[i915] [Braswell] screen flashes black (mouse pointer stays visible) when moving mouse pointer to the left edge of the screen [Failed to post KMS update: drmModeAtomicCommit: Das Argument ist ungültig]

[amano]

I reported that against mutter, but it can be gnome-shell as well, or even Intel driver/kernel related. It happens since my switch to Impish, I have never seen that issue before.

Integrated Intel HD graphics 400 onboard.

STEPS to reproduce:
1) Move the mouse pointer to the left edge of the screen
2) See that everything works as expected
3) Open an app so that the window comes up, eg. "Files"
4) Move the mouse pointer to the left edge again.
5) See that the screen goes black for a second, but the mouse pointer stays visible.

Observation 1: At first I thought that it was related to dash-to-dock because moving the mouse to the area where I used to have the dock exhibits the flicker (I moved it to bottom for GNOME 40). But it turns out that it doesn't matter: I can turn off the extension completely or move it back to the left and the flicker always occurs.

Observation 2: It doesn't happen without any window onscreen. Having a program minimized to the dock doesn't suffice to exhibit the bug. I have to bring up the window and then the bug shows up. Fun Fact 1: "Files" exhibits it more "aggresively" than "Terminal". It is easier to trigger. With gnome-terminal I sometimes can hit the edge with the pointer without triggering the glitch.

Observation 3: I cannot record the issue: Recording a screencast via "Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R" doesn't work. Well, the screencasting itself does work, but when recording the screencast the glitch simply doesn't happen.

I am a bit lost further debugging this, any help is highly welcome. I guess that my observations rather hint at mutter being to blame.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.10
Package: mutter 40.2.1-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.13.0-14.14-generic 5.13.1
Uname: Linux 5.13.0-14-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu68
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed Sep 8 23:03:53 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-02-23 (1293 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Alpha amd64 (20180214)
SourcePackage: mutter
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This reminds me of bug 1935901 and bug 1767654 but isn't quite the same...

Next time the problem happens please run:

  journalctl -b0 > journal.txt

and attach the resulting text file here.

Also it might be helpful to see if you can find kernel versions older than 5.13 that don't have the bug: https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=M;O=D

[amano (jyaku)]

Hello Daniel!

Sorry for the late reply. The requested log is attached.

"Sep 26 17:47:05 amano-desktop gnome-shell[41942]: Failed to post KMS update: drmModeAtomicCommit: Das Argument ist ungültig
Sep 26 17:47:05 amano-desktop gnome-shell[41942]: Page flip discarded: drmModeAtomicCommit: Das Argument ist ungültig
Sep 26 17:47:05 amano-desktop gnome-shell[41942]: Failed to post KMS update: drmModeAtomicCommit: Das Argument ist ungültig
Sep 26 17:47:05 amano-desktop gnome-shell[41942]: Page flip discarded: drmModeAtomicCommit: Das Argument ist ungültig"

The german part means (as you would have guessed): The argument is invalid.

That's the error that the gnome-shell process throws.

Thanks for investigating.

[amano (jyaku)]

I installed an older GNU/Linux 5.10.51-051051-generic x86_64 kernel but the problem remained. Maybe I should have gone with an even older kernel, I don't know.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please try this as a workaround:

  MUTTER_DEBUG_ENABLE_ATOMIC_KMS=0

in /etc/environment, and reboot.

[amano (jyaku)]

Good catch. That workaround does the trick. No flashing anymore. Thanks Daniel.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It sounds like a hardware-specific issue Intel has been trying to work around for many years, if it's related to: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=b29ec92c4f5e6d45d8bae8194e664427a01c6687

(Braswell and Cherryview use the same Intel GPU)

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1943083

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[amano (jyaku)]

While there is a workaround available, it is technically not fixed. So reopening...