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ESPNSTI

Member

Registered: 2016-06-21

Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Screen Blanks After 2s- HD Graphics 5500 -Toshiba Tecra Z40-B

I'm running on a Toshiba Tecra Z40-B (PT45GU-06701E), which has a Core i7 5600U, and has HD Graphics 5500, Broadwell GT2. No other graphics chips are present.

This is a fresh install, a few days old.

When it boots up, in text mode, everything is fine, no issues there.

As soon as I run "startx", unless I frantically move the mouse around, it will either show a blank screen or will briefly show the desktop and then blank within a short period (usually 2 seconds or so).
If I keep moving the mouse continuously, it will not go blank, but as soon as I stop, within 2 seconds it will go blank again.

Once it goes blank, moving, or clicking the mouse, or pressing a key will not cause it to show the desktop.
However, if I press the power button, it will go to sleep. If I press power again, it will wake up and show the desktop again.
Once it shows again, it will again blank within 2 seconds unless I keep moving the mouse.
When it's blank, it's not locked up though, if I have a terminal open, I can give it commands during that time and it executes them.

Now here's the interesting bit.
If I change the DRI option of the intel driver in my X config (in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/) to "1", "0" or "false", I will still have to move my mouse on startup (of X), but once it has shown the desktop, I can stop moving the mouse and it works just fine.
If I set the DRI option to "2" or "3", it blanks again.

I also tried using the "modesetting" driver in X with various options, but that didn't make a difference, it also blanked unless I moved the mouse.
Shutting off DPMS in X didn't make a difference either.

Various gnome power settings (org.gnome.settings.daemon.plugins.power) had no effect on the problem.

This same behavior also exists when running Wayland/Weston. Actually I started with Wayland/Weston and later added X.
I believe I chose libinput when installing X and not evdev.

I tried various ways of disabling ACPI, including in the bios. Nothing made a difference, however I was not able to boot using "acpi=off".
I also tried various "acpi_osi=" strings, and decompiled the DSDT to see what it might be looking for, but none of the settings made a difference.

I'm not seeing any errors at the time the screen blanks, but presumably it thinks it's performing a normal operation.

I'm at a loss as to what might be causing this.
Any ideas?

Last edited by ESPNSTI (2016-07-15 19:42:58)

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Blanks After 2s- HD Graphics 5500 -Toshiba Tecra Z40-B

Shutting off DPMI in X didn't make a difference either.

Various gnome power settings (org.gnome.settings.daemon.plugins.power) had no effect on the problem.

I'm assuming you mean DPMS, not DPMI.

You must login to gnome via GDM in order for its screen blanking settings to work. Additionally, gnome seems to ignore all DPMS settings from xorg.conf or set via xset, wheter it's started via 'startx' or GDM.
Therefore you should either start gnome from GDM or use some other WM/DE that respects xorg settings, if you want to test if DPMS is causing your problem.

Naturally, if your screen is blanked by DPMS, it should wake up from keyboard/mouse activity, so the issue must be more complicated than that.

There are reports of screen freezing on intel hardware with the latest 4.6 kernel, so you could test if the issue persists with linux-lts kernel.

ESPNSTI

Member

Registered: 2016-06-21

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Blanks After 2s- HD Graphics 5500 -Toshiba Tecra Z40-B

Yes, I meant DPMS, not DPMI, I need that to run DOOM.

Thanks for the info, I'll try installing and running GDM.

Last edited by ESPNSTI (2016-07-07 01:38:39)

ESPNSTI

Member

Registered: 2016-06-21

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Screen Blanks After 2s- HD Graphics 5500 -Toshiba Tecra Z40-B

Ok, finally had time to get back to this.
Turns out it's panel self refresh that's causing the issue.

Setting the "i915.enable_psr=0" kernel parameter fixed it.
Wayland/Weston now also works.

I have updated to the latest including the kernel, but that alone didn't fix it.

I found the answer in the link you posted, ooo, thanks!

Last edited by ESPNSTI (2016-07-15 19:54:48)