[ltp] Weird screen artifacts, but only with vnc

[David A. Desrosiers]

	I use vnc (various versions) quite heavily to manage a bunch 
of headless graphical workstations and development/test machines here 
at gnu-designs, inc. from my laptop (a T42p, 2373-Q1U).

	After upgrading to the r300/radeon driver (and getting some 
really nice fps rates), I've noticed some visual "artifacts" 
appearing, but they only seem to affect vnc sessions. 

	A screenshot of these can be seen here: 

	http://code.gnu-designs.com/vnc_r300_artifacts.png

	Those "dots" are what happens when I move the mouse around 
inside the vnc window. You can see they never go outside the vnc 
window though, onto my "normal" desktop.

	I've tried 5 different vnc servers for Windows, various video 
drivers on the Windows side, different configuration optimizations on 
the server and client site (vncviewer, xtightvncviewer, etc.) and 
nothing seems to help. I can move the vnc window around and the dots 
stay in place, until I open another window on the Windows desktop (in 
this case). I can also change the Windows resolution which clears it 
up, until I move the mouse around again.

	This only started happening after I switched to the r300 
driver instead of the stock "ati" driver, and it only seems to affect 
vnc sessions. I haven't seen any other application that behaves like 
this at all.

	Does anyone have any idea what could cause this behavior? 




p.s. You'll notice that the battery shows 1% in that screenshot. Its 
been plugged in for months, never runs on battery, and the battery has 
slowly dwindled from 100% to 1% and fails to charge back up. This is 
the third battery I've had in it in about 6 months, and they all seem 
to behave the same way. I think the charging circuit is dead.


David A. Desrosiers
desrod@gnu-designs.com
http://gnu-designs.com