[amdgpu] My screen randomly starts flickering

[Nicholas Turner]

Hello,

I recently installed Ubuntu 22.04.4 on a Lenovo V145-15AST laptop. Randomly, the screen will start flickering. I have found that pulling the power cable out sometimes solves the issue ! But even so, with the power cable out the screen can still start flickering. It's completely random, but very distracting.

I am treating this as a bug as I have looked at the options in "Settings > Screen Display" and non of those seem to make any difference.

Also I previously tried to install Linux Mint 21.3 and in that case, while booting from the usb stick, I got the welcome to linux mint menu which allows me various options and I select "Start Linux Mint"
After that the spinning mint logo appears, then a small mouse pointer on a black screen then the screen goes into some sort of error, a black screen with a few lines at the top.
Selecting "Start linux mint in compatability mode" does boot to mint but then the trackpad does not work.

I have included this reference to Linux Mint as I believe mint is based on Ubuntu.

Many thanks,
Nick.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+23ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.5.0-21.21~22.04.1-generic 6.5.8
Uname: Linux 6.5.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82.5
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Feb 26 09:33:11 2024
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: jammy
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Stoney [Radeon R2/R3/R4/R5 Graphics] [1002:98e4] (rev da) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Stoney [Radeon R2/R3/R4/R5 Graphics] [17aa:39ec]
   Subsystem: Lenovo Topaz XT [Radeon R7 M260/M265 / M340/M360 / M440/M445 / 530/535 / 620/625 Mobile] [17aa:39ec]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2024-02-24 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Release amd64 (20240220)
MachineType: LENOVO 81MT
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-21-generic root=UUID=e078d5fc-6eaf-4e92-9388-969fa8b6f6db ro 1915.enable_psr=0
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/12/2021
dmi.bios.release: 2.27
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 8ZCN27WW(V2.06)
dmi.board.asset.tag: NO Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: LNVNB161216
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0J40709 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: NO Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Lenovo V145-15AST
dmi.ec.firmware.release: 2.27
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr8ZCN27WW(V2.06):bd01/12/2021:br2.27:efr2.27:svnLENOVO:pn81MT:pvrLenovoV145-15AST:rvnLENOVO:rnLNVNB161216:rvrSDK0J40709WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrLenovoV145-15AST:skuLENOVO_MT_81MT_BU_idea_FM_V145-15AST:
dmi.product.family: V145-15AST
dmi.product.name: 81MT
dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_81MT_BU_idea_FM_V145-15AST
dmi.product.version: Lenovo V145-15AST
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.113-2~ubuntu0.22.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:21.1.4-2ubuntu1.7~22.04.8
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-2ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20210115-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.17-2build1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

There are lots of amdgpu errors in your system log, so let's start there.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

By the way, there's a typo in:

  1915.enable_psr=0

which would usually be:

  i915.enable_psr=0

but even that won't help here because you have AMD graphics, not Intel.

The equivalent workaround for AMD graphics is:

  amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10

so please try that.

[Nicholas Turner (nictu)]

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for your reply, and I apologise for not getting back to you sooner.

In you comment above you mention a typo and a work around, but in which file should I make these changes?

please excuse my ignorance in case I have missed something.

Many Thanks,
Nick.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

You can add new parameters to /etc/default/grub as part of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT.

Then run this command to install the changes:

  sudo update-grub

and reboot.

[Nicholas Turner (nictu)]

Hello again Daniel,
Thank you very again much for your help and again, my apologies for being unable to reply to your sooner.
I have found recently that my laptop, the Lenovo V145-15AST has stopped suffering from a flickering screen. I have used the laptop extensively for normal work and the problem has disappeared. There have been two updates during the course of our discussion. Although I'm finding it difficult to give you any detailed information as typing "lsb_release -a" at the terminal only results in;

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
Release: 22.04
Codename: jammy

I'm not sure how to let you know what was installed during the two updates, as I'm sure that would help.

Many thanks again for all of your help in this matter,
Nick.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It seems there was an update to 'linux-hwe-6.5' a couple of days ago so we were likely already tracking the correct component.