VMD-L Mailing List

From: Dan Wright (dtwright_at_uiuc.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 20 2009 - 15:13:21 CST

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
>