Restarting X fixed the flicker, but Steam still hangs when gathering system information.
When steam hangs, would you run "kill -11 pidof steam", it should generate a crash dump and send it to Valve. Then if you could paste the CrashID line here, that would help lots.
I don't know where to view the CrashID.
I found the dump in /tmp/dumps and uploaded it here: http://homepc.lucidfox.org/crash_20130207013948_1.dmp
Same issue on a different computer, with NVIDIA (that is, Steam hangs when opening the system information window).
CrashID=bp-7a758a42-ff7c-4cab-9aea-18f5f2130206
On the NVIDIA machine, opening the system information window no longer hangs since the latest update.
The system information is:
Processor Information:
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Speed: 3100 Mhz
4 logical processors
4 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Unsupported
SSE42: Unsupported
Network Information:
Network Speed:
Operating System Version:
Ubuntu 12.10 (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.5.0-24-generic
X Server vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server release: 11300000
Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
Driver Version: 4.3.0 NVIDIA 310.14
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x1244
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
Primary Display Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Desktop Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Primary Display Size: 18,66" x 11,65" (21,97" diag)
47,4cm x 29,6cm (55,8cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 1023 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x 16x
Sound card:
Audio device: VIA VT1708S
Memory:
RAM: 3954 Mb
Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: nl_NL.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 220206 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 96054 Mb
Installed software:
Recent Failure Reports:
The information gathering issue is also fixed on the AMD machine.
Processor Information:
Vendor: GenuineIntel
Speed: 2399 Mhz
4 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
Network Information:
Network Speed:
Operating System Version:
Ubuntu 12.10 (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.5.0-23-generic
X Server vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server release: 11300000
Video Card:
Driver: ATI Technologies Inc. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series
Driver Version: 4.2.11903 Compatibility Profile Context
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID: 0x1002
DeviceID: 0x68c1
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
Primary Display Resolution: 1600 x 900
Desktop Resolution: 1600 x 900
Primary Display Size: 12,20" x 6,69" (13,90" diag)
31,0cm x 17,0cm (35,3cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected
Sound card:
Audio device: Realtek ALC269
Memory:
RAM: 3810 Mb
Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: nl_NL.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 45355 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 21728 Mb
Installed software:
Recent Failure Reports:
Can't reproduce the flicker bug, so you may close this task if you want.
Closing for now, unless I can reliably reproduce the flicker. Could just be a one-time AMD driver bug.
Nothing extracted yet.
Using KDE 4.10 with the fglrx proprietary driver. Might be a bug in the driver, but only Steam causes this flicker.
When opening any popup window (friends, system info, etc.), it flickers between its actual content and a piece of the background image. In fact, opening the system information window froze Steam entirely.
I cannot make a screenshot, as the Print Screen button pastes the KDE loading screen instead of the actual desktop.
After restarting Steam, the main window started flickering too.
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series
OpenGL version string: 4.2.11903 Compatibility Profile Context