Laptop display flickering after update

subhamay · 2015-05-02 03:00:39

Yesterday I ran an update and after rebooting lower portion of my Laptop screen is flickering.
It stopped after changing the dispaly resolution to 1024x768 (4:3) from 1366 x768 (16:9).
How to get back my old resolution without the persistent flicker ?

Spider.007 · 2015-05-02 10:26:46

I have similar issues on my Macbook; do you also use gnome+gdm and have an Intel gpu? Linux-4 has broken a lot of gpu's; I have a few iMacs (using nouveau) with similar instability

Last edited by Spider.007 (2015-05-02 10:27:03)

smekkleysa · 2015-05-03 03:31:25

I have the same issue on Thinkpad T420s after updating the kernel to 4.0.
I guess we'll have to wait.

mmf1902 · 2015-05-04 15:28:51

Same here... Temporary solution is to downgrade to linux 3.19 (and yes... we just have to wait)

This is my relevant hardware specs:

 hwinfo --short
cpu:                                                            
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 640  @ 2.80GHz, 1333 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 640  @ 2.80GHz, 1333 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 640  @ 2.80GHz, 1200 MHz
                       Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 640  @ 2.80GHz, 2800 MHz
graphics card:
                       Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
                       ATI Robson CE [AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series]

And the graphics card

$ hwinfo --gfxcard
09: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)              
  [Created at pci.328]
  Unique ID: _Znp.sEfI3w+edXC
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x0046 "Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
  SubDevice: pci 0x162f 
  Revision: 0x02
  Driver: "i915"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xc03fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xb0000000-0xbfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x4050-0x4057 (rw)
  IRQ: 31 (28322 events)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00000046sv0000103Csd0000162Fbc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: i915 is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe i915"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

21: PCI 100.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
  [Created at pci.328]
  Unique ID: VCu0.bF8MD6aKQ12
  Parent ID: vSkL.S788AHbvEDD
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "ATI Robson CE [AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series]"
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"
  Device: pci 0x68e4 "Robson CE [AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series]"
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
  SubDevice: pci 0x162f 
  Revision: 0xff
  Driver: "radeon"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xa0000000-0xafffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xc4400000-0xc441ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x3000-0x3fff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xc4440000-0xc445ffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 32 (30 events)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d000068E4sv0000103Csd0000162Fbc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: radeon is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe radeon"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #8 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #9

Sierra.4 · 2015-05-04 20:49:00

After upgrading from kernel 3.19.3 to 4.0.1, my laptop display with Intel GM45 (i915) video started flickering also, mostly when the cursor was moved. The flickering occurred on the lightdm login screen and the LXDE desktop. I noticed that after the display resumed from the X screensaver, the flickering was gone. After a reboot, the flickering returned. I could also make it go away by changing the resolution from default 1366x768 to something else and then back. Another fix I found was to force the screensaver by typing 'xset s activate' in a terminal. Like others, downgrading the kernel back to 3.19.3 also works.

This same laptop also has an Archbang installation, using LXDM and straight Openbox. Interestingly, the display of the upgraded Archbang installation has no flickering problems.

Last edited by Sierra.4 (2015-05-05 02:31:13)

Spider.007 · 2015-05-05 11:06:47

I use gdm, and have 2 seconds to login or my screen will remain garbled and I have to hard-reboot. I have no problems whatsoever after login in...

wwn · 2015-05-05 15:05:30

t420s same...

patoruzu · 2015-05-05 16:17:56

I had a similar issue after upgrading the kernel, I have an intel graphic card and the installation of the driver below (and rebooting afterwards) resolved the issue for me (I think some default driver was in use before this):

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-intel

subhamay · 2015-05-05 17:06:21

patoruzu wrote:

I have an intel graphic card and the installation of the driver below (and rebooting afterwards) resolved the issue for me .

Thanks. That almost solved my issue. The flicker is now only in log-in phase. After that evrything is placid. My graphic card details are

[subhamay@localhost ~]$ hwinfo --gfxcard
08: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)              
  [Created at pci.328]
  Unique ID: _Znp.M+5neJd5YwE
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x0116 "2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
  SubDevice: pci 0x166f 
  Revision: 0x09
  Driver: "i915"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xc03fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xb0000000-0xbfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x4000-0x403f (rw)
  IRQ: 29 (10723 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00000116sv0000103Csd0000166Fbc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: i915 is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe i915"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Primary display adapter: #8

Thanks, once again.

Sierra.4 · 2015-05-06 18:15:21

Thanks, patoruzu. That fixed it for me.

patoruzu · 2015-05-07 23:19:39

subhamay, Sierra.4. Glad it helped . Cheers.

Wilco · 2015-05-08 11:34:29

There are also some acceleration issues, you could try uxa acceleration instead of sna:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … SNA_issues

gonciarz · 2015-05-12 22:18:57

subhamay wrote:

Yesterday I ran an update and after rebooting lower portion of my Laptop screen is flickering.
It stopped after changing the dispaly resolution to 1024x768 (4:3) from 1366 x768 (16:9).
How to get back my old resolution without the persistent flicker ?

I have noticed the similar problem after updating system today. The kernel was updated to linux-ck to 3.19.8-1 version. I've also switched to 3.19.6-1-ck, 4.0.2-2-ck and linux-4.0.1-1 without any success.

hardware: ThinkPad T410 with nVidia card

details: $ hwinfo --gfxcard
25: PCI 100.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)             
  [Created at pci.328]
  Unique ID: VCu0.XS4fFgaWdBF
  Parent ID: vSkL.HBIEsup+SaA
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Lenovo ThinkPad T410"
  Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x0a6c "GT218 [NVS 3100M]"
  SubVendor: pci 0x17aa "Lenovo"
  SubDevice: pci 0x2142 "ThinkPad T410"
  Revision: 0xa2
  Memory Range: 0xcc000000-0xccffffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xdfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xce000000-0xcfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x2000-0x2fff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xcd000000-0xcd07ffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 11 (no events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v000010DEd00000A6Csv000017AAsd00002142bc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: nouveau is not active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe nouveau"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #8 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #25

Forgotten Path · 2015-05-14 23:40:26

Same issues here on a Lenovo Y40-80. Installing xf86-video-intel helped out a lot. Funny, I thought I already had it installed. Thanks patoruzu.

$ uname -sr

Linux 4.0.2-1-ARCH

$ lspci

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics (rev 09)
05:00.0 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Venus XTX [Radeon HD 8890M / R9 M275X] (rev ff)

Shieldfire · 2015-05-24 09:42:18

I too am experiencing this from about the same time.
But, only on the login screen. Once I'm loged in the flickering stops.
Pretty irritating, but not a biggie obviously.
My laptop is a HP Probook 4530s with intel drivers, if that matters at all.
Also tried (re-)installing the interl X-driver but no change in flickering.

MarcelFox · 2015-05-28 11:00:08

Hello Guys,

I'm facing the same problem here, haven't found a solution for it yet (guess that will be fixed by a future update or so) but, one way to keep the distance from any bugs that might come up is to keep the LTS kernel as an option with your installation on your bootloader, so

# pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers

And configure you bootloader to load this kernel as an option. This don't solve the problem, but keep your configuration stable and stops the flickering.

Also, a way to prevent pacman from being so effusive is telling him to ignore some packages (like the kernel and your Display Manager):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … g_upgraded

I'm waiting for any updates that might solve our problem!

Last edited by MarcelFox (2015-05-28 11:02:22)

Shieldfire · 2015-05-31 06:46:54

OK, I solved it for me. Changing from gdm to sddm removed the flicker, so it might be something with that? At least on this box.

krono-matrixer · 2015-05-31 16:00:10

The issue is with the Intel drivers, because my machine does the same thing with Openbox and xorg-server. Some machines seems to be worse than others, and some machines even have tearing. We must wait on either Intel or Arch Linux to update or patch it, and if you are willing to do the work, compile your own kernel until then.

Additional notes:
When it is flickering, it seems to stop at the mouse's height.
When the mouse is moved, the flickering gets worse.
When I exit out of the desktop environment, and restart xorg, the issues doesn't repeat. It only happens on the first initial desktop after starting up the machine.
When I use openbox-kde-session, instead of openbox-session, it doesn't do it, even on the first start up of the desktop environment.

bceverly · 2015-06-30 14:18:15

I'm seeing the same thing on my Thinkpad x220. About two weeks ago, I updated and the flickering went away! However, I just updated today and the flickering is back. It's only on the GDM screen and it varies depending on where the mouse pointer is on the screen.

Any ideas?

Chazza · 2015-06-30 15:32:45

bceverly wrote:

I'm seeing the same thing on my Thinkpad x220. About two weeks ago, I updated and the flickering went away! However, I just updated today and the flickering is back. It's only on the GDM screen and it varies depending on where the mouse pointer is on the screen.
Any ideas?

With the update to GNOME 3.16, GDM uses Wayland instead of Xorg by default for the login screen and that seemed to cause problems for some people. Does the problem go away if you tell GDM to use Xorg instead? See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GD … rg_backend

MarcelFox · 2015-07-18 04:34:19

Nope, I've used xorg when the flickering was on. Here is the video card:

[mfox@ArchFox ~]$ lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Device c652
Kernel driver in use: i915

After the last linux upgrade (changing a lot of packages), the flickering has stopped (at least here). Like said, it was fixed by a major upgrade on the kernel + packages.

Tell me about it.

TobalJackson · 2016-02-17 16:04:20

Sorry to Necro a thread from last year, however this is the only one I've come across from a series of searches which seems to match my issue nearly exactly.

My graphics card is as follows:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Dell Device 052c
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 31
	Memory at f7800000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
	Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	I/O ports at f000 [size=64]
	Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
	Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915

The issue is as described earlier in this thread: I'm using a dual-monitor set up, and there is a flicker/glitching effect which only occurs when my mouse moves from one monitor to the other. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it usually affects the screen that the mouse is moved onto, and only up to the height that the mouse is at.

Oddly, the issue occurs more frequently the lower the mouse is (in the y-direction). While this issue is not nearly as debilitating as some of the others I've come across, it is mildly annoying to say the least.

Here is a video I recorded which shows the issue happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4p_vTuulBA

My Desktop environment is XFCE4 and i'm on 4.4.1-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Feb 3 13:12:33 UTC 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux.

I've put in the fix for switching the mode from SNA to UXA and am about to reboot now to see if this fixes the issue, but was wondering if anyone else had any experience with this issue or any other suggestions as to how to fix? If the UXA doesn't work, I'll be trying to revert to linux-lts kernel to see if that makes a difference.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Last edited by TobalJackson (2016-02-17 16:05:11)

Silkworm205 · 2016-02-17 16:09:09

Jackson, You should open a new thread and link back to this one if it's relevant.

TobalJackson · 2016-02-17 16:10:22

Ok, well, Should I open here in Newbie corner or in a different forum, like "Issues"?

Silkworm205 · 2016-02-17 16:11:52

Newbie Corner's a good catch-all for this kind of issue.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-05-02 03:00:39

Laptop display flickering after update

#2 2015-05-02 10:26:46

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#3 2015-05-03 03:31:25

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#4 2015-05-04 15:28:51

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#5 2015-05-04 20:49:00

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#6 2015-05-05 11:06:47

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#7 2015-05-05 15:05:30

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#8 2015-05-05 16:17:56

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#9 2015-05-05 17:06:21

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#10 2015-05-06 18:15:21

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#11 2015-05-07 23:19:39

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#12 2015-05-08 11:34:29

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#13 2015-05-12 22:18:57

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#14 2015-05-14 23:40:26

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#15 2015-05-24 09:42:18

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#16 2015-05-28 11:00:08

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#17 2015-05-31 06:46:54

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#18 2015-05-31 16:00:10

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#19 2015-06-30 14:18:15

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#20 2015-06-30 15:32:45

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#21 2015-07-18 04:34:19

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#22 2016-02-17 16:04:20

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#23 2016-02-17 16:09:09

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#24 2016-02-17 16:10:22

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

#25 2016-02-17 16:11:52

Re: Laptop display flickering after update

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