesetting driver does not support a TearFree option, you can try using a compositor to reduce/eliminate the tearing. From what I've read Compton works fairly well, but I haven't tested it myself.

You can use this video to check for tearing: (don't click if you have epilepsy or something like that) http://sobukus.de/gpd/displayglitch/...test_60fps.mp4

I've noticed a diagonal screen tearing when scrolling in Palemoon and SpaceFM. Got rid of it by creating a file
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf with the following content:

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...aphics#Tearing

@rrj, @kgha:
Thanks for the info. I'm not running -current, it's 14.2 with my custom kernel (whose options were derived from Slackware's official 4.19 once in -current). I have an intel chipset but I have uninstalled xf86-video-intel so I'm on the drm driver. And there are no issues with 5.4.x, so this is not related to the driver nor its options. It is a kernel problem I think.

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Oh well, my other computer (a netbook with Intel graphics and running Slackware 14.2 wit a custom kernel) experiences random shutdowns with 5.10.x, usually within 5 minutes of booting. No such thing occurs under kernel 5.4. There is no lock or freeze, it is as if I have pressed the power button. This is probably not related to the X issue but it is yet another reason for me to stick with 5.4.

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I'm having the same issue on an Intel NUC with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 GPU and the lockups just come randomly. Can be as soon as a few minutes after boot or in the middle of the day.
I've tried the following to no avail:

1. appending i915.enable_psr=0 to kernel boot line
2. switching from intel to modesetting driver
3. upgrading to kernel 5.10.9

In the end I*downloaded the latest LTS 5.4.92 and compiled it. So far I've had a good 3 hours with no problem and will be leaving my machine on for the week to see how it goes.

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Hi Ilgar,

Would you please specify the processor and chipset and graphics 'card' in your netbook?
I have a netbook (Atom N270, 945GME, & GMA950) which runs 14.2-32bit with the 4.4.x kernel series. After about a year of trying to get it to stop the random(?) lock-ups which appear related to the GUI (because when booting to the command-prompt and never starting X, I can run and use the netbook for as long as I want to keep electric power to it), I took the netbook out of service. Back when it was in service it was using the xf86-video-intel driver for X.

Lately, I read on Linux Questions that the xf86-video-intel driver is the suspected cause of a great many problems. Also, I see in the ChangeLogs for '-current', "Only use the Intel DDX with pre-gen4 hardware. Newer hardware will use the modesetting driver."

I see the GMA950 is considered to be third generation. However, I am thinking to get the netbook out, remove the xf86-video-intel driver package, and use the netbook for a long time in order to see if the random(?) lockup problem will occur.

Hi baumei,

My netbook is an Asus TP200SA with an Intel Celeron N3050 processor. The bug you describe reminds me of the dreaded kernel bug #109051 which affected my previous netbook with an Atom Z3736F processor (but I do not see N270 being mentioned there).

I have some good news for you: Just recently someone brought me an old laptop with an Atom N280 processor and asked if I could bring it into a useful shape for someone who needs a computer. I installed Q4OS 3.13 on it (based on Debian Buster, it has kernel 4.19). There were no problems, I even managed to run Zoom on it . So I am optimistic about N270 also working well under kernel 4.19.

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FWIW, I've had no more graphics lockups post 5.10.4, I've stuck with the intel video driver, as I prefer it to the now default modesetting driver because of its 'tearfree' feature.

Spoke too soon.

Just had another lockup with 5.10.12 this time.

Maybe I'm gonna have to swap to the modesetting driver after all and just use compositing to address tearing. It's not my preferred option, but needs must.

How's modesetting been working out for people?

it seems that the OpenGL compositor (either default 2.0 and/or 3.1) is not getting along with the new kernel 5.10.X.
The newest kernel 5.10.12 should be able to disable it without reaching a total system-freeze (i see my slackware systems, laptop and desktop, stalling for a few seconds and then continuing with resulting loss of all desktop effects).
Switching to XRender is the other option even though I found it a little lacking in video performance, especially if you use heavy video editing resources, playing movies, etc.
The surprising thing, in my opinion, is that the kernel developers have not been able to fix this annoying bug since it was first reported by me before xmas/20 with kernel 5.10.4, or maybe not given it as much attention as it deserves as it seems to affect not only nVidia video but AMD cards, native Intel graphics, single and double monitors, as reported in several linux forums.
The two screenshots attached happened with about 3-4hrs difference from one-another.
I am still hoping that kernel 5.11.X will fix the driver bug causing it.

Attached Thumbnails

   

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Switched entirely to KMS (removed the Intel video driver); not even a hint of trouble for weeks! Prior to that, Intel driver only, perpetual random "headaches" on the 5.10.x series.

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Thanks rd.

I've now switched to kms/modesetting driver, with compton. I hit a problem with tiled wallpapers loaded via wmsetbg not displaying correctly under compton, but fullscreen wallpapers seem to display ok, so I can workaround that.

I'd had a good couple of weeks since my last lockup using the 'intel' driver so it'll take me a while before I'll be confident there's no problem with modesetting.

I will miss being able to do silly stuff like /usr/libexec/xscreensaver/glschool -root to have animated root windows when I'm feeling in the mood for it, but I can probably do something with fvwm's StayOnBottom style to simulate that.


Anyway, I'll report back if I have any further issues with the kms/modesetting driver.

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