[Softdevice-devel] Rapidly blinking black cursor in DFB output

[Marko Mäkelä]

I'm using matroxfb on Linux 2.6.11.6, vdr 1.3.24, up-to-date softdevice
and DirectFB 0.9.22.

I'm running VDR as non-root (thanks to Nicolas and others who participated
in that thread).  Here is my /etc/directfbrc:

fbdev=/dev/fb0
mode=768x576
#vt-switch
#vt-switching
no-banner
no-debug
no-vt
depth=16

My problem is that although I have disabled the text cursor
(setterm -cursor off) and redirected all output to a file
("exec <&- >> vdr.log 2>&1" in my runvdr script), there appears
to be a rapidly blinking black square in the position where the
cursor should be.  (I tested "echo -n foo > /dev/tty1", and the
blinking spot moved horizontally.)

The cursor will continue its rapid blinking after pausing playback or
suspending softdevice (until the picture goes all black).

Note: the blinking appears unsynchronized to the screen.  Sometimes you
can see it more frequently, sometimes it is hidden better.  I usually see
the cursor only at the top left or bottom left position.  Again: note that
I have disabled the cursor (setterm -cursor off), but I keep getting this
rapidly blinking black 8×16 rectangle at the cursor position.

I don't remember seeing this when running with no-vt disabled and
vt-switch{,ing} enabled.  Does anyone else have similar problems?
If someone follows the DirectFB or kernel mailing list, please feel
free to forward this report.

	Marko