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#1 2016-08-19 17:27:56

Bladtman242
Member
Registered: 2012-02-14
Posts: 127

Screen flashes with new kernel and intel i915 gfx

With one of the latest updates, my screen started "flashing black" periodically.
Unfortunately I can't capture it with ffmpeg, but it's a short flash like the screen goes off and on again, with a horizontal green line.

I also noticed this error during boot:

[drm:intel_dp_complete_link_train] *ERROR* failed to train DP, aborting

I tried various changes to my xorg configuration (DRI {off,2,3}, AccellMethod uxa) to no avail. (Actually uxa made the machine unusable)
If I stop using the intel driver, and use modesetting instead, the problem goes away, but I get a weird diagonal tearing-like aberration.
Switching to the LTS kernel also seems to solve the problem (even while still using xf86-video-intel), and also makes the boot error go away,
but I'm not really sure that's a good long term strategy. I assume whatever is in the kernel now, will one day be in lts?

Does anyone have any ideas, and/or know if I should report this anywhere in particular?

As a bonus question; if I end up going with the linux-lts kernel, should I uninstall the linux package?
This is new territory for me.

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#2 2016-08-20 17:53:17

wkd
Member
Registered: 2016-04-04
Posts: 23

Re: Screen flashes with new kernel and intel i915 gfx

I had the same issue, but only on one of my 4 devices using xf86-video-intel. Uninstalling that solved it for me. Some people these days actually recommend using the modesetting driver.

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#3 2016-08-25 09:04:06

Bladtman242
Member
Registered: 2012-02-14
Posts: 127

Re: Screen flashes with new kernel and intel i915 gfx

I tried that, but like I said, it gave me some weird tearing, which is frankly worse than the original problem.

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#4 2016-08-26 11:12:32

wkd
Member
Registered: 2016-04-04
Posts: 23

Re: Screen flashes with new kernel and intel i915 gfx

That's really odd. Do you use compositing? If so, which compositor? Also do you have another xf86-video driver installed like fbdev?
I'm wondering if you use the same videocard as me afterall. Mine is the integrated Haswell one and I got rid of screen flashing by uninstalling xf86-video-intel. Other than that I have no other xf86-video* package installed and I use compton as my compositor.

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#5 2016-08-26 12:39:12

Bladtman242
Member
Registered: 2012-02-14
Posts: 127

Re: Screen flashes with new kernel and intel i915 gfx

I don't think I use a compositor. I have no desktop env, and just use wmii, which I don't think does compositing.
I too am using an integrated haswell gfx (intel HD 4400  think).
I have no other xf86-video packages installed.
I have a friend with the same machine (a sony vaio pro, 2015's model), and he is not experiencing the "flashing" problem, though I do recall seeing some tearing on his laptop as well.
He has xf86-video-intel and xf86-video-fbdev, but no xorg configuration for the video driver, so I think xorg would choose the intel driver?

Last edited by Bladtman242 (2016-08-26 12:40:04)

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#6 2016-08-26 22:37:03

wkd
Member
Registered: 2016-04-04
Posts: 23

Re: Screen flashes with new kernel and intel i915 gfx

I'm stumped. You could still try another wm as I've never seen the tearing on my openbox/compton setup, but getting used to a different setup would be a pain.
All I can think of now is for you to compare configs with your friend and see where yours differs. Do you have any xorg settings for "Device" or "OutputClass" either in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d or in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d?

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