#120 Cursor jumps and HDMI blocked under Vista

[bsag]

Under Vista, any version, the cursor jumps with some tools and HDMI output is blocked even with program not running. Cursor problem is very noticeable in Caleidoscope and Calligraphics, both unusable. Cursor jumps are also noticed when TuxPaint is not running, or even after uninstall. Video driver or card seem affected. Running in XP mode or under administrative rights have no positive effect.
The same program under native XP runs smoothly

[William Kendrick]

Did you install the 'installer' version of Tux Paint, or did you use the 'zip' version? Does this happen after running in windowed mode, fullscreen mode, or both? Does a reboot fix things?

I cannot imagine anything we're doing within Tux Paint's code that could cause the HDMI issue (aside from request fullscreen mode, which in turn happens at the SDL level). I've forwarded your report to the libSDL developers to see what they think.

In the meantime, since he's the Windows porter, I'm assigning this to John P. Thanks and good luck!

[William Kendrick]

I've noticed 'jumping' of the cursor using some of the more math-heavy or canvas-update-heavy tools. (Calligraphy and Kaleidoscope being good examples.) It only happens when you're actually using the tool (i.e., clicking and dragging), and seems to be an issue with the OS (in my case, Linux) dropping some of the mouse events, because Tux Paint is not processing them quickly enough (because it's busy doing math, and/or updating the canvas.)

I don't think there's any way Tux Paint could cause this to happen outside Tux Paint, let alone when Tux Paint is not actually running. If it does happen outside Tux Paint, it's important for us to know whether the issue begins occurring simply once Tux Paint has been installed, or after it's been run once, and whether it continues to occur after the system has been rebooted.

[William Kendrick]

Regarding the HDMI issue, someone from the libSDL mailing list wrote:

--- begin quote ---

This does not sound like an SDL problem.

This problem sounds very bizarre, and there's a good reason behind that.

http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/08/11/vistas-drm-protects-users
-from-high-definition-media

This problem -- although its manifestations and triggers have been and
always will be extremely vague -- has been on horizon for Vista users
for quite some time. I'm surprised as an interested party to FOSS
issues that I haven't seen a lot more bug reports relating to it so
far. In fact, I haven't seen any. But this sounds like it might just
be that. Here are some excerpts from the above article:

"Shamelessly pandering to the Big Media copyright holders, Vista
automatically degrades so-called 'premium' content such as high
definition movies and audio tracks when they are output to less than
bleeding-edge new devices that don't happen to support Intel's
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) DRM scheme. It
apparently does this even if the media files being played are not
copyright protected commercial media but the users' own home movies or
music they've recorded in high-definition format, Gutmann said."

Many months ago I would have been extremely interested in researching
the causes of any effect that persists after a FOSS application is
uninstalled from a system. Given that Vista can't seem to do
anything right, I can't even manage to bat an eyelash at this news.

Good luck identifying the arbitrary circumstances which trigger
Redmond's ill-conceived Digital Restrictions Management.

--- end quote ---

[William Kendrick]

So in response to the libSDL mailing list comment on HDMI, I wonder: does running Tux Paint in full-screen versus windowed mode affect it? And if in full-screen mode, what resolution? (And is it something you're asking Tux Paint to switch to specifically, or is it picking up your desktop's current resolution, via the 'Native' switch?)

See Tux Paint Config. for your current settings, and let us know whether adjusting any of them alters the issues you're seeing with HDMI.

Thanks!

(Since this seems to, sadly, be a "not-our-problem", I'm dropping priority to '1 - Lowest' until we hear back from you with any news that might suggest there's something we can do on our side to resolve or avoid the issues.)

[John Popplewell]

My Vista installation is still down (thanks, XP SP3) not had any time to look at it.

I've no idea what is going on here, but as the Tux Paint installer doesn't touch any system components (no updates to system DLL's, nothing installed into windows or system32) or make changes to non-private registry entries, it's difficult to see how it could have any persistent, system wide effect after uninstallation,

cheers,
John.

[William Kendrick]

I've not seen any other reports like this, and since the original submitter has not responded to any of our questions in nearly 8 months, I'm just going to close this one as "works for me."