Arch Linux

angelus

Member

From: Argentina

Registered: 2004-02-07

Posts: 18

Screen flickering with KMS and i915

Hi,

   I'm back to Archlinux after some time since I got a new PC and I'm having some issues I can't figure out how to resolve. The situation is the following:

I had to pass the kernel parameter nomodeset (or i915.modeset=0) to the installer or else I got a blank screen during instalation, that was easy to solve.
Now I have a "working" system but want to use X of course and from what I read in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel I need to have KMS enabled (I do have an intel integrated card) and what happens is :
* with i915.modeset=0 I can boot and the console looks fine (in 80xSomething VGA resolution) but X can't start because it complains of not being able to load the intel driver (I have xf86-driver-intel installed)
* With i915.modeset=1 I can still boot, but the console starts flickering at some point, after a few boots it seems to be right when udev is starting. The flickering is with some horizontal white lines, it seems to be a frequency rate issue with KMS and it doesn't seem to be very healthy for the monitor. I can start X with that kernel parameter passed but with the same flickering all the time.

What I read:
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KMS
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel

What I tried:
- Adding i915 module to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (regenerating initramfs of course)
- Adding intel_agp module to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
- Having both modules
-  Crossing my fingers

Any guide will be greatly appreciated,
Thanks!