screen brightness flickers at login screen

Bug #423873 reported by Mark Jonas
This bug report is a duplicate of:  Bug #415023: brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100. Edit Remove
126
This bug affects 27 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

When the login screen (gdm) appears the screen of my MSI Wind U100 netbook starts to flicker, i.e. the backlight brightness alternates. The brightness widget is also shown and its bar goes up and down for 1 step.

When changing the brightness manually using Fn-F4 and Fn-F5 during the login screen it keeps on flickering but at a different brightness offset then.

After logging in the flickering continues until vigorously changing the brightness manually using Fn-F4 and Fn-F5.

After logging out and returning to the login screen it again starts to flicker.

My system is running latest Ubuntu Karmic (development branch), release 9.10.

I just found bug report 415023 which sounds very similar. But changing the brightness fast does not induce the problem for me again. Also, it does not stop flickering for me after ~30 seconds like the other report says.

Mark Jonas (mark-jonas)
description: updated
Mark Jonas (mark-jonas)
description: updated
Victor Vargas (kamus)
affects: ubuntu → gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
GemNEye (ubuntu-gemneye) wrote :

The brightness toggles up (brighter) and down (dimmer) by what appears to be one click of the Fn+F4 and Fn+5 keys. The flickering continues through the GDM login screen and still exists after the desktop is displayed. Using the Karmic Netbook Remix build from 2009-09-16, this item still exists (system is also MSI Wind U100 netbook). The flickering eventually stops, but I would not say that is stop at a consistent rate.

Revision history for this message
Justin Gruenberg (justin-gruenberg) wrote :

This is happening to me, and only started when upgrading to Karmic Alpha 5 (ie, maybe related to the switch to the new version of gdm?).

With the most recent updates, this only appears to happen at the login screen, and not at the new loading screens (with the progress bar, that changed from Alpha 5 to Alpha 6). While at the login screen, the osd displays the brightness value when it is cycling.

I have the MSI Wind u123, which appears to be the same configuration as the U100 with the Atom N280 instead of the N270. Both have the Intel 945GSE + ICH7-M chipset and GMA950 for graphics.

Revision history for this message
Rafał Grądziel (rafal.gradziel) wrote :

Same flickering brightness problem for me.
It continues until Ubuntu finishes loading all startup programs - then it stops at some level.
I recently switched to Karmic Koala Alpha 6, problem was not in ealier (stable) releases.
I am also using MSI Wind U100.

Steps to reproduce:
1. switch Ubuntu 9.10 to Karmic Koala Alpha 6.
2. boot
3. screen with progress bar is shown correct (with no brightness abnormal behaviour)
4. at gdm prompt for user/password details - screen brightness starts flickering
5. flickering continues until all apps are loaded in Gnome.

Revision history for this message
Rafał Grądziel (rafal.gradziel) wrote :

Of course in previous comment in point I ment:
1. switch Ubuntu *9.04* to Karmic Koala Alpha 6

Changed in gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
GemNEye (ubuntu-gemneye) wrote :

I do not experience this issue with the 2009-09-30 Live Karmic Netbook Remix build on a MSI Wind U100.

Revision history for this message
Justin Gruenberg (justin-gruenberg) wrote :

This might be related to #410513. After using the workaround (blacklisting uvcvideo) usb worked again, and the login screen didn't flicker at login. This could also just be a coincidence.

Revision history for this message
GemNEye (ubuntu-gemneye) wrote :

Problem reappeared after installing the latest updates and installing the xorg-edgers drivers (intel). The kernel with the update is 2.6.31-11-generic. Also added the following stanza to xorg.conf (which works with Jaunty).

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Driver "intel"
        Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
        Option "EXAOptimizeMigration" "true"
        Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
        Option "Tiling" "true"
EndSection

These are the drivers that are installed.
xserver-xorg-video-intel; 2:2.9.0~git20090930.2841a4cd-0ubuntu0tormod
 libgl1-mesa-glx; 7.7.0~git20090930.81a62edc-0ubuntu0tormod

Revision history for this message
GemNEye (ubuntu-gemneye) wrote :

Problem still exists with latest updates:
Linux msiwind 2.6.31-12-generic #40-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 04:14:43 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

If I left click on the sound volume icon on the top panel and change the volume, the flickering stops.

Revision history for this message
DenialP (danlezoche) wrote :

Same issue on my fully updated msi wind u100 (Karmic). Flickering through login persists ~2 minutes at desktop.

Revision history for this message
Christian González (droetker) wrote :

Same issue here, MSI Wind U100 (with N280) since Upgrade from Jaunty; with all updates until today.
Notify-OSD uses 28% CPU because of showind the changed screen brightness all the time.
Approx 3minutes after login the brightness stays at a level.

Revision history for this message
copycat (christian-smet-edpnet) wrote :

same here U100 with Karmic

Revision history for this message
Removed by request (removed1984473) wrote :

I also have the same problem here with the latest 9.10 Alpha release.
I am using an Advent 4211-B (Same as MSI, just a different brand)

Some people have reported that the screen stops 'flashing' after a few minutes after loggin in. I have tried waiting up to 10 mins, but my flashing does not stop.

The only way I have found to stop this flashing is to kill the gnome-power-manager.

Revision history for this message
gpothier (gpothier) wrote :

Same problem on an MSI Wind U90x. I can sometimes stop the flickering by playing with the sound volume keys (fn+F7 to fn+F9).

Revision history for this message
Dmitri Petros (radjahshellduck) wrote :

I have this problem both on the log in screen and after log in to desktop. I can stop it flickering, and make the brightness widget disappear, by pressing the "right click" mouse pad bar (after the desktop is fully up) and holding it for 5-10 seconds. I've no idea why it works, but it does. It is then necessary to delete the new empty folder created by the right click. Hope it works for others. :)

Revision history for this message
terpstra (wesley-terpstra) wrote :

I have the same problem, also a U100. The brightness goes up and down. It never stops until I follow the 'hold down the right mouse button' trick. This trick only seems to work for me if it pops up a context menu. The flickering resumes the moment I adjust the brightness myself using Fn-F4/F5. Also the system spontaneously decides to decrease the brightness to its lowest level on some occasions and then the flickering resumes as well.

Revision history for this message
mp459 (mickey-srtdata) wrote :

Same issue here with U100. The right-mouse-button trick works, but when on battery power, screen dims shortly afterwards and screen flicker continues. Have disabled "reduce backlight brightness" and "dim display when idles" in power manager -> On Battery Power, and this seems to prevent the recurrence of

Revision history for this message
robertzaccour@gmail.com (robertzaccour) wrote : Re: [Bug 423873] Re: screen brightness flickers at login screen

    I figured out a solution that works indefinitely, at least till an
update comes along anyway. Go to applications>settings>Xfce 4 Settings
Manager>Power Management and all settings for monitor and brightness to
never. So far this has worked, as long as I don't try to adjust the
brightness because that would trigger our little problem again which I don't
wanna do. So until there is a fix this works fine, actually I'll keep my
settings this way just in case. Hope this helps.

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 10:13 AM, mp459 <email address hidden> wrote:

> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 415023 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/415023
>
> Same issue here with U100. The right-mouse-button trick works, but when
> on battery power, screen dims shortly afterwards and screen flicker
> continues. Have disabled "reduce backlight brightness" and "dim display
> when idles" in power manager -> On Battery Power, and this seems to
> prevent the recurrence of
>
> --
> screen brightness flickers at login screen
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/423873
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug (via bug 415023).
>
> Status in “gnome-power-manager” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> When the login screen (gdm) appears the screen of my MSI Wind U100 netbook
> starts to flicker, i.e. the backlight brightness alternates. The brightness
> widget is also shown and its bar goes up and down for 1 step.
>
> When changing the brightness manually using Fn-F4 and Fn-F5 during the
> login screen it keeps on flickering but at a different brightness offset
> then.
>
> After logging in the flickering continues until vigorously changing the
> brightness manually using Fn-F4 and Fn-F5.
>
> After logging out and returning to the login screen it again starts to
> flicker.
>
> My system is running latest Ubuntu Karmic (development branch), release
> 9.10.
>
> I just found bug report 415023 which sounds very similar. But changing the
> brightness fast does not induce the problem for me again. Also, it does not
> stop flickering for me after ~30 seconds like the other report says.
>

Revision history for this message
ha8ut (ha8ut) wrote :

same problem with msi wind u100. as soon as i start firefox it stops,odd

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