Big Picture flickering

[retro_Ed]

OS
Ubuntu 14.04-16.04 (edit. Unity desktop)
GPU & Drivers
Nvidia 950 & every (many) driver versions.

ISSUE
Big Picture is flickering after streaming starts.
Flickering is only when Big Picture is streamed native full screen mode (1080p = 1080p)

If Big Picture is set to windowed mode from host pc like 1280X720 there is no flickering in Links display.

Host display has no flickering in any situations. Only Links end.
No flickering in desktop mode (=no Big Picture)
No flickerig when playing games.

EXTRA INFO & same results !
- many hdmi cables tested
- different Link tested and Factory, Stable and Beta versions
- different display tested.

Searching shows that multiple users has this annoying effect.

[retro_Ed]

Roadkill409 の投稿を引用：

Are you using Ubuntu proper or a derivative? What desktop enviroment are you using?
The reason I ask is because when I use Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon Edition, I have the same flicker issues as you are describing. But when I change my desktop enviroment to MATE the flicker is gone.
I have a feeling it has something to do with Cinnamon. I am not changing distros, I am still using Linux Mint 18.1, the only thing I am changing is my desktop enviroment to MATE.
I never had this problem untill I switched to Cinnamon.

I am using default Unity enviroment.

[toidi]

During my travels with the link, I have found that all buntu based distros had this issue with cinnamon (never used unity). Also noticed manjaro had the same problem with cinnamon and gnome. I haven't been running Linux for gaming on my link recently but it appears that the issue is still there with certain distros and/or DE's.

[retro_Ed]

My workaround is to stream Big Picture smaller and windowed mode from host pc.
No flickering with this way. Only a little blurried screen.

[AoeAoe]

I can confirm this issue on clean Xorg with "exec steam -bigpicture" in .xinitrc (also dbus, pulseaudio sessions are started).

If I start steam on my default Xorg with two monitor screen (awesome wm), the problem doesn't appear. Also, everything worked flawlessly week ago (not sure which steam client / steamlink client update broke it, I'm 99% certain that I my system libs and stuff were unchanged since with exception of kernel).

[m00ny]

I had the same problem with Nvidia and BigPicture flickering, got it fixed by putting

    Option         "metamodes" "1920x1080_60 +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"

into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

[m00ny]

For reference, my full /etc/X11/xorg.conf file now looks like this:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 367.18  (buildd@lgw01-52)  Thu May 19 23:33:33 UTC 2016

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG Electronics 29EA93"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 90.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 750 Ti"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-2"
    Option         "metamodes" "1920x1080_60 +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

[toidi]

It's a lot to do with the cinnamon spices. Antergos cinnamon build suffers from it as well. Certain combinations of lightdm GDM and cinnamon especially (some other DE's) cause it to happen regardless of the distro.

[AoeAoe]

I suspected as much, merely tried to refrain from using compositing window manager as it decreases performance (and so does that Xorg option).

[m00ny]

I use the LXDE window manager (non-compositing iirc). It works better than e.g. Unity, but without ForceFullCompositionPipeline I still see some flickering (but not as much). Only with ForceFullCompositionPipeline it's gone completely.

[retro_Ed]

Some interesting results.
I have a pc building project for my nephew.

Once again OS will be Ubuntu (16.04) but the old GPU is Radeon 7850 with open source drivers.

This time no flickering when using full screen Big Picture !!! Not a single unwanted strobe light frame.
Nice and sharp 1080p picture....