revised December 18, 2007
If your computer crashes and requires a reboot while using Chimera then this is almost certainly a graphics driver bug.
If Chimera crashes or reports an "Unknown C++ exception" every time a specific sequence of steps is made, but it does not crash on another computer with the same operating system but different graphics, then this is very likely a graphics driver bug.
If incorrect rendering is shown in Chimera, such as stripes, streaks, artifacts on saved images, yellow boxes, no green selection outline, fractured surface appearance it is very likely a graphics driver bug.
If Chimera crashes sporadically on one machine, but the same Chimera version does not crash on another machine using the same data and capabilities, then it is most likely a graphics driver bug.
Graphics driver bugs are more common on laptops than on desktop computers, and are especially common with high-end laptop graphics cards.
The only non-graphics-driver crash commonly observed in Chimera is when displaying a molecular surface (menu entry Actions / Surface / show).
Here are ways to fix or work around a graphics driver bug.
Changing a graphics driver setting can sometimes avoid a bug. Different graphics cards have different available settings. Locate the graphics driver settings panel on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac, Linux.
This is most common on Linux when no graphics driver is installed. The glxinfo command will will list Mesa as the renderer. Mesa is an all-software implementation of 3D graphics which can be 100 times slower than hardware accelerated graphics. Install a driver from the graphics card vendor to get increased speed.
It is difficult for the Chimera developers to figure out solutions for graphics driver bugs because we seldom have the offending graphics card in our lab, so we cannot run any tests.
While we like to hear about the problems so we can advise others with the same problem, most likely you will need to solve the problem using one of these steps.
Report bugs using Chimera menu entry Help / Report a Bug. Submitting a bug using the Chimera menu entry automatically includes the model of your graphics card and the driver version. Alternatively you can send email to chimera-bugs@cgl.ucsf.edu.
Here is a list of graphics driver bugs observed using Chimera. These cause rendering artifacts, program crashes, or system crashes. They are more common on laptops than on desktop computers.
| Graphics | Platform | Driver | Description | Date | Chimera | Bug ID | Reported By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FireGL V5200 (mobility) | Windows XP Pro | 2.0.5757 | Chimera crashes with commands "select :arg,lys", "color blue sel" on T60P laptop. | 4/22/2007 | 1.2382 | 3797 | Andrea Rossi |
| FireGL V3400 | Linux x86_64 | 8.37.6 | Graphics windows does not update when first shown unless resized. Model Panel raises error when model ID column is shown but only after side view dialog has been shown. | 12/10/2007 | 2470, 2475 | 5038 | Gary Ren |
| FireGL V3400 | Linux | 8.28.8 and 8.29.6 | Freezes system when resizing Chimera window to large size (~1024x1024). Yellow rectangular blocks in graphics window when resizing. Can recover by logging in from another machine and killing Chimera Yellow blocks appear when selecting in smaller window size with no freeze. | 11/30/2006 | 2307 | Gary Ren | |
| FireGL V3200 (mobility) | Windows XP and Linux | 2.0.5285 | System hang requiring reboot rotating volume surface. | 1/11/2007 | 1.2304 | 3512 | Jeff Triffo |
| FireGL V3200 (mobility) | WinXP and Linux | ? | Freezes system requiring reboot on Windows. System crash with screen covered with vertical bars on Linux. | 12/28/2006 | 2304? | Jeff Triffo | |
| FireGL T2/T2e (mobility) | Linux 2.6.18-4-686 | 2.0.6458 (8.36.5) | Mesh benchmark score is zero of IBM T41p laptop. Suggests failed volume mesh rendering. | 5/15/2007 | 1.2392 | 3888 | Alec Robertson |
| FireGL T2 | WinXP | ? | System freeze when displaying large volume data EMD 1060. | 10/6/2005 | 2176 | 2095 | Tom Goddard |
| Radeon X1400 | WinXP | 2.0.6068 | Frames are sheared using Movie Recorder. | 10/30/2007 | 2465 | 4789 | Jaap Brink |
| Radeon X1300-X1950 series | Linux 64-bit | unknown | Horizontal and vertical hash marks on volume surfaces. Artifacts don't rotate with map. | 9/12/2007 | ? | 4483 | Angel Paredes |
| Radeon X1300/X1550 series | WinXP | 2.0.7058 | Frames are sheared using Movie Recorder. | 12/12/2007 | 2470 | 5047 | Sacha De Carlo |
| Radeon X600 | WinXP | 6.14.0010.6561 | Frames are sheared using Movie Recorder. | 9/25/2006 | 2255 | 3151 | Susan Saban |
| Radeon X300 (mobility) | Windows XP | 1.5.4650 | Unknown C++ exception not reproduced on other machines. Laptop. | 5/10/2007 | 1.2304 | 3862 | Roberto Vanacore |
| Radeon 9600SE | WinXP | 2.0.6067 | Frame corruption when using Chimera Movie Recorder. | 10/29/2006 | 2304 | 3259. | Sabuj Pattanayek |
| Radeon 9600 Pro | Mac | 10.3.9 | Eudora, Word, Safari crash after using Chimera. | 8/18/2005 | 2065 | 1962 | Michael Schmid |
| Radeon 9600 Pro | Mac | 10.3.5 | Frame artifacts (streaks) showing volume data. | 10/12/2004 | 1951 | 1248 | Lu Gan |
| Radeon 9600 XT | Mac | 10.3.8 and 10.3.5 | System crash when displaying large volume data (470x470x440). | 4/28/2005 | ? and 1951 | 1665 and 1319 | Lu Gan |
| Radeon 7500C | WinXP | 6.14.10.6371 | Chimera crashes when rotating molecule or map. No crash in OpenGL 16-bit z-buffer mode. | 1/8/2005 | 2038 | 1387 | Sacha De Carlo |
| Radeon 7500C | WinXP | ? | Chimera crashes display volume data. No crash of OpenGL hardware acceleration turned off. | 11/19/2003 | 1872 | 1060 | Sacha De Carlo |
| Radeon 7500 (mobility) | Windows XP | 1.3.3842 | I selected some atoms, though they didn't look selected, then everything got frozen. | 5/24/2007 | 1.2303 | 3918 | |
| Radeon 7500 | WinXP | 1.3.3259 | Unknown C++ exception when displaying volume data. | 7/3/2006 | 2199 | 2928 | Maria Zoghbi |
| Radeon 7500 (mobility) | WinXP | 1.3.1006 | Unknown C++ exception displaying volume data. | 4/16/2006 | 2199 | 2669 | Jian Shi |
| Radeon 7000 | Windows XP | 1.3.4276 | "Unknown C++ exception" measuring distance between atoms. Works on other machines. | 3/22/2007 | 3728 | Andrew Bigley |
| Graphics | Platform | Driver | Description | Date | Chimera | Bug ID | Reported By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel 950GMA | Windows | current | Crashes when residues selected. Filled style selection highlighting works. | 12/3/2007 | 1.2470 | 5000 | Andrea Coletta |
| Intel 945GM | Windows Vista | 7.14.10.1255 | Error when using side view dialog. TclError: unable to share display lists. Couldn't configure togl widget. | 5/7/2007 | 1.2304, 1.2382 | 3847, 3843 | Tracey Musa, Andy LiWang |
| Intel 945GM | Windows Vista | 7.14.10.1255 | Selection drag-box is not visible. | 5/6/2007 | 1.2382 | 3842 | Andy LiWang |
| Intel 915GM | Windows XP | 4.14.10.3929 | Unchecking "solids using 2d textures" in volume dialog causes "unknown C++ exception". | 4/25/2007 | 1.2304 | 3804 | |
| Intel 915GM | Windows XP | 1.4.0 - Build 4.14.10.3929 | "Unknown C++ exception" in switching from solid rendering to surface rendering. | 1/11/2007 | 1.2304 | 3513 | |
| Intel Montara-GM | Windows XP | 4.14.10.3553 | 2d labels not showing in saved image. | 3/1/2007 | 1.2350 | 3655 |
| Graphics | Platform | Driver | Description | Date | Chimera | Bug ID | Reported By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce 8800 GTX | Windows XP and Vista | Squashed shiny atom spheres. | 1/25/2008 | 1.2470? | 5214 | Christos Gatsogiannis | |
| Quadro FX 350M | Windows XP Pro | 84.69 | Scene can appear dim because lighting is incorrect. | 10/8/2007 | 1.2422 | 4625 | Fabian Glaser |
| GeForce 7300 GT | Mac Intel | 10.4.10 | Chimera crashes using solid volume rendering. | 6/26/2007 | 2422 | 4103, 4445, 4729, 4752 | Axel Brunger, Josh, HuiTing Chou, Henning Stahlberg |
| Quadro FX 4500 | Mac Intel | 10.4.9 | Chimera crashes using solid volume rendering. | 6/16/2007 | 2417 | 4059 | Matt Dougherty |
| Quadro FX 1300 | WinXP | ? | System crash using quadbuffer stereo. Testing Dimension Technologies Inc autostereoscopic display Virtual Window 2019. | 12/1/2006 | 2304? | 3378 | Juho Kim |
| Quadro FX 1000/AGP | Linux 2.6.9-34.ELsmp | 2.0.2 NVIDIA 87.56 | Placing volume path tracer markers causes freeze. Unplugging and replugging in mouse resolves freeze. | 1/12/2007 | 1.2318 | 3515 | Jeff Triffo |
| Quadro4 | Linux RH8 | 4349 | X server hangs or operates at "glacial speeds" if Chimera window resized before displaying any data. | 5/1/2003 | 1700 | 535 | Ed Egelman |
| GeForce FX 5200 (Quadro FX 500/600) | RedHat 9 Linux | 1.4.18 | glxinfo said card is GeForce when really a Quadro (ancient driver). Dies on startup with a "ValueError: attempt to create string with null pointer" error. | 1/23/2007 | 1.2304 | Chen Xu | |
| GeForce 7700, 512 Mb RAM | Windows Vista | Rendering is extremely slow, several seconds to select atoms, and vertical black bars appear in saved images. | 5/24/2007 | 3913 | Michael Humbert | ||
| GeForce 6800 GT/PCI | Linux 2.6.17.11-102.caos | 2.1.0 NVIDIA 97.46 | Coloring of volume maps erratic when two maps open. Only happens when side view window is autostarted and models open on the command-line. | 2/12/2007 | 1.2304 | 3604 | Albion Baucom |
| GeForce 6600 GT | WinXP | ? | 100% CPU utilization on one CPU of dual opteron when doing nothing. Also system crash in solid rendering mode. | 11/15/2005 | 2186 | 2234 | JJ Heyd |
| GeForce 4 Ti4600 | Mac | 10.2.5 | Chimera crashes rotating a molecule. | 4/23/2003 | 1700 | 529 | Tom Goddard |
| RIVA TNT2 | WinXP | ? | Unknown C++ exception displaying second volume or side view window. | 5/9/2006 | 2199 | 2735 | Hernando Sosa |
| Graphics | Platform | Driver | Description | Date | Chimera | Bug ID | Reported By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum Impact | SGI IRIX | 6.5.12m | System crash using solid rendering, also sometimes with surface rendering. | 4/15/2003 | 1602 | 516 | Jean-Francois Menetret |
| Graphics | Platform | Driver | Description | Date | Chimera | Bug ID | Reported By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sis M760 Graphics Controller | Windows XP | Outline highlight not supported by hardware on Amilo A 1645 Fujitsu-Siemens laptop. | 5/15/2007 | 3870 | Volodymyr Zloy |
| Graphics | Platform | Driver | Description | Date | Chimera | Bug ID | Reported By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tungsten Graphics, Inc. Mesa DRI Radeon 20050528 | Linux | 1.2 Mesa 6.4.1 | Horizontal frame artifacts rotating molecule. | 6/20/2006 | 2251 | 2861 | Gianluca Degliesposti |
Chimera uses more OpenGL 3D graphics capabilties than other visualization programs and is more likely to encounter bugs in graphics drivers. Bugs are especially prevalent on higher performance work-station graphics cards, possibly because Chimera queries and uses advanced features of those cards that are used by few other programs. Little used and little tested graphics card features are more likely to have bugs.
No. A graphics driver is part of your operating system software. It may be supplied by the maker of your operating system (Microsoft, Apple), by the graphics card manufacturer (on Linux) systems, or by the manufacturer of your computer (common for laptops).