Display Acting funny, Tearing, Cursor erratic, etc

If your display acts strangely, for example the cursor suddenly gets multiplied, or the panel starts blinking, this may have something to do with your Graphic card. If your PC uses an Intel Graphic card, open a terminal and enter the following:

sudo touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/11-Intel-GPU.conf

then

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/11-Intel-GPU.conf

Now copy paste the following into that file:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Intel Graphics"
 Driver "intel"
 Option "TearFree" "off"
EndSection

 

Then press “ctrl o” to save the file, then press “enter”, and then “ctrl x”.

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone. If you still have the same issue, edit the file above and replace

Option “TearFree” “off”

with

Option “TearFree” “on”

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone.

Warning:

make sure you only use this on a PC that actually uses an Intel Graphic card. If it is used on a PC without Intel GPU, the Graphical Desktop probably won’t come up.

 

If your Graphic card is a Radeon, open a terminal and enter:

sudo touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/12-Radeon-GPU.conf

then

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/12-Radeon-GPU.conf

Now copy paste the following into that file:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Radeon"
        Driver "radeon"
        Option "TearFree" "off"
EndSection

Then press “ctrl o” to save the file, then press “enter”, and then “ctrl x”.

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone. If you still have the same issue, edit the file above and replace

Option “TearFree” “off”

with

Option “TearFree” “on”

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone.

 

Warning:

Make sure you only use this on a PC that actually uses a Radeon Graphic card. If it is used on a PC without Radeon GPU, the Graphical Desktop probably won’t come up. Also, if your Radeon card is a newer model, you should rather use the 15-AMD-GPU.conf file.

 

If your Graphic card is a new generation Radeon that uses the new “AMDGPU” driver, open a terminal and enter:

sudo touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/15-AMD-GPU.conf

then

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/15-AMD-GPU.conf

Now copy paste the following into that file:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "AMDGPU"
        Driver "amdgpu"
        Option "TearFree" "off"
EndSection

Then press “ctrl o” to save the file, then press “enter”, and then “ctrl x”.

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone. If you still have the same issue, edit the file above and replace

Option “TearFree” “off”

with

Option “TearFree” “on”

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone.

 

Warning:

Make sure you only use this on a PC that actually uses a Radeon Graphic card. If it is used on a PC without Radeon GPU, the Graphical Desktop probably won’t come up. Also, if your Radeon card is an older model, you should rather use the 12-Radeon-GPU.conf file mentioned above

 

If your Graphic card is an nVidia card and you have setup the OS to use the default and OpenSource “Nouveau” Driver (which in my point of view is better in most situations compared to the legacy nVidia driver, as it will usually perform better), open a terminal and enter:

sudo touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/14-Nouveau-GPU.conf

then

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/14-Nouveau-GPU.conf

Now copy paste the following into that file:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Nouveau"
        Driver "nouveau"
        Option "TearFree" "off"
EndSection

 

Then press “ctrl o” to save the file, then press “enter”, and then “ctrl x”.

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone. If you still have the same issue, edit the file above and replace

Option “TearFree” “off”

with

Option “TearFree” “on”

After that reboot and check if the issue has gone.

Warning:

Make sure you only use this on a PC that actually uses an nVidia Graphic card. If it is used on a PC without nVidia GPU, the Graphical Desktop probably won’t come up.