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#1 2021-02-17 13:52:36

jamochl
Member
Registered: 2021-02-17
Posts: 7

[SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

Hi there, is anyone having the same problem?

Ever since the 5.10 kernels have come out I've had this problem, which causes annoying screen flickering. I've fixed all the errors from viewing

dmesg -l err,warn

and identified it to be especially related to this

[   59.695174] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun

From searching around I see a lot of articles from 3-5 years ago, none of which really fixed my issues.

I tried the solution from this

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p1533863

changing the Intel driver backend to uxa from sna, which made the system unbearably slow and unusable.

I've tried change the xf86 video driver from

xf86-video-intel

to

xf86-video-vesa

as

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_graphics

recommends not using the intel driver. I installed vesa removed intel and restarted. Same problem.

I've isolated the problem more or less to the kernel, as I was on linux-lts 5.4 for a while now due to this issue on linux. System worked fine for 5.4-5.9, this only occurs on 5.10. As linux-lts has now moved to 5.10, this has become a pressing issue for me.

Has this effected anyone else, or does anyone have any tips to fix this?

Other sites I looked at:
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/forum/grap … -pipe-fifo
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=228604
https://ubuntu-bugs.narkive.com/GRJ85LG … g-glitches

On an unrelated note to the screen flickering, though still related to Kernel & Hardware, I also had to fix an irq issue that arose in 5.10. I'm not sure whether to file a kernel bug report on it because I don't know if its isolated to my system. Please comment if it has effected you too.

That one I fixed by following the suggestion by booting with irqpoll

Feb 17 23:07:51 kernel: irq 31: nobody cared (try booting with the "irqpoll" option)
Feb 17 23:07:51 kernel: handlers:
Feb 17 23:07:51 kernel: [<0000000066201786>] tis_int_handler [tpm_tis_core]
Feb 17 23:07:51 kernel: Disabling IRQ #31
Feb 17 23:07:52 kernel: tpm tpm0: tpm_try_transmit: send(): error -62
Feb 17 23:07:52 kernel: tpm tpm0: [Firmware Bug]: TPM interrupt not working, polling instead

P.S See bottom, temporary fix is to put

intel_idle.max_cstate=4

in the kernel commandline.

Last edited by jamochl (2021-02-26 04:01:06)

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#2 2021-02-17 15:03:55

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,992

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

You *absolutely*do not want to use the vesa driver and the wikie doesn't suggest that.
If you kick xf86-video-intel, you'll use the modesetting driver (which is already available w/ the server)

Did you try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … flickering ?

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#3 2021-02-17 16:34:11

berbae
Member
From: France
Registered: 2007-02-12
Posts: 1,302

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

Hello jamochl

Do you get screen flickering immediately after reboot or when you do something specific?

I have this problem like you and I started using the linux-lts kernel 5.4 releases when the linux kernel 5.10 releases was the arch kernel default.
Today I switched again to the linux 5.10.16.arch1-1 package which is still in core, keeping the old linux-lts 5.4.98-1, in case I get flickering again.
I rebooted and I don't experience any flickering yet, but I want to know if the flickering may appear when I start some appli maybe some video.
So could you tell me when you see screen flickering on you machine, thanks.

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#4 2021-02-17 23:18:23

jamochl
Member
Registered: 2021-02-17
Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

seth wrote:

You *absolutely*do not want to use the vesa driver and the wikie doesn't suggest that.
If you kick xf86-video-intel, you'll use the modesetting driver (which is already available w/ the server)

Did you try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … flickering ?

Hi Seth, that's great to know, I was looking for the modesetting driver but couldn't find it so I thought vesa was the equivalent. I will try that and your other suggestion and see what happens.

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#5 2021-02-17 23:21:40

jamochl
Member
Registered: 2021-02-17
Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

berbae wrote:

Hello jamochl

Do you get screen flickering immediately after reboot or when you do something specific?

I have this problem like you and I started using the linux-lts kernel 5.4 releases when the linux kernel 5.10 releases was the arch kernel default.
Today I switched again to the linux 5.10.16.arch1-1 package which is still in core, keeping the old linux-lts 5.4.98-1, in case I get flickering again.
I rebooted and I don't experience any flickering yet, but I want to know if the flickering may appear when I start some appli maybe some video.
So could you tell me when you see screen flickering on you machine, thanks.

Same, I'm glad Arch cache's old packages, which allowed me to downgrade LTS to 5.4.98 and set it to ignore upgrades in the pacman.conf.

As to what causes the flickering, I usually start a terminal and the brave browser immediately on system start so i'm not sure if either affects it.

From boot, dmesg shows no errors until about 20 seconds in where I get the [drm] error, and the screen flickering starts.

I will try to let it sit idle and see if I still get the flickering.

Last edited by jamochl (2021-02-17 23:22:40)

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#6 2021-02-18 02:08:56

jamochl
Member
Registered: 2021-02-17
Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

seth wrote:

You *absolutely*do not want to use the vesa driver and the wikie doesn't suggest that.
If you kick xf86-video-intel, you'll use the modesetting driver (which is already available w/ the server)

Did you try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … flickering ?

Great suggestion, at the very least, flickering in Xorg has stopped with the default modesetting driver.

The issue still isn't solved for the flickering in the tty though. tty is important to me, as I use a tty login manager and like to debug in tty occasionally.

i915.enable_psr=0

kernel parameter did not work.

Nor did

i915.fastboot=1

which according to intel graphics on arch wiki 'The goal of Intel Fastboot is to preserve the frame-buffer as setup by the BIOS or bootloader to avoid any flickering until Xorg has started.'

Not super relevant but for documentation purposes, i'm getting both pipe A and B errors now. This was what happened months ago when 5.10 first released so i'm not surprised.

[  +1.871983] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun
[  +0.002205] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe B FIFO underrun

Also looking at the pci code 00:02:0, this is

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics (rev 02)

Which seems to be my graphics.

Still not sure what the issue is.

berbae wrote:

Hello jamochl

Do you get screen flickering immediately after reboot or when you do something specific?

I have this problem like you and I started using the linux-lts kernel 5.4 releases when the linux kernel 5.10 releases was the arch kernel default.
Today I switched again to the linux 5.10.16.arch1-1 package which is still in core, keeping the old linux-lts 5.4.98-1, in case I get flickering again.
I rebooted and I don't experience any flickering yet, but I want to know if the flickering may appear when I start some appli maybe some video.
So could you tell me when you see screen flickering on you machine, thanks.

Also berbae, what CPU model and Graphics are you using? You can use lspci to see, would be good in verifying what the problem is. Also, when you use 'dmesg -l err,warn -H' do you see similar errors to mine? And can is your tty is flicker free? If not sure, ctrl-alt-f1 or ctrl-alt-f3 will bring you into the system tty, ctrl-alt-f2 brings back to xorg. Mine starts to flicker as the systemd startup is loading

Thanks!

Last edited by jamochl (2021-02-18 02:11:38)

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#7 2021-02-18 09:21:34

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,992

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

What if you pick a lower resolution/refresh rate (look up the values and output names in "xrandr -q") for the console, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/torva … modedb.rst ?

Edit: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/1900
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/3007 (is this a display port output?)

Last edited by seth (2021-02-18 09:22:31)

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#8 2021-02-18 09:36:17

jamochl
Member
Registered: 2021-02-17
Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

seth wrote:

What if you pick a lower resolution/refresh rate (look up the values and output names in "xrandr -q") for the console, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/torva … modedb.rst ?

Edit: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/1900
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/3007 (is this a display port output?)

I don't think that can be the problem, because xorg with modesetting drivers seems to be fine. It's just my tty going bonkers now. I do have an external monitor hooked up to HDMI tho, i'll see if booting without it does anything.

P.S dang it, i'm testing it now and the flickering is back even in Xorg with the modesetting drivers. HDMI doesn't seem to have changed the issue.

Last edited by jamochl (2021-02-18 09:43:10)

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#9 2021-02-18 10:51:54

berbae
Member
From: France
Registered: 2007-02-12
Posts: 1,302

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

My CPU:

févr. 18 09:57:25 arch64 kernel: smpboot: CPU0: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G3260 @ 3.30GHz (family: 0x6, model: 0x3c, stepping: 0x3)

My Graphics:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

The command 'dmesg -l err,warn -H' shows no errors like yours for drm or cpu.

I use the modesetting driver.
Still no flickering for me with linux 5.10.16.

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#10 2021-02-18 12:56:49

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,992

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

Because of the context of the other bugs (please post a complete dmesg for comparism): https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ete_freeze ?

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#11 2021-02-26 03:57:12

jamochl
Member
Registered: 2021-02-17
Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

Hi everyone, thanks for the help, after digging into the specific kernel issue page for i915 Intel drivers, I've found the problem and the temporary fix.

The problem has to do with issues related to C-States, or Intel's powersaving states. On kernel's 5.4 and below, only a max of PC3 is allowed, whereas in kernels 5.4+, deeper states (more powersaving) is used.

As james reports in

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/272

This problem seems to be related to the activity of deep package sleep states (on my hardware PC7 and deeper). I built and booted a 5.4 kernel and the problem went away, but that's only because it wasn't allowing package sleep states deeper than PC3.
Check in powertop that states deeper than PC6 are actually being used under 5.4 and 5.8.

and

I've not found a fix, just worked around it with intel_idle.max_cstate=4.

I have tested this, and adding

intel_idle.max_cstate=4

to the cmdline of my kernel startup, does indeed fix my issues. While this bug is not yet solved in the kernel, I will mark it as solved here, as there's nothing Arch Devs can really do about it. Please follow these issues for more information on fixes.

Related issue articles:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/issues/2077

Last edited by jamochl (2021-02-26 04:03:14)

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#12 2021-03-02 21:31:25

trashe
Member
Registered: 2021-03-02
Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

I just had the same issue, and your fix with the kernel params worked for me :+1:
Much appreciated, thanks!!

Just FYI, my CPU is
Intel i7-10510U
and my GPU is
Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2)

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#13 2021-05-15 23:22:41

jamochl
Member
Registered: 2021-02-17
Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] i5-10210U Screen Flickering [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A...

trashe wrote:

I just had the same issue, and your fix with the kernel params worked for me :+1:
Much appreciated, thanks!!

Just FYI, my CPU is
Intel i7-10510U
and my GPU is
Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2)

I am glad to hear that, apparently according to the issue on gitlab, a fix has been pushed. But I do not know what it will get into the Arch kernels, or if it does fix our issue. I have discovered as well that cstate=4 sometimes will flicker as well, as powertop shows it going into sleep state 6. To consistently fix it, I change it to cstate=3, but that does use a little more power.

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