VMD-L Mailing List

From: Ramon Crehuet (rcsqtc_at_iqac.csic.es)
Date: Tue Jan 27 2009 - 11:35:15 CST

Thanks to all who suggested solutions to my problem. I could finally
solve it by disabling "desktop effects" in kde 4. In opensuse 11.1 one
goes to the menu, "configure desktop" then, "desktop" then "desktop
effects". Unfortunately I have also lost the cube and the transparent
windows...
I did not check the option of changing xorg.conf but it probably would
also have worked. However this way I did not have to restart the X
server (and I can get the transparent windows with some clicks when not
using vmd)
Apparently the problem stems from DRI and xorg, not the card driver or
the opengl implementation. This is what I have read in other forums.
Cheers,
Ramon

Dan Wright wrote:
> I have seen similar problems with OpenGL apps (including but not
> limited to VMD, and not specific to ATI boards) when using the X
> server's compositing and rendering extensions to do fancy window
> effects on Linux. You could try turning that stuff off and see if it
> fixes the problem. Unfortunately, I don't use OpenSUSE and can't tell
> you how to do it on that distribution.
>
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:36 AM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>> Ramon,
>> VMD is already executing with "VMDSIMPLEGRAPHICS" mode, as it detected
>> your ATI driver and reduced functionality to a "safe subset".
>> The ATI drivers have had a long history of stability issues on
>> Linux, which is somewhat surprising since their corresponding
>> Windows drivers have typically worked well. My suggestion is to try
>> various different versions of the ATI drivers, both newer, and older
>> than the one you're using presently. There's a chance that the problems
>> you're having are specific to particular driver versions, so aside
>> from waiting for a response from AMD/ATI, I would strongly recommend
>> experimenting with other driver versions. Perhaps others on VMD-L
>> with AMD/ATI hardware can comment on their experiences?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> John Stone
>> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 04:52:06PM +0100, Ramon Crehuet wrote:
>>> Hi John and Axel,
>>> You are right. Other OpenGL applications show the same problem...
>>> I have used the newest driver from ATI... I guess I should post my bug
>>> there. What kind of information do you think I should post? For example,
>>> how do I know the bit-depth I am running at?
>>> I tried 'export VMDSIMPLEGRAPHICS=1' but didn't change anything. A part
>>> from the (slow?) solution from ATI, do you think I can get VMD running
>>> somehow. Should I still try the alpha version binaries?
>>> Cheers,
>>> Ramon
>>>
>>>
>>> John Stone wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> Have you tried updating your ATI driver, this definitely sounds
>>>> like some sort of new driver bug I haven't seen previously. You might
>>>> try either a newer or older driver version and see if that affects the
>>>> behavior you're experiencing. Do any other OpenGL programs run on your
>>>> system? What color bit-depth are you running at?
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> John Stone
>>>> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 01:09:27PM +0100, Ramon Crehuet wrote:
>>>>> Der VMD users,
>>>>> I've recently installed VMD on an Opensuse 11.1 box with an ATI HD 2400
>>>>> card using the ATI driver.
>>>>> When I open the VMD, the OpenGL window (where molecues are displayed) is
>>>>> transparent. I see the background windows. When I move the molecule then
>>>>> it shows its content, flickering. Has anybody encountered this problem?
>>>>> It is really annoying!
>>>>> Here are the first welcome lines in the console:
>>>>>
>>>>> Info) VMD for LINUXAMD64, version 1.8.6 (April 6, 2007)
>>>>> Info) http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
>>>>> Info) Email questions and bug reports to vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>>>>> Info) Please include this reference in published work using VMD:
>>>>> Info) Humphrey, W., Dalke, A. and Schulten, K., `VMD - Visual
>>>>> Info) Molecular Dynamics', J. Molec. Graphics 1996, 14.1, 33-38.
>>>>> Info) -------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> Info) Multithreading available, 4 CPUs detected.
>>>>> Info) Free system memory: 3476MB (87%)
>>>>> Info) ATI Linux driver detected, limiting features to avoid driver bugs.
>>>>> Info) Set the environment variable VMDDISABLEATILINUXWORKAROUND
>>>>> Info) to enable full functionality on a known-safe driver version.
>>>>> Info) OpenGL renderer: ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
>>>>> Info) Features: STENCIL MSAA(4) MDE CVA MTX NPOT PP PS GLSL(OVF)
>>>>> Info) GLSL rendering mode is NOT available.
>>>>> Info) Textures: 2-D (4096x4096), 3-D (8192x8192x8192), Multitexture (8)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for your attention,
>>>>> Ramon
>> --
>> NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
>> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
>> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
>> Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
>> WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Fax: 217-244-6078
>>
>