Cursor Artifacts Using nv nVidia drivers on X

nospam@example.com (munk) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:26:28 +0000

Just come across an annoying problem whilst using a GeForce 6200 in X - in Firefox, scrolling around inside form fields or the URL bar with the arrow keys results in a number of cursor artifacts left behind making reading or editing anything in those areas impossible. Switching focus away and then back to the Firefox window removes the artifacts, but this isn't very practical.

After some digging around to confirm the bug is with the 'nv' driver (the problem disappears when running with just the vesa driver), I scanned the bugs listed for the nv driver and thankfully found the bug listed already here.

The bug report also thankfully had a simple workaround to the problem - adding:

CODE:

Option "XaaNoSolidFillRect"

in the card's device section. No idea what the drawbacks are to using this option, searching for the term "XaaNoSolidFillRect" just comes up with a list of other nv bug reports citing the above as a solution. From those results, the same problem is described in more detail also at this URL by another nv user with an ascii art representation of the problem (woot!):

http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2006/01/msg00056.html

freebsd.munk.me.uk - X Window System

Cursor Artifacts Using nv nVidia drivers on X