Annoying Screen Flickering with Intel GM45 Chipset

[SteveRiley]

Sorry, dude, I'm out of immediate ideas. If I encounter anything else that looks like it might help, I'll post back here. This is indeed most weird.

Wait...one more thing. There's a fair amount of activity going on right now to improve kernel support for Intel graphics. Some of this activity is reflected in a special kernel build for Intel DRM (direct rendering management). You might try this.

Do you know how to manually install kernel .debs? Also, are you running 32-bit or 64-bit Kubuntu on that Dell of yours?

[PJK]

Okay. I got those 2 log files, but I think it's pointless to snoop. Here's what I learned yesterday:

Upon certain reboots, the problem did not occur. Weird enough, I acted prematurely when I stated that lack of AC power prevented the problem. Not true. During my testing yesterday, first I was under the impression that it is due to AC power, not true. Following reboots still showed flickering. Then I thought it might be because of screen brightness, not true either. I have no idea what caused it not to flicker the 2 out of 15 reboots I've performed last night, I just don't. I think it's a problem with the current kernel, so it might not be that easy of a fix.

SteveRiley let me know what you think. Through all the trials I've performed I cannot seem to be able to prevent the issue with whatever I try, and I could not figure out a common factor between the 2 reboots last night that resulted in no flickering. The 2nd time it didn't flicker, I was on AC with screen brightness maxed, the first time I was on battery with screen brightness 3/4. I just don't freakin' get it.

Is it a BIOS setting or something? I haven't seen anyone else report this issue with Ubuntu 12.04. Earlier distros, yeah, such as 9 and 10 from what people posted in the Bug threads, but like I said, 11 didn't have this. What giv

[SteveRiley]

Now somethings got me puzzled, it says "1280x800 (0x49) 69.3MHz +HSync -VSync *current +preferred" which is bull, because my refresh rate is set to 60.

You're referring to this:

 1280x800 (0x49)   69.3MHz +HSync -VSync *current +preferred
        h: width  1280 start 1328 end 1352 total 1416 skew    0 clock   48.9KHz
        v: height  800 start  803 end  809 total  816           clock   60.0Hz

...and confusing vertical refresh rate (or sync frequency) with the pixel clock. Note that your vertical refresh rate is indeed 60.0 Hz, as confirmed by the third line above. In the first line, 69.3 MHz indicates the pixel clock rate of your graphics hardware, which is a measure of the bandwidth between the graphics chip and the display device. Observe the difference in units

So out of the blue I decided to reboot without AC plugged in. No flickering. Clicked on Size and Orientation, no flickering. Switched to different category on left, plugged AC in, clicked on Size and Orientation, flickering... grrr...

Possibly a hint here. Up for some sleuthing? Let's see if there's anything obviously different between battery and AC.

Power off. Unplug AC. Boot on battery. Log in. Then:

cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log xlog-battery
xrandr --verbose > xrr-battery

Now, power off. Plug AC back in. Boot on AC. Then:

cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log xlog-ac
xrandr --verbose > xrr-ac

Now compare the two "xlog" files against each other and compare the two "xrr" files against each other. To ignore the probably different timestamps in the "xlog" files, use cut to strip them:

diff <(cut -b13- xlog-battery) <(cut -b13- xlog-ac)

Or, probably better, output new trimmed files:

cut -b13- xlog-battery > xlog-battery-2 && cut -b13- xlog-ac > xlog-ac-2

and view the files side-by-side in Kate.

[PJK]

Here's something really,really interesting... the easiest way for me to replicate the bug on demand is go into System Settings > Hardware > Display & Monitor > Size and Orientation, when I click on that tab (in Tree view) it flickers 3-4 times. So out of the blue I decided to reboot without AC plugged in. No flickering. Clicked on Size and Orientation, no flickering. Switched to different category on left, plugged AC in, clicked on Size and Orientation, flickering... grrr... Actually, I ran so many commands, and tried to update so many times, I messed up writing that post. After I added Xorg-Edgers PPA, apt-get upgrade did in fact download a whole bunch of drivers.

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade upgraded this:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
libdrm-nouveau2
The following packages will be upgraded:
libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

xrandr --verbose

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (0x49) normal (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 20700mm
Identifier: 0x41
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: horizontal rgb
Gamma: 1.0:1.0:1.0
Brightness: 1.0
Clones:
CRTC: 1
CRTCs: 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
EDID:
00ffffffffffff00320c000000000000
00120103902115780ab7859959538d27
25505400000001010101010101010101
010101010101121b0088502010303018
36004bcf1000001b0e12008850201030
301836004bcf1000001b000000fe0058
33393748803135345758350a00000000
0026343e446489a4ff01010a20200018
BACKLIGHT: 9 (0x00000009) range: (0,15)
Backlight: 9 (0x00000009) range: (0,15)
scaling mode: Full aspect
supported: None Full Center Full aspect
1280x800 (0x49) 69.3MHz +HSync -VSync *current +preferred
h: width 1280 start 1328 end 1352 total 1416 skew 0 clock 48.9KHz
v: height 800 start 803 end 809 total 816 clock 60.0Hz
1280x800 (0x4a) 46.2MHz +HSync -VSync
h: width 1280 start 1328 end 1352 total 1416 skew 0 clock 32.6KHz
v: height 800 start 803 end 809 total 816 clock 40.0Hz
1024x768 (0x4b) 65.0MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 1024 start 1048 end 1184 total 1344 skew 0 clock 48.4KHz
v: height 768 start 771 end 777 total 806 clock 60.0Hz
800x600 (0x4c) 40.0MHz +HSync +VSync
h: width 800 start 840 end 968 total 1056 skew 0 clock 37.9KHz
v: height 600 start 601 end 605 total 628 clock 60.3Hz
800x600 (0x4d) 36.0MHz +HSync +VSync
h: width 800 start 824 end 896 total 1024 skew 0 clock 35.2KHz
v: height 600 start 601 end 603 total 625 clock 56.2Hz
640x480 (0x4e) 25.2MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 640 start 656 end 752 total 800 skew 0 clock 31.5KHz
v: height 480 start 490 end 492 total 525 clock 59.9Hz
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x42
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: unknown
Clones:
CRTCs: 0 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x43
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: unknown
Clones:
CRTCs: 0 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
Broadcast RGB: Full
supported: Full Limited 16:2
audio: auto
supported: off auto on
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x44
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: unknown
Clones:
CRTCs: 0 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
Broadcast RGB: Full
supported: Full Limited 16:2
audio: auto
supported: off auto on
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x45
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: unknown
Clones:
CRTCs: 0 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
Broadcast RGB: Full
supported: Full Limited 16:2
audio: auto
supported: off auto on
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x46
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: unknown
Clones:
CRTCs: 0 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
Broadcast RGB: Full
supported: Full Limited 16:2
audio: auto
supported: off auto on
DP3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x47
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: unknown
Clones:
CRTCs: 0 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
Broadcast RGB: Full
supported: Full Limited 16:2
audio: auto
supported: off auto on
TV1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x48
Timestamp: 27515
Subpixel: unknown
Clones:
CRTCs: 0 1
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
bottom margin: 37 (0x00000025) range: (0,100)
right margin: 46 (0x0000002e) range: (0,100)
top margin: 36 (0x00000024) range: (0,100)
left margin: 54 (0x00000036) range: (0,100)
mode: NTSC-M
supported: NTSC-M NTSC-443 NTSC-J PAL-M
PAL-N PAL 480p@59.94Hz 480p@60Hz
576p 720p@60Hz 720p@59.94Hz 720p@50Hz
1080i@50Hz 1080i@60Hz 1080i@59.94H

Now somethings got me puzzled, it says "1280x800 (0x49) 69.3MHz +HSync -VSync *current +preferred" which is bull, because my refresh rate is set to 60.

[SteveRiley]

I'm going to start guessing. Is this perhaps because of an incorrectly set refresh rate? Show us the output of

xrandr --verbose

Earlier you mentioned that adding the Xorg-Edgers PPA didn't help -- you said no updates. Really? I use that PPA all the time, and it most definitely updated my XOrg stack and drivers from the defaults included with 12.04. Try using sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.

[PJK]

Wow you're so right. I actually copied that from the comments in order to make sure I get it right. What a fail, that will definitely teach me to just retype in the future.

EDIT: F^&k me, changed it to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i915.powersave=0" and did sudo update-grub and still flickers, from my reboot I think it's actually worse now than it was....

[SteveRiley]

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i915powersave=0"

You omitted an important piece of punctuation. There's a period between "9" and "p"

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i915[b].[/b]powersave=0"

[PJK]

Thanks for the link Mr_Bumpy. Yeah from what people describe, it seems to be the same thing. Now, this problem did not exist for me in Ubuntu 11.10, and in Power Save options I have it set to "Turn Off Monitor" on lid close. When I leave my laptop for an X amount of time with the lid closed, then come back to it, type my password, my desktop looks exactly like the guy's monitor in this video for about 30 seconds, then it stops. Other than that, after I type my password in and the splash screen appears, it flickers a couple times as well.

Okay, I've tried:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

This is what grub now looks like:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i915powersave=0"

Then:

sudo update-grub

Still does it... did I not edit the file correctly? Is it not using grub?

[Mr_Bumpy]

Here is an Ubuntu bug report that seems to describe something similar to what you are experiencing: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...el/+bug/574449

See comments #20 and #21. Is this something you can reproduce from the Kubuntu 12.04 live CD? If so, you can see if the suggested boot line parameter makes a difference.

[PJK]

Well damn, still happening in Xrender. What the hell changed between 11.10 and 12 that could be causing this bug? Any way to roll back video drivers or something?

Edit: Updated the BIOS, no joy. Still flickering. Any takers?

[vw72]

If you think the problem is with the graphics driver and OpenGL, you can go to the system settings and select Desktop Effects and on the advanced tab select Xrender instead of OpenGL. You will loose a tiny bit of eye candy but it could solve your problem (if it is the OpenGL causing it).

[PJK]

UPDATED DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM OCCURENCE

1. After logging in, during the splash screen screen flickers multiple times.
2. AC Power Options for Lid Close action is set to turn display off. After opening lid closed for a prolonged period of time, moving the mouse or using keyboard results in flickering for roughly 30 seconds.
3. Launching Windows application with Wine results in flickering while the application loads.

One out of 15 boots results in no flickering. Need to remember to check Xorg log when that happens.

ORIGINAL POST

Hey guys, to start off, I started off the day yesterday by installing Ubuntu 12.04, completely wiping my HD (including 11.10 Installation that did not have these issues). Even during the installation, after selecting the timezone and keyboard layout, whenever the slides in the installation window changed, they would flicker white. After installation, on the login screen, for every letter that I typed in my password, the screen would flicker and then flicker multiple times after I pressed enter. The "Details" window showed my graphics as unknown, so I did:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

This did not solve the issue neither with the flickering or the unknown graphics. Some research on askubuntu.com led me to the edgers drivers repository, so naturally, the next thing was:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade 
//Just to be sure, returned 0 upgrades

Nada, no progress. Further researching the issue or anything similar led me to mesa-utils, installed, disappointment yet again.

Here come's the answer to your definitely obvious question by now: "Why on God's green earth is he posting this in the Kubuntu forums"
To satisfy your curiosity, it's because I fell in love. During my desperation, I wanted to try other Ubuntu-based distributions, and this time, 32bit opposed to the 64bit I tried. After I installed Kubuntu, I was pleasantly shocked. Unity is ehhhh, there's a serious lack of customization (although a little better in 12.04) but KDE is so damn pretty and flexible, I need to find a decent Dock and I'm set. I am not planning to go back anytime soon.

Now here's how the problems translate into Kubuntu. No flickering during typing of password. After hitting enter, the screen flickers multiple times, and various times during use. I set my power options to turn off the display when on AC power instead of suspending it. After leaving my laptop for about 2 hours, upon opening the lid, the screen went bonkers, shifting roughly 50px up and left, and flickering white (not in conjunction) for about 30 seconds than it just stopped.

I checked the refresh rate, checked VSync for effects (which work sexy). Again, this problem did not exist in 11.10, what the hell changed?

My Laptop is a Dell Latitude E5500, which has a Intel 45 Express Chipset, with the Intel 4500MHD Graphics Acelerator.