Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

dejy · 2016-02-01 03:51:59

Hello - I've recently setup a arch on a Dell XPS 15 (intel skylake) - and I've gone through just about everything on the wiki's for intel-graphics issues but cannot seem to find a cure. Potentially this should be bug-filed but I wanted to check in here in cases someone has any suggestions before that.

I have several major glitches using intel video. Two of these may be quite separate:

One is regarding artifacts on the screen and rendering -- for example with "TearFree" "false", the terminal shows artifacts from previous states and becomes nearly unusable - on the other hand setting "TearFree" "true" seems to create another issue where the screen will (very briefly flicker black between frequent refreshes, e.g. when scrolling or tailing a large amount of text).

The other is excessive corruption and rendering problems when using Chrome or other chrome based applications (atom-editor). Even with "TearFree" "true" I still experience corruption in atom-editor lines, switching between files sometimes causes the screen to the write the text buffer one by one scanning down etc.

I have experimented with a number of parameters, none of which seem to help much (setting "AccelMethod" to "uxa" makes the desktop very very slow but doesn't seem to fix much, I've tried glamor as well).
These issues appear to persist across both GL and non-GL based composite managers (tested with gnome-desktop and openbox+xcompmgr).

uname -a 
Linux d-pc 4.4.0-4-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jan 20 07:42:27 CET 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux

lspci | grep VGA                                                                             
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 191b (rev 06)

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "TearFree" "true"
   # Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
   # Experimental Accelmethod
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "glamor"
   # "DRI"	"2" is default
   Option      "DRI"    "3"
   BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

pacman -Q | grep intel
xf86-video-intel 1:2.99.917+519+g8229390-1

MichaelGrrrr · 2016-02-01 17:53:44

I don't know if it would help you but take a look.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 4#p1582974

andreyv · 2016-02-02 20:39:27

I found that the "modesetting" X.org driver (instead of the "intel" driver) works well with a Skylake system and kernel 4.4.

You can try the driver by just setting

Driver      "modesetting"

in your configuration file and commenting out all options.

dejy · 2016-02-05 02:12:49

andreyv wrote:

I found that the "modesetting" X.org driver (instead of the "intel" driver) works well with a Skylake system and kernel 4.4.
You can try the driver by just setting
Driver      "modesetting"
in your configuration file and commenting out all options.

I've tried this -- it is much worse. I'll try some debug driver settings over the weekend and file a bug with intel-graphics.

Last edited by dejy (2016-02-05 02:15:02)

Wilco · 2016-02-05 13:37:29

I've noticed the same problem but with an older than Skylake chipset. Try downgrading the intel driver.

dejy · 2016-02-23 04:58:21

I've filed a bug but with the number of untouched issues I think it's highly unlikely to be fixed soon: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/buglist.cg … _id=570286

Until then I strongly advise against purchasing a computer with an Intel Skylake chipset.

SHARPY · 2016-02-23 05:24:48

I have tested out 4.5rc1-3 on my skylake system with much improvements with each RC. Currently waiting on 4.5 to go stable. Give the mainline kernel a shot (if you are willing), see if you get some better results.

Goresome · 2016-02-24 07:05:52

I have newer Broadwell and also experience artifacts with Chrome, namely shifted shimmering scanlines, is that what you experience? But no whole screen flickering.

dekece · 2016-02-24 20:48:05

I see that you use dri 3, I also had problems when going fullscreen with vlc for example, if something popped on screen (vlc menu, thunderbird notification, etc.) The whole thing would flicker crazy with old frames until the overlaid item dissappeared.

I just commented it (it defaults to dri 2 I think) and the fullscreen problems went away.

dejy · 2016-03-13 14:03:50

dekece wrote:

I see that you use dri 3, I also had problems when going fullscreen with vlc for example, if something popped on screen (vlc menu, thunderbird notification, etc.) The whole thing would flicker crazy with old frames until the overlaid item dissappeared.
I just commented it (it defaults to dri 2 I think) and the fullscreen problems went away.

I tried DRI 2 and 3 with no noticeable difference. At 2048x1152 it's mostly okay (some visual glitches with chrome based applications such as a Atom) at 3840x2160 it's absolutely unusable with any settings that I've tried.

Goresome wrote:

I have newer Broadwell and also experience artifacts with Chrome, namely shifted shimmering scanlines, is that what you experience? But no whole screen flickering.

Yes - exactly it. I also experience artifacts in none Chrome applications (but much less frequently). The whole-screen flickering I think is a consequence of the Tear-Free setting (my guess would be something like it wipes the page to all-black and then renders from scratch, when it fails to do so fast enough, you end up with a very brief black-screen before the next frame - I don't have any experience with video rendering code though just making some assumptions).

Last edited by dejy (2016-03-13 14:07:40)

dmarkey · 2016-04-14 12:17:06

Anyone come up with any solutions here?

mafrasi2 · 2016-04-28 13:49:45

Adding the following to my kernel parameters fixed the flickering for me (on a XPS 15 w/ i7-6700HQ):

i915.enable_rc6=0

marius311 · 2016-05-21 20:38:05

For me "AccelMethod" "uxa" seems to solve it, and unlike in OP's case, doesn't seem to slow anything else down noticeably, so its a working solution.

fettouhi · 2016-07-14 10:46:14

I have similar isuues with a newly build desktop with i7-6700k. Using vlc is impossible with constant flickering when sna is turned on.

danalec · 2017-01-03 21:40:04

I've spent a lot of time on this

Finally got it working, thanks everybody in this thread!

Intel Core i5-6600K
GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-UD3

╭─ ~                                                                          ✓ 
╰─ uname -a 
Linux core 4.8.13-1-vfio #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 16 14:10:56 BRST 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux
╭─ ~                                                                          ✓ 
╰─ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 (rev 06)
╭─ ~                                                                          ✓ 
╰─ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
	Driver      "intel"
	Option      "DRI" "2"
	Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa" # fallback
	Option      "TearFree" "true"
EndSection
╭─ ~                                                                          ✓ 
╰─ pacman -Q | grep intel
intel-ucode 20161104-1
vulkan-intel 13.0.2-2
xf86-video-intel 1:2.99.917+746+g169c74f-1
╭─ ~                                                                          ✓ 
╰─ cat /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf 
<<ommit>>
modprobe.blacklist=nouveau i915.enable_rc6=0 i915.enable_psr=0 i915.preliminary_hw_support=1 i915.enable_hd_vgaarb=1 intel_idle.max_cstate=1

Arch Linux

#1 2016-02-01 03:51:59

Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#2 2016-02-01 17:53:44

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#3 2016-02-02 20:39:27

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#4 2016-02-05 02:12:49

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#5 2016-02-05 13:37:29

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#6 2016-02-23 04:58:21

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#7 2016-02-23 05:24:48

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#8 2016-02-24 07:05:52

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#9 2016-02-24 20:48:05

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#10 2016-03-13 14:03:50

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#11 2016-04-14 12:17:06

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#12 2016-04-28 13:49:45

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#13 2016-05-21 20:38:05

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#14 2016-07-14 10:46:14

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

#15 2017-01-03 21:40:04

Re: Intel Skylake Graphics Issues (Corruption/Flickering/Artifacts)

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