Display turning on and off very frequently

AndroGR · 2022-12-23 00:11:12

For the past 2 weeks or so my display has been turning on and off without a reason (In the timelapse of about a second), once I login and start using plasma (I get this with any desktop). I couldn't reproduce this when booting on a live ISO tho. I run linux-lts and I have a backup vanilla kernel. It will do so for a long time, although it will eventually stop for some reason and then I get to use the desktop normally. When I run:

sudo dmesg -w

Nothing new comes up except some audit messages which I assume are irrelevant.

From what it seems, the kernel or something else tries to set the resolution multiple times within a second, because I get a message similar to this:

Display mode not supported; Switching to 1920x1080@60.

On the monitor itself.

Last edited by AndroGR (2022-12-23 00:12:52)

seth · 2022-12-24 15:43:11

Post the output of "xrandr -q" and inspect and in doubt remove ~/.local/share/kscreen/
See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE#Un … lution_set

AndroGR · 2022-12-24 20:01:40

$ xrandr -q

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-A-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-0 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      74.98    59.90  
   1280x800      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    59.94  
   720x400       70.08

I also removed the directory.
I don't think it's specific to KDE though, not even X11. I had it on GNOME, Hyprland, even on SDDM and a tty.
EDIT: I also reset the monitor's settings, just in case.

Last edited by AndroGR (2022-12-24 20:10:56)

ewaller · 2022-12-24 20:29:20

Cable?

[Cables are the bane of my existence]

AndroGR · 2022-12-24 20:57:53

ewaller wrote:

Cable?
[Cables are the bane of my existence]

Just a plain DVI-D. The monitor is pretty cheap, so it doesn't support HDMI.

ewaller · 2022-12-24 21:07:13

Have you another you can try?

seth · 2022-12-24 21:12:32

I don't think it's specific to KDE though, not even X11. I had it on GNOME, Hyprland, even on SDDM and a tty.

w/ the widespread impact an absence of any suspicious modelines I'd not rule out some some wonky connection - if not the cable (though it is the cable) it could also be the output or the monitor itself, so it would be good if you could test those elements in isolation (wire a different source to the same monitor and a different monitor to your computer and use different cables )

However:

The OP wrote:

I couldn't reproduce this when booting on a live ISO tho.

probably using the same cable
But do you get the same problem when booting the installed kernel only to the multi-user.target (on the linux console) - and what resolution does that use?

More generally, probably post a system journal covering the problem.

AndroGR · 2022-12-24 21:13:19

ewaller wrote:

Have you another you can try?

Nope, I only have this one.

AndroGR · 2022-12-24 21:23:50

seth wrote:

I don't think it's specific to KDE though, not even X11. I had it on GNOME, Hyprland, even on SDDM and a tty.
w/ the widespread impact an absence of any suspicious modelines I'd not rule out some some wonky connection - if not the cable (though it is the cable) it could also be the output or the monitor itself, so it would be good if you could test those elements in isolation (wire a different source to the same monitor and a different monitor to your computer and use different cables )
However:
The OP wrote:
I couldn't reproduce this when booting on a live ISO tho.
probably using the same cable
But do you get the same problem when booting the installed kernel only to the multi-user.target (on the linux console) - and what resolution does that use?
More generally, probably post a system journal covering the problem.

I did check my connections this morning out of frustration, and even did the old trick of leaving them unconnected for 2 mins and then reconnecting everything. But I'm not ruling out the cable, it could be anything.
Speaking of which, I don't have anything to test on, unfortunately. Is there a way to find some logs (From KDE, X11, idk) that will show if any errors occur?

More generally, probably post a system journal covering the problem.

Here's the output of

sudo journalctl -b

Everything is since I posted my first reply; I haven't rebooted at all.

But do you get the same problem when booting the installed kernel only to the multi-user.target (on the linux console) - and what resolution does that use?

I didn't check this one yet, but as I said, my TTY didn't show this problem. I will test it tomorrow.

seth · 2022-12-24 21:36:14

The xorg log will probably show the output constantly re-appearing, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General

The journal shows that it's a AMD Radeon RX 550 / 550 Series (polaris12) but nothing interesting wrt your problem
There're two instances of kscren, but each only acts one, so it's not that KDE would try to set some bogus resolution.

AndroGR · 2022-12-25 18:50:16

I just went to check the X logs and now the problem gets even worse, the display changes the resolution so fast it looks like it's disabled ! So yeah, now I'm completely out of options.

I'll try again tomorrow because I had a pretty long day and I can't bother with my annoying monitor. But if it doesn't work, I'll buy a new cable or send the monitor to check for any damage.
EDIT: Well, i achieved to at least create a pastebin with X logs. I don't see anything suspicious myself but I wouldn't call me an expert on X.org errors, so I'm leaving that to y'all: https://pastebin.com/963P6rS3

Last edited by AndroGR (2022-12-25 19:00:12)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-12-23 00:11:12

Display turning on and off very frequently

#2 2022-12-24 15:43:11

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#3 2022-12-24 20:01:40

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#4 2022-12-24 20:29:20

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#5 2022-12-24 20:57:53

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#6 2022-12-24 21:07:13

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#7 2022-12-24 21:12:32

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#8 2022-12-24 21:13:19

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#9 2022-12-24 21:23:50

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#10 2022-12-24 21:36:14

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

#11 2022-12-25 18:50:16

Re: Display turning on and off very frequently

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