[Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-04 09:08:53

Hello there

hope I'm right here. Recently upgraded my Kernel from 6.1 to 6.2 (currently back to 6.1 lts and that is fine at least), but and as soon I start 6.2 and try to use X11 I get a flickering Display: After Login to X11

The SDDM is fine on first boot. but can make the issue too if you try to sign out / switch users. And as soon I switch the Wayland on the SDDM and login with that, it works fine (except when you do the logout thing).
Anyone any idea where the issue could come from? Checked Systemctl, Journalctl and xorg logs but found nothing special in them, even compared to logfiles created with booted Kernel 6.1lts.

E.g dmesg:
1. Boot with 6.2: https://clbin.com/7y2Jo
2. Boot with 6.2: https://clbin.com/MjC7U
3. Boot with 6.1lts: https://clbin.com/1p4sj

Xorg logs:
6.2: https://clbin.com/fGRgh
6.1: https://clbin.com/0YWlb

Any ideas where I could start to look at and to get further information about the issue, or maybe create a bug report with that too?
System:
DE: KDE
GPU: 7950x iGPU with AMDGPU drivers from Kernel

Thank you for the advise and inputs
Note: Kernel 6.1 before LTS and now with 6.1 LTS I did not had any issues like that it starts as soon I start 6.2 - so it has to be something related to kernel

E: d*** could use something like https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ … xG3U1mur62 but for 6.1 to 6.2 maybe loqs has that too *hope/pray*

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-04 10:34:57)

seth · 2023-03-04 09:42:40

What if you drop xf86-video-amdgpu?

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-04 09:49:41

you mean drop = pacman -R xf86-video-amdgpu, or just unload the amdgpu driver?
But then I would only have tty / no gpu to display on -> or do you mean I should test if tty is flickering to? (Or do I miss here something)

checked with pacman: xf86-video-amdgpu-23.0.0-1 would be installed / seems to be up to date
lsmod: https://clbin.com/aLJX0 (from booted 6.1)

Thank you for the replay

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-04 09:53:32)

seth · 2023-03-04 09:54:06

you mean

Yes.

then I would only have tty / no gpu

No, you'd use the modesetting driver on top of the kernel module.

grep -ri amdgpu /{etc,usr/share}/X11/xorg.conf*

to make sure the ddx driver isn't referenced in any config files (in that case Xorg would indeed fail)

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-04 10:12:50

Removed xf86-video-amdgpu and rebooted to 6.2 and as soon I logged into X11 it started again with the flickering
lsmod "shows amdgpu": https://clbin.com/cSysO

Pain to watch ^^: https://imgur.com/TKhXO5l
https://imgur.com/kWZx7Nl

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-04 10:13:43)

seth · 2023-03-04 10:22:55

What happens if you suspend the compositor (SHIFT+alt+F12)?

lsmod is unrelated to the ddx driver, you'll need the kernel module - that's fine.

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-04 10:28:16

seth wrote:

What happens if you suspend the compositor (SHIFT+alt+F12)?

And we found the cause compositor is the issue on 6.2 (also just updated to 6.2.2-arch1-1, just to test that too)

Booted that and using X11 to write this - no flickering anymore... KDE compositor then Thank you for the help to narrow it down

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-04 10:29:16)

seth · 2023-03-04 15:08:57

Do you get the flicker w/ picom and
1. the glx backend?
1. the xrender backend?

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-05 19:49:53

Have a look in the next days - will have to figure out how to get that working picom / other backends (never bothered with that yet)

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-05 19:50:42)

seth · 2023-03-05 20:47:09

Feel free to "bump" the thread then with a new post (technically it's not as you're providing new information) - I'll typipcally not frequentyl revisit old threads for updating edits.

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-16 19:06:54

Can do, but as I never have 'bothered' to switch from x backend to picom / dont want to kill my setup - any 'recent' guides or wiki to switch from kde compositor to picom that is 'usable'? - would not mind some adaption from distro x way to arch tho.

Would love to find issues/causes for it to provide here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=466820
Also (other am5 igpu users / other amd or even nv/intel gpu users with kde) a feedback could help - maybe just a bleeding edge - cutting edge issue - but would be curios to read other users feedback on kde (latest) with 6.2+
Also have to test the up most updates / boot to 6.2 instead of lts and retest

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-16 19:08:11)

seth · 2023-03-16 21:37:50

Suspending/disabling the kwin compositor and running "picom" will do.
picom will default to xrender and "picom --backend glx" will launch it w/ the glx backend.

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-19 15:57:48

Just suspended (SHIFT+alt+F12) kwin and installed picom (pacman -Syu picom) and did run both commands above -> both of them resulted in a static white screen. No flicker but yeah not more than that.
Updated the system to the latest Kernel/Packages 6.2.7-arch1-1 and LTS kernel and its the same as before (6.1.20-1-lts fine -> 6.2+ broken)

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-19 15:59:52)

seth · 2023-03-19 20:37:04

run both commands above -> both of them resulted in a static white screen

Did you mayhaps try that in a wayland session? (Cause that's not gonna work)

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-21 06:47:07

no pretty sure I was in X11, as I do use main X11 here - "have some issues with wayland and looking-glass.io" as start window in full screen mode etc pp, thus not bothering yet with wayland.
And I got greeted by my kwin flicker compositor and had to suspended it first to even use my de, and on wayland the compositor does not flicker

seth · 2023-03-21 08:31:36

Does picom print anything to stdout/err?
I cannot even imagine how you'd end up w/ a "static while screen" unless the gamma ramps get altered (for no reason)
Do you still see the mouse cursor?

ioagel · 2023-03-23 13:16:00

I have exactly the same problem with kernel 6.2 and 7950x igpu (white screens in both of my 4k monitors). With lts kernel 6.1 everything works fine.
The problem occurs either with picom enabled or disabled.

Last edited by ioagel (2023-03-23 13:17:42)

seth · 2023-03-23 14:08:36

The OPs problem is flicker because of the kwin compositor, the picom situation is for now some curiosity.
Random white screen in a completely unspecified context are note related ex ante.
Open a new thread and describe the environment where you experience the symptoms (display server, window manager, …)

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-25 11:12:38

seth wrote:

Does picom print anything to stdout/err?

not that I saw anything in console directly

seth wrote:

I cannot even imagine how you'd end up w/ a "static while screen" unless the gamma ramps get altered (for no reason)

yeah strangely enough if I start it I just see a white screen and have to ctrl+c to get back to any usable state

seth wrote:

Do you still see the mouse cursor?

unfortunately no and using a black courser

ioagel wrote:

I have exactly the same problem with kernel 6.2 and 7950x igpu (white screens in both of my 4k monitors). With lts kernel 6.1 everything works fine.

At least a similar issue (I guess) but - "glad to hear that I'm not the only one" with compositor issues (also please link to your thread Interested - as I can reproduce white screens too with picom (but just when I start it, as I tested it here for my compositor issue)

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-25 11:17:50)

seth · 2023-03-25 12:18:17

unfortunately no and using a black courser

Means it's not actually the compositor.
Does picom behave the same under the "good" 6.1 kernels?

Kenny.ch · 2023-03-25 12:48:08

No with 6.1 it works like it should / you would expect.

Last edited by Kenny.ch (2023-03-25 12:49:33)

Arch Linux

#1 2023-03-04 09:08:53

[Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#2 2023-03-04 09:42:40

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#3 2023-03-04 09:49:41

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#4 2023-03-04 09:54:06

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#5 2023-03-04 10:12:50

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#6 2023-03-04 10:22:55

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#7 2023-03-04 10:28:16

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#8 2023-03-04 15:08:57

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#9 2023-03-05 19:49:53

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#10 2023-03-05 20:47:09

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#11 2023-03-16 19:06:54

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#12 2023-03-16 21:37:50

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#13 2023-03-19 15:57:48

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#14 2023-03-19 20:37:04

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#15 2023-03-21 06:47:07

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#16 2023-03-21 08:31:36

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#17 2023-03-23 13:16:00

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#18 2023-03-23 14:08:36

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#19 2023-03-25 11:12:38

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#20 2023-03-25 12:18:17

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

#21 2023-03-25 12:48:08

Re: [Solved] Display Flickers w Kernel 6.2 on X11, not on Wayland

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