[Solved] Distorted Display after boot

Eskimo · 2021-01-13 06:53:07

Hi
I have a Dell XPS 13 (9360) which has Intel onboard graphic.
I used this laptop for more than a year and did not experience any problems until some month ago after an update via "pacman -Suy"

After the boot messages are over and the system switches X on, the display is distorted. Picture of distorted image
The boot message listing itself looks good. The problem seems to begin with the start of x.
The problem does not occur at every boot. In around 50% of the boot processes the display is distorted. The rest is just fine. An external monitor does never show any problems, even if the laptop display is distorted.
When on the distorted Desktop, I can go to "Applications-Settings-Display", choose any resolution and press apply. Then the display is fine again and the distortion is gone. Even if I choose to set the display back to the resolution setting from the startup. During work, I never had any graphic glitches. If it is there, then just at the startup.

I do not think, that there is mechanical problem. Moving the Laptop display does not show any signs of a defective contact.
I assume, that one of the updated packages started the problem. I have an image of the ssd with a "not updated" arch system. As a test, I worked with this outdated system for some days and booted many times, the problem is not existent. As soon as I update the system with pacman -Suy, the problems starts.

I tried to downgrade xf86-video-intel and the xorg-server to the oldest version I have in /var/cache/pacman. But it did not help.

Any help and hints are appreciated.

Last edited by Eskimo (2021-01-23 10:25:22)

seth · 2021-01-13 10:10:04

Use the modesetting driver (there're multiple recent threads about it and the driver somehownotbutstill deprecated anyway)

pacman -Rs xf86-video-intel

Ensure there's no stale Xorg config left that references the intel driver (X11 will then fail to start)

Edit: the conflict would be between xf86-video-intel and i915, downgrading the latter would probably yield better results than the former, but that's no long term strategy.

Last edited by seth (2021-01-13 10:11:32)

Eskimo · 2021-01-13 13:03:59

Thanks for your help. I removed the Intel driver as suggested.
I will work with the modesetting driver for some days. If the problem is gone, I will mark the thread as solved.

Last edited by Eskimo (2021-01-13 13:04:22)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-01-13 06:53:07

[Solved] Distorted Display after boot

#2 2021-01-13 10:10:04

Re: [Solved] Distorted Display after boot

#3 2021-01-13 13:03:59

Re: [Solved] Distorted Display after boot

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