Arch Linux

Ahtu

Member

Registered: 2025-09-11

Posts: 5

Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

Hello everyone,

This is my first post so please be kind to me. I've used arch linux on this laptop for about 2 weeks now with no issues. Yesterday I installed evdi-dkms through yay and displaylink as these hubs are used in university. After noticing some tearing on the external monitor I decided to ditch the display link completely and connect through HDMI. I uninstalled both evdi-dkms and displaylink. I have not installed anything new after that.

I am using KDE Plasma with Wayland and ly as I was messing with some custom build UIs before.

Today when I boot in my laptop I notice artifact flickering on my internal monitor (connecting with HDMI to an external monitor has no issues). The flickering starts when ly is booted not before and not in BIOS

After ravaging the internet and pretty much exhausting ChatGPT with possible causes of the problem. I decided to make this thread.

Things I have tested so far:
updating everything through sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers (creating a lts instance? of arch and booting through GRUB) 
adding amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10 to my kernel parameters before boot
adding video=eDP-1:1920x1200@60 amdgpu.deep_color=0 amdgpu.enable_psr=0 to my kernel parameters before boot
messing with all of KDEs display settings

I am not sure what commands to run to show you exactly the problem so if you can guide me through the process it would be very helpful. I am here to learn and to hopefully fix my issue.

zaid1

Member

Registered: 2025-09-11

Posts: 3

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

It sounds like the flickering starts only after ly is loaded so it might be related to how it interacts with your GPU driver. You can check what driver is in use by running the command lspci -k | grep -A 3 VGA this should show if amdgpu is loaded or not. Also checking kernel logs could help you see errors or warnings. Use journalctl -b -p 3 --no-pager or dmesg | grep amdgpu right after you notice the flickering. There could be messages about panel self refresh or DC problems.

You should try to see if the problem happens without ly. To do this you can change the default boot target to multi-user and login from a TTY. Then start Plasma manually with startplasma-wayland this way you can check if the flicker is still present. Also it would be useful to try startplasma-x11 to see if its specific to Wayland or not.

Another thing that can help is testing with a clean user account. You can create one with sudo useradd -m testuser and set a password sudo passwd testuser then login with that account. This will show if any KDE or user configs are causing the flicker. If it works fine there then it might just be some settings conflicting with amdgpu and Wayland.

Ahtu

Member

Registered: 2025-09-11

Posts: 5

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

Thank you for the fast reply! There is a lot of things to try here. I think I already have a lead:

Running lspci -k | grep -A 3 VGA (even in sudo mode) produces:

pcilib: Error reading /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:08.3/label: Operation not permitted

This is already concerning I think.

Running journalctl -b -p 3 --no-pager produces:

Sep 11 14:53:29 Cassini kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Failure creating named object [\_SB.PCI0.GPP4._S0W], AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20240827/dswload2-326)
Sep 11 14:53:29 Cassini kernel: ACPI Error: AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog (20240827/psobject-220)
Sep 11 14:53:29 Cassini kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Failure creating named object [\_SB.PCI0.GPP4._PR0], AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20240827/dswload2-326)
Sep 11 14:53:29 Cassini kernel: ACPI Error: AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog (20240827/psobject-220)
Sep 11 14:53:29 Cassini kernel: ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Failure creating named object [\_SB.PCI0.GPP4._PR3], AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20240827/dswload2-326)
Sep 11 14:53:29 Cassini kernel: ACPI Error: AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog (20240827/psobject-220)
Sep 11 14:54:44 Cassini dbus-broker-launch[893]: Ignoring duplicate name 'org.freedesktop.FileManager1' in service file '/usr/share//dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service'
Sep 11 14:54:44 Cassini kwin_wayland[907]: kwin_xkbcommon: XKB: couldn't find a Compose file for locale "en_US,UTF-8" (mapped to "en_US,UTF-8")
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error(s) opening ddc devices
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-3
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-4
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-5
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-6
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-7
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-8
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-9
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-10
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-11
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-12
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-13
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-14
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-15
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-16
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-17
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-18
Sep 11 14:54:46 Cassini org_kde_powerdevil[1236]: [  1236] Error EACCES(-13): Permission denied opening /dev/i2c-19
Sep 11 14:54:54 Cassini wpa_supplicant[830]: bgscan simple: Failed to enable signal strength monitoring

If I understand correctly this is some BIOS firmware issue and can be the cause of the artifact flickering. But I am uncertain how to proceed.

Additionally, running sudo dmesg | grep amdgpu gives:

[sudo] password for atn: 
[    3.098553] [drm] amdgpu kernel modesetting enabled.
[    3.102269] amdgpu: Virtual CRAT table created for CPU
[    3.102278] amdgpu: Topology: Add CPU node
[    3.102379] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: enabling device (0006 -> 0007)
[    3.105236] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: Fetched VBIOS from VFCT
[    3.105238] amdgpu: ATOM BIOS: 113-STRIXEMU-001
[    3.111622] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: VPE: collaborate mode false
[    3.111631] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: Direct firmware load for amdgpu/isp_4_1_0.bin failed with error -2
[    3.207764] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: Trusted Memory Zone (TMZ) feature disabled as experimental (default)
[    3.207856] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: VRAM: 512M 0x0000008000000000 - 0x000000801FFFFFFF (512M used)
[    3.207859] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: GART: 512M 0x00007FFF00000000 - 0x00007FFF1FFFFFFF
[    3.208122] [drm] amdgpu: 512M of VRAM memory ready
[    3.208125] [drm] amdgpu: 15597M of GTT memory ready.
[    3.232259] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: reserve 0x8900000 from 0x8010000000 for PSP TMR
[    3.440526] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: RAS: optional ras ta ucode is not available
[    3.444365] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: RAP: optional rap ta ucode is not available
[    3.444366] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: SECUREDISPLAY: securedisplay ta ucode is not available
[    3.471321] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: SMU is initialized successfully!
[    3.625803] kfd kfd: amdgpu: Allocated 3969056 bytes on gart
[    3.625812] kfd kfd: amdgpu: Total number of KFD nodes to be created: 1
[    3.626468] amdgpu: Virtual CRAT table created for GPU
[    3.630461] amdgpu: Topology: Add dGPU node [0x150e:0x1002]
[    3.630462] kfd kfd: amdgpu: added device 1002:150e
[    3.630470] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: SE 1, SH per SE 2, CU per SH 8, active_cu_number 16
[    3.630474] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring gfx_0.0.0 uses VM inv eng 0 on hub 0
[    3.630475] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.0.0 uses VM inv eng 1 on hub 0
[    3.630475] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.1.0 uses VM inv eng 4 on hub 0
[    3.630476] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.2.0 uses VM inv eng 6 on hub 0
[    3.630476] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.3.0 uses VM inv eng 7 on hub 0
[    3.630477] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.0.1 uses VM inv eng 8 on hub 0
[    3.630477] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.1.1 uses VM inv eng 9 on hub 0
[    3.630477] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.2.1 uses VM inv eng 10 on hub 0
[    3.630478] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring comp_1.3.1 uses VM inv eng 11 on hub 0
[    3.630478] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring sdma0 uses VM inv eng 12 on hub 0
[    3.630479] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring vcn_unified_0 uses VM inv eng 0 on hub 8
[    3.630479] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring jpeg_dec_0 uses VM inv eng 1 on hub 8
[    3.630480] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring mes_kiq_3.1.0 uses VM inv eng 13 on hub 0
[    3.630480] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: ring vpe uses VM inv eng 4 on hub 8
[    3.637978] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: Runtime PM not available
[    3.638402] [drm] Initialized amdgpu 3.61.0 for 0000:c4:00.0 on minor 1
[    3.644029] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: [drm] fb0: amdgpudrmfb frame buffer device
[    6.096030] snd_hda_intel 0000:c4:00.1: bound 0000:c4:00.0 (ops amdgpu_dm_audio_component_bind_ops [amdgpu])

I think this already shows some clues, albeit I am not certain what to do with them. I think specifically this error [    3.111631] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: Direct firmware load for amdgpu/isp_4_1_0.bin failed with error -2 is important.

I still haven't tested if the problem persists without ly, testing startplasma-x11 or using adding a clean user account.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,169

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

Check whether you get flickering when disabling ly and/or only start the multi-user.target (2nd link below)
Then please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

pcilib: Error reading /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:08.3/label: Operation not permitted

ls -la /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:08.3/

I think specifically this error [    3.111631] amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: Direct firmware load for amdgpu/isp_4_1_0.bin failed with error -2 is important.

Probably not.

pacman -Qikk linux-firmware-amdgpu

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Ahtu

Member

Registered: 2025-09-11

Posts: 5

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

I disabled ly and installed sddm, the flickering still occurs as I load in ssdm.

here is the link to the complete system journal after reboot running ssdm: http://0x0.st/KbfG.txt

running ls -la /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:08.3/ produces:

total 0
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 .
drwxr-xr-x 29 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 0000:00:08.3:pcie001
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 0000:00:08.3:pcie010
drwxr-xr-x  8 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 0000:c6:00.0
drwxr-xr-x  8 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 0000:c6:00.3
drwxr-xr-x  8 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 0000:c6:00.4
drwxr-xr-x  7 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 0000:c6:00.5
drwxr-xr-x  7 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 0000:c6:00.6
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 acpi_index
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 ari_enabled
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 broken_parity_status
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 class
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 config
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 consistent_dma_mask_bits
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 current_link_speed
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 current_link_width
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 d3cold_allowed
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 device
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 dma_mask_bits
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 driver -> ../../../bus/pci/drivers/pcieport
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 driver_override
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 enable
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 firmware_node -> ../../LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/device:2e
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 iommu -> ../0000:00:00.2/iommu/ivhd0
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 iommu_group -> ../../../kernel/iommu_groups/12
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 irq
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 label
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 link
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 local_cpulist
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 local_cpus
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 max_link_speed
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 max_link_width
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 modalias
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 msi_bus
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 msi_irqs
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 numa_node
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 pci_bus
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 power
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 power_state
--w--w----  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 remove
--w-------  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 rescan
--w-------  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 reset
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 reset_method
--w-------  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 reset_subordinate
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 resource
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 revision
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 secondary_bus_number
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 subordinate_bus_number
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    0 Sep 11 16:29 subsystem -> ../../../bus/pci
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 subsystem_device
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 subsystem_vendor
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 uevent
-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 vendor

running pacman -Qikk linux-firmware-amdgpu produces:

Name            : linux-firmware-amdgpu
Version         : 20250808-1
Description     : Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for AMD Radeon GPUs
Architecture    : any
URL             : https://gitlab.com/kernel-firmware/linux-firmware
Licenses        : LicenseRef-WHENCE  LicenseRef-amdgpu  MIT
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : linux-firmware-whence
Optional Deps   : None
Required By     : linux-firmware
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 26.48 MiB
Packager        : Tobias Powalowski <tpowa@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Fri Aug 8 15:06:15 2025
Install Date    : Thu Aug 28 23:58:36 2025
Install Reason  : Installed as a dependency for another package
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

linux-firmware-amdgpu: 678 total files, 0 altered files

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,169

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

Nobody said anything about SDDM - does it flicker when switching to KMS (on the console)?

-r--r--r--  1 root root 4096 Sep 11 16:29 label

there do no seem to be any access restrictions.

You've an https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci:1002-150e-1043-1df3

Sep 11 16:28:30 Cassini kernel: Linux version 6.12.46-1-lts (linux-lts@archlinux) (gcc (GCC) 15.2.1 20250813, GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.45.0) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue, 09 Sep 2025 18:30:25 +0000

Do you have these issues w/ 6.16.5 (ie. the main, not LTS, kernel)?

I'll point out that

Sep 11 16:28:30 Cassini kernel: Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=UUID=8c04d4f6-66b4-4e0c-92e6-7cb35053eb02 rw loglevel=3 quiet

none of the suggested parameters is currently in the kernel commandline.
Add "amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10 amdgpu.sg_display=0" and check "cat /proc/cmdline" to make sure they applied.

Sometimes flicker can be result of power management, but the eDP is affected while the HDMI display is active and doesn't show any symptoms and they've somewhat comparable resolutions?
For reference: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU#Manually

Sidebar:

Sep 11 16:28:42 Cassini plasmashell[1289]: Fontconfig warning: ignoring en_US,UTF-8: not a valid region tag

You're locale configuration is bugged, it's "en_US.UTF-8" w/ a dot, not a comma.

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Ahtu

Member

Registered: 2025-09-11

Posts: 5

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

I am not sure how I ended up on the LTS kernel. I transitioned to the latest and updated everything:

[atn@Cassini ~]$ uname -r
6.16.6-arch1-1

I  included the suggested parameters at boot to the kernel commandline, so when I restart they would not appear. Now I have permanently added them as:

[atn@Cassini ~]$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=8c04d4f6-66b4-4e0c-92e6-7cb35053eb02 rw loglevel=3 quiet amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10 amdgpu.sg_display=0

I included this code to the boot commandline and booted without GUI, the flickering still persists on the internal monitor and the external monitor is fine.

systemd.unit=multi-user.target

I use 2 different external monitors (one at home and one at university). They are both 1920x1080 size and 140hz and 60hz respectively. Changing the refresh rate and/or size of either the internal or external monitor seems to have no effect on the flickering

I have also fixed the locale config accordingly.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,169

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

Not sure whether that would cause flicker, but does "amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x40000" help?
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 8#p2260508

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Ahtu

Member

Registered: 2025-09-11

Posts: 5

Re: Artifact Flickering on internal monitor Zenbook S16

I was away from the laptop for a couple of hours and the laptop went into sleep mode. Now when I came back to continue working on the issue it is gone without even rebooting. The only thing that changed was the battery is half way depleted. I rebooted it and the problem seems completely gone. I will charge it up to see if battery level has any effect on this issue.