Arch Linux

I have a similar issue with a dell vostro laptop.
I believe it first occurred when I upgraded to linux (3.5.6-1 -> 3.6.2-1).
Simultaneously I also upgraded xorg (1.12.4-1 -> 1.13.0-2)

But I did a downgrade of xorg and all the related x-packages afterwards
and the problem did still exist.

Now I don't know if it is a hardware issue showing up under certain conditions
that are new with the new kernel or if it is a software problem.

I attach a screen shot with part of a gnome-terminal showing the corrupted
screen.

My graphics card: VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI BeaverCreek [Mobility Radeon HD 6620G]

On the laptop I have an ubuntu 12.04 LTS installation in addition. In this
system I don't see the problem.

just found the follwing message in journalctl:
kernel: radeon 0000:00:01.0: GPU lockup CP stall for more than 10000msec

I'm now more convinced that this is a radeon / kms issue that is made apparent by GS 3.6. From journalctl:

Oct 19 16:19:46 eeyore kernel: radeon 0000:05:00.0: object_init failed for (12705792, 0x00000006)
Oct 19 16:19:46 eeyore kernel: [drm:radeon_gem_object_create] *ERROR* Failed to allocate GEM object (12705792, 4, 8192, -12)
Oct 19 16:19:46 eeyore kernel: [TTM] Failed to find memory space for buffer 0xffff8801cb53dc48 eviction
Oct 19 16:19:46 eeyore kernel: [TTM] No space for ffff8801cb53dc48 (3102 pages, 12408K, 12M)
...
Oct 19 16:19:46 eeyore kernel: [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Failed to parse relocation -12!

No such issues having migrated the machine to an older Nvidia (nouveau) card.

I have to admit my assumption from above was wrong.
I found out downgrading to the following packages get's my system back to
a state that does not show the distortions I reported above:

ati-dri-8.0.4-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
libgl-8.0.4-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

I did that after having synchronized today.

I now think my problem is different from the one the bug report is about.

Should I open a new report?

opening a bug in here is pointless since we are only packagers and not the developers of the ati driver or gnome-shell.

please report the bugs upstream.

I reported the bug to:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56405

Not solved yet.

I think Michael's problem is different. I have similar errors as Jonathan in the logs and corruption in gnome-shell (missing letters being the most visible symptom). I have another card though (HD 6870), but still using the open-source radeon. Just to let you know it's not just you.

I haven't tried Gnome for a while, so I don't even know where to start bisecting unfortunately. I'm just fighting myself whether to start stabbing in the dark or just go back to Xfce instead. Downgrading to the packages Michael mentioned does not help.

I had some major video corruption as well, but I have an NVIDIA card and I use the binary blob. What fixed it for me could be either a restart or the disabling of incompatible extensions (https://extensions.gnome.org/local/). You could see if you have active extensions.

No extensions here whatsoever.

I have exactly the same problems with radeon (hd3650) gnome 3.6.2! In dmesg: [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Failed to parse relocation -12! Already on https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56621 So this is not a arch problem..

At least for my problem a fix has been found see:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56405

Is it still an issue with current kernel/mesa, i saw that freedesktop bugreport is closed as *fixed* ?

Seems to be fixed at least for me. No corruption anymore.