Random flicker attacks on secondary screen

[Johan Walles]

I have two screens connected to my machine, and I run them side by side.

A few times per day, the secondary screen breaks down into a flickering jumble. Usually the screen contents is still visible, but like on an old TV that's gone out of sync. The background is definitely there, you can see a few instances of every window, and the mouse pointer is visible in a few places as well.

The symptoms tend to pass if I manage to move any windows away from that screen so that it shows only the background.

I'm not seeing any crashes or any other symptoms.

This happened in Jaunty, and it is still happening in Karmic.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Jan 5 10:25:51 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: Dell Inc. OptiPlex 755
Package: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=305ba039-43b3-4e61-bdc2-6b972209801e ro
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=sv_SE.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=sv_SE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.53-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu10
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xorg-server
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 02/19/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A08
dmi.board.name: 0PU052
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 15
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA08:bd02/19/2008:svnDellInc.:pnOptiPlex755:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0PU052:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct15:cvr:
dmi.product.name: OptiPlex 755
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-16-generic

[Johan Walles (walles)]

It happened in this session just before I reported this bug, so if something gets logged when this happens (I don't think so unfortunately), it will be in the attached logs.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Hi Johan,

This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
test if it still occurs on Lucid?

Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
normal support channels, please see:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:

  apport-collect 503287

If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
bug 503287 in your report if you think it may be related):

  ubuntu-bug xorg

If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/503287

[Johan Walles (walles)]

I intend to upgrade to Lucid in a week or two, will have result after that.

[Johan Walles (walles)]

Haven't seen it in a while since my Lucid upgrade, I'm guessing this has been fixed.