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I have both Ubuntu 14.04 and Xubuntu 16.04 installed on one of my older desktops.
While both work fine, I experience screen tearing while dragging windows around in Xubuntu. However, I do not experience it on Ubuntu.
It is using the motherboard's built-in AMD graphics chip.
Note: This exact situation also holds true for my main desktop with a GTX650 graphics card...
At this point, I'm thinking it has something to do with Untiy being a 3D DE, and XFCE being a 2D DE...
Note: these directions have been abridged from the original source of Duncan Lock's blog.
Disable XFCE's built-in compositor:
Open up a terminal, and run these commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install compton
cd ~/.config
nano compton.conf
Paste this into Nano (see here for a commented version):
backend = "glx";
glx-no-stencil = true;
glx-copy-from-front = false;
glx-swap-method = "undefined";
shadow = true;
no-dnd-shadow = true;
no-dock-shadow = true;
clear-shadow = true;
shadow-radius = 5;
shadow-offset-x = -5;
shadow-offset-y = -5;
shadow-opacity = 0.5;
shadow-exclude = [
"! name~=''",
"name = 'Notification'",
"name = 'Plank'",
"name = 'Docky'",
"name = 'Kupfer'",
"name = 'xfce4-notifyd'",
"name *= 'VLC'",
"name *= 'compton'",
"name *= 'Chromium'",
"name *= 'Chrome'",
"name *= 'Firefox'",
"class_g = 'Conky'",
"class_g = 'Kupfer'",
"class_g = 'Synapse'",
"class_g ?= 'Notify-osd'",
"class_g ?= 'Cairo-dock'",
"class_g ?= 'Xfce4-notifyd'",
"class_g ?= 'Xfce4-power-manager'"
];
shadow-ignore-shaped = false;
menu-opacity = 1;
inactive-opacity = 1;
active-opacity = 1;
frame-opacity = 1;
inactive-opacity-override = false;
alpha-step = 0.06;
blur-background-fixed = false;
blur-background-exclude = [
"window_type = 'dock'",
"window_type = 'desktop'"
];
fading = true;
fade-delta = 4;
fade-in-step = 0.03;
fade-out-step = 0.03;
fade-exclude = [ ];
mark-wmwin-focused = true;
mark-ovredir-focused = true;
use-ewmh-active-win = true;
detect-rounded-corners = true;
detect-client-opacity = true;
refresh-rate = 0;
vsync = "opengl-swc";
dbe = false;
paint-on-overlay = true;
sw-opti = false;
unredir-if-possible = true;
focus-exclude = [ ];
detect-transient = true;
detect-client-leader = true;
wintypes:
{
tooltip =
{
fade = true;
shadow = false;
opacity = 0.85;
focus = true;
};
};
Now, run this command: compton
Your screen will flicker, and you will no longer have screen tearing!
Finally, just add it to your startup applications:
