Split screen and other issues on Ubuntu 11.10 with ATI graphics card

Question

Ever since updating my Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10 I experience issues with graphics. The biggest is the "split screen" effect where my desktop is shifted to the right, resulting in having Unity bar in the middle of the screen, as shown here:

This changes from boot to boot, sometimes it's on the left, sometimes in the middle.

What I tried:

1. Removing fglrx drivers completely

2. Installing post-update version of them, but installation is broken ATM in the Ubuntu, so no go.

   No one is even trying to fix it (bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-common/+bug/873058 and a couple of duplicates out there)

3. Also using the open source "radeon" driver results in the same (I have a better successful boot ratio with this one, proprietary rarely lets me boot)

Other artifacts are:

• serious screen tearing
• weird lines flickering in random places
• lagginess

Did anyone experience that?

My specs:

• Ubuntu 11.10
• AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB

Solution

I have a similar setup and had system lockups after upgrading to 11.10. I just completed a clean install and I'm having the same problems you are.

Since the clean install I have not installed any drivers. For that matter, I never was able to get decent graphics on boot. My screen was split like yours, but I never saw anything show up on the desktop. After logging in, all I saw was the wallpaper and mouse cursor. Moving the mouse cursor all the way to the left would cause the mouse to exit the left side of the screen and re-enter on the right and keep moving until it hit the middle of the screen. Even the text screens were like that... very flickery with the left edge of the "screen" in the middle of the monitor.

So, I installed fglrx via "sudo apt-get install fglrx" and let it install all the extra stuff that comes with it and rebooted. System booted normally and I was able to see everything.

I assume you've tried to install fglrx. If not, try it. If so, try a complete removal and reinstall. If all else fails, reinstall Ubuntu from the CD. Format the drive if possible. If not (as it was NOT for me), I told it to simply install to my drive and mount the drive as / , but to NOT format. This gives me a clean install and has worked since... Dastardly Dingo or some version of Ubuntu from long ago.

Hope that helps. Let's see what I can break now!

Comments

[Boris]

can you add the content of your ~/.config/monitors.xml, maybe it will help

[Admin]

On a HP w2007 I simply rid my screen of tear and flickering with a factory reset of the monitor.....

[John1024]

It stops the tearing and horizontal lines for couple of seconds. Then it's back.

[all4naija]

Run update: Sudo apt-get update.From the Software Center uninstall the ATI catalyst and reinstall it and follow the previous step! what's your computer configuration?

[John1024]

I lost count of how many times I reinstalled the Catalyst drivers (at least 5 times). Radeon HD 6950, i5 2500k, 8GB RAM, fresh Ubuntu 11.10 (I even reinstalled the Ubuntu thinking the distro upgrade from 11.04 must have caused it). And it's fully updated.

[Kris Harper]

While this does technically answer the question, it would be preferable if you could outline the information or steps taken in the link. Answering with just a link doesn't really contribute knowledge to the site.