Linux IC5.0 Virtuoso display problems

I'm using icfb v5.0.32.500.5 and virtuoso am having problems
displaying parts of my layout. Certain metal constructs drawn using
polygon are only displayed with an outline of the metal shape and is
not filled. When the metal is drawn with path, this problem is not there.

The outline is visible at most zoom levels - with different shapes
being outlined at different times (ie not all of the polygons are
outlined at any given zoom) This problem persists regardless of the
display filter size/style under Options -> Display -> Filter

This problem also exists with v5.0.0.500.28. My configuration
is a Dell 650 dual xeon with ATI Radeon VE (32MB) (aka ATI
Radeon 7000) running RH8.0 with all the latest patches and xfree86 v4.2.0
using 24-bit depth

I've tried disabling hardware acceleration but the problem is still there.

Interestingly, if I access the machine remotely from home, (linux box with
nVidia Geforce2 MX200 video card, xfree86 v4.2.0) this problem is not
there (using the same Virtuoso display/editor settings)

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Dee.

 

You're absolutely certain you've disabled hardware acceleration properly on
on the system with the ATI Radeon hardware?

Because this describes exactly the problem we've seen that is fixed that
way. The fact that you do not see the problem with the nVidia card seems
to confirm this.

The instructions I have for turning off hardware acceleration are:

1. Turn off hardware acceleration on your video card.

To do this, as root edit the file: /etc/X11/SF86Config-4
and find the section:

Section "Device"
Identifier "<graphics card/chip name>"
Driver "<graphics driver name>"
VendorName "<graphics vendor name>"
BoardName "<graphics board name>"
EndSection

and add the line:

Option "noaccel"

2. Restart X Server:

Hold Control and Alt keys and Click on "Back Space" key.

-Pete Zakel
()

Justice, n.:
A decision in your favor.

 

Pete,

This seems to have done the job - the first time I turned off h/w
acceleration was through the RH display config tool (which apparently
did not work) Thanks!

What about the h/w acceleration is causing the problem? (and only for polygons?)

But now I have the problem that anything display related in X is
REALLY sloooww.

ex: in Cadence, I have the right mouse button set to zoom, but there is a ~2
second delay after I click before the drag window shows on screen...

Is there some other workaround for the slow X graphics?

Thanks,
Dee.

 

You're welcome!

I don't know. As far as I know we didn't analyze the problem beyond finding
the workaround.

Not that I'm aware of other than either using a different graphics card,
possibly updating the driver, or possibly upgrading to a commercial X server
such as Xi Graphics' Accelerated-X.

-Pete Zakel
()

"The best thing about growing older is that it takes such a long time."

 

Dee:
The solution is to enable hardware acceleration. Just comment out
Option "noaccel".

I find that hitting cntl-r is less annoying than really slow graphics.

Does anyone have any ideas on the root cause of this problem?

 

Hi all

Try to use "ShadowFB" instead of "NoAccel" (Put: Option "ShadowFB"
"True" in XF86Config). This will help with Cadence tracking cursor and
slow graphics and it won't disable hardware acceleration. I used it on
Matrox G550 card on RH8 XFree86 4.2.1 and 4.3.

Regards
Dionis

 

Dionis:
I have verified that setting Option "ShadowFB" "True" does fix the
graphics redraw problem that I was having with my ATI Radeon Mobility
7500. Thank you for the post.

 

Unfortunately, "ShadowFB" did not solve my outlined-polygon problem

Any other suggestions (other than "noaccel")?

Regards,
Dee.