Mouse pointer flicker and Xorg uses 100% of a CPU

[Francis Bolduc]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

Using Ubuntu Karmic Beta on my eee PC 1000, I often see the mouse pointer flickering, some fullscreen window flickering and Xorg process using 100% of one of my CPU. Compiz/Visual Effects are turned off.

This is a regression, since Ubuntu Jaunty worked fine.

Attaching lspci and mesg.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Francis Bolduc (fbolduc)]

I added the ubuntu-x-swap ppa, and updated. The problem seems to be gone. I guess it was fixed by the swat team.

$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.9.0-1ubuntu1~xup~1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main Packages

Here is what I did to add the swat ppa and fix my problem:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com AF1CDFA9
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
sudo shutdown -r now

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi fbolduc,

Thanks for including the attached files. Could you also include your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (or Xorg.0.log.old) from after reproducing the issue?

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[Francis Bolduc (fbolduc)]

In order to provide the Xorg log file you want, I need to go back to the old xserver-xorg-video-intel package that was causing the problem. However, I'm not certain how to do it. Could you give me a clue?

[Albert Damen (albrt)]

Francis: you have got the new xserver-xorg-video-intel package (2.9.0-1ubuntu1) from karmic, which was uploaded just before you added the ppa. So the fix is already in Karmic and there is no need anymore to upload any logs. Therefore I will close this bug.

Most likely this fix solved your mouse pointer problem:

commit b8c5c996e888485c3a16d645c8490592534a7882
Author: Jesse Barnes <email address hidden>
Date: Tue Sep 15 19:45:47 2009 -0700

    Eliminate cursor flicker

    We can update the cursor without hiding and showing it. In fact, doing the
    hide/show causes noticable flicker when running in KMS mode.

The 100% cpu issue was fixed with a kernel update.