Arch Linux

Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

[SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

The second I boot my laptop, a bottom section of the screen is covered by a green rectangle of pixels.

Moreover, when i reach the tty and 'startx' , the issue persists.

What I tried:
Replacing mesa with mesa-amd
Adding config to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf , as recommended by the arch wiki[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel_graphics#Tearing]. although i don't think what i have qualifies as tearing
uninstalled xf86-video-intel then reinstalled, and was told to add the following

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
        Driver      "intel"
        Option      "DRI" "2"             # DRI3 is now default 
        #Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna" # default
        #Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa" # fallback
EndSection

in 20-intel.conf , but that didn't work either

Important to note that a couple of days ago, I did not have this issue. I thought my system might need an update and that would do it, but the issue still stands.

Here are some of my system's specs:
Running a laptop with a Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] .

Heres output of pacman -Qs | grep intel

local/intel-gmmlib 22.7.1-1
    Intel Graphics Memory Management Library
local/intel-media-driver 25.2.1-1
    Intel Media Driver for VAAPI — Broadwell+ iGPUs
local/intel-oneapi-common 2024.1.0-1
    Intel's oneAPI common variables and licensing
local/intel-oneapi-compiler-dpcpp-cpp-runtime-libs 2025.0.4-1
    Intel oneAPI Data Parallel C++ compiler: Minimal runtime libraries
local/intel-oneapi-compiler-shared-runtime-libs 2025.0.4-2
    Intel oneAPI compiler runtime libraries: Minimal compiler libraries
local/intel-oneapi-openmp 2025.0.4-1
    Intel oneAPI OpenMP runtime library
local/intel-oneapi-tbb 2021.12.0-2
    Intel oneAPI Threading Building Blocks
local/intel-oneapi-tcm 1.2.0-3
local/lib32-vulkan-intel 1:25.0.5-1
    Open-source Vulkan driver for Intel GPUs - 32-bit
    Intel Media SDK dispatcher library
local/libva-intel-driver 2.4.1-5
    VA-API implementation for Intel G45 and HD Graphics family
    Intel Video Processing Library
    Intel(R) Open Image Denoise library
    Intel Open Path Guiding Library
local/vulkan-intel 1:25.0.5-1
    Open-source Vulkan driver for Intel GPUs
local/xf86-video-intel 1:2.99.917+939+g4a64400e-1 (xorg-drivers)
    X.org Intel i810/i830/i915/945G/G965+ video drivers

Last edited by Sleepy20 (2025-05-15 15:18:42)

Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

Observation:
On a dark background the graphical artifact is green, while on a white background its looks red and less prominent

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,429

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

get rid of that config  and get rid of xf86-video-intel, you absolutely do not want to use either of those on a system this new. If you didn't have it "a few days ago" what actually changed? a mesa upgrade? a kernel upgrade? both?

cloverskull

Member

Registered: 2018-09-30

Posts: 219

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

Oh yikes, I hope this isn't a hardware issue. Can you try booting from a live USB to see if the issue persists there?

Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

get rid of that config  and get rid of xf86-video-intel, you absolutely do not want to use either of those on a system this new. If you didn't have it "a few days ago" what actually changed? a mesa upgrade? a kernel upgrade? both?

Nothing changed. I didn't do any upgrade is the problem, I was using my laptop for the last couple of days and in that time didn't install any new packages or update anything. Then, i got this issue when i opened it yesterday, I thought an update was needed which did update the kernel and some intel packages but the problem didn't go away.

Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

Oh yikes, I hope this isn't a hardware issue. Can you try booting from a live USB to see if the issue persists there?

I'll give this a try.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 64,007

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

The second I boot my laptop, a bottom section of the screen is covered by a green rectangle of pixels.

To figure whether this is a hardware issue: does this affect the BIOS/UEFI? Does it happen if you boot "nomodeset"?

Assuming it's not the HW:
Are you using the i915 or the xe driver?
Did you test the LTS kernel?
This is the eDP, not some external output?

xf86-video-intel is still entirely wrong here, w/o enforcing iris you're actually running on software.
But it's not the cause for artifacts on the console.

---

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Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

The second I boot my laptop, a bottom section of the screen is covered by a green rectangle of pixels.

To figure whether this is a hardware issue: does this affect the BIOS/UEFI? Does it happen if you boot "nomodeset"?

Assuming it's not the HW:
Are you using the i915 or the xe driver?
Did you test the LTS kernel?
This is the eDP, not some external output?

xf86-video-intel is still entirely wrong here, w/o enforcing iris you're actually running on software.
But it's not the cause for artifacts on the console.

Here's relevant output from lspci -nnk

0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] [8086:9a49] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:881d]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915, xe

Looks like I have i915 and xe, but i915 is being used. I suppose I need to be using xe?

Regarding xf86-video-intel, I recall installing this when I setup my system several years ago.(in 2020) I never had any issue like this before.

I turned off my laptop, pressed the power button and immediately when it turns(i.e at the grub screen)  i get this rectangle at the bottom of the screen. Went to the bios, still there.

Last edited by Sleepy20 (2025-05-04 06:36:37)

Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

Oh yikes, I hope this isn't a hardware issue. Can you try booting from a live USB to see if the issue persists there?

I'll give this a try.

Booted into the live usb, the grub screen pops up with the green rectangle thing at the bottom

cloverskull

Member

Registered: 2018-09-30

Posts: 219

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

Darn. That definitely sounds like a hardware issue. Sorry bud.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 64,007

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

I suppose I need to be using xe?

No, both are technically fine.

W/ the UEFI, grub and live system behavior, you're indeed looking at a hardware issue anyway.
Does the system work properly when connecting it to an external monitor?
Does it behave differently on battery and external power supply?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

Darn. That definitely sounds like a hardware issue. Sorry bud.

Thought so myself, if i didn't install or upgrade anything then the only thing that could have changed would be some hardware defect. I can get my laptop checked either next week or the one after that(i have exams). I will return to this forum and post an answer if i get one...

Sleepy20

Member

Registered: 2025-05-03

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Graphical Artifact when booting laptop, intel graphics

Laptop is back from repairs, turns out it was a hardware issue with the screen.

Got a new screen installed, the issue is no more.

Thanks for the swift responses