Screen Tearing
Screen Tearing
You're experiencing significant screen tearing after installing Pop! OS. This could be due to driver conflicts, system resource overload, or incompatible software. Check your graphics drivers and ensure they're up to date. Also, verify that no other applications are heavily using CPU or GPU resources. If the issue persists, consider reinstalling the graphics card or running a system diagnostic.
Are you using an NVIDIA or Intel GPU? You can switch between them via the menu. Checking glxinfo | grep NVIDIA reveals the GPU details. It indicates screen tearing when using NVIDIA due to disabled prime synchronization, but only enable it if needed. It's odd since your Intel GPU isn't showing up correctly—possibly a fetch bug.
You're encountering it both in a browser and within various applications or games.
Pop OS! draws inspiration from Ubuntu and comes with GNOME DE as its default desktop. If you're currently in an Xorg session, consider switching to a Wayland setup. To start a Wayland window, simply log out, tap the gear icon next to the sign-in field, and pick the option labeled "Pop OS! on Wayland." Note that while "Ubuntu on Wayland" was the name I saw on Ubuntu recently, I haven't used Ubuntu in nearly six months—since I moved to Antergos/Arch Linux in September and then Gentoo last month.
If you don’t notice any screen tearing during the Wayland session, it might be due to a configuration change or similar issue (especially with AMD hardware). Once you identify the adjustment, feel free to share it here.
Also, if you need to revert to Xorg—whether for recording, sharing, or running apps as root—simply return to that gear icon and choose the alternative setting. As @Chunchunmaru_ mentioned, running 'glxinfo | grep -i renderer' helps confirm your default GPU.
If the output shows something like "*something something* Intel *something something*," add DRI_PRIME=1 at the start of the command, such as: 'DRI_PRIME=1 glxinfo | grep -i renderer'.
This setting ensures the system uses dedicated graphics for that command. It’s usually set correctly by default on most distros since around 2017 or 2018.
For more details, you can check the Arch Wiki page on PRIME: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PRIME.
(Note: The information reflects my experience up to April 2019.)