[i915] 'flashing screen' after update to natty

[Moriz]

Binary package hint: xorg

What occurs: brightness changes itself very fast over the whole range of screen brightness (one or two times a second).

When does it occur: some minutes, sometimes some seconds after login, one time even before login. Occurs many times again during a session.

What does it stop: In most cases I can stop it by right-clicking on desktop one, two or three times. In some cases I need Alt+Ctrl+Del to stop it.

See also: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+question/155544

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-9.43-generic 2.6.38.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-9-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1024x600
 edid-base64: AP///////wAiZOkDKDYBACgTAQOAFg14CoyFl1tTjicYUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBlBEAsEBYGSA1I0UA3n0AAAAZAAAA/gAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA/ABIU0QxMDFQRlcyCiAgAAAAEAAKICAgICAgICAgICAgAFU=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1440x900 1440x900 1152x864 1024x768 1024x768 1024x768 832x624 800x600 800x600 800x600 800x600 640x480 640x480 640x480 640x480 720x400
 edid-base64: AP///////wBBDBjA+mEDADARAQMOKBl4KqFQo1dMnSURUFS/7oBxT5UAlQ8BAQEBAQEBAQEBmimg0FGEIjBQmDYAmP8QAAAcAAAA/wBCWjUwNzQ4MjIxNjkwAAAA/ABQaGlsaXBzIDE5MENXAAAA/QA4TB5TDgAKICAgICAgAGo=
Date: Wed May 18 12:37:52 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-04-28 19:39:57.808942
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Device [144d:c05d]
   Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Device [144d:c05d]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. N130
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-9-generic root=UUID=77bdb364-1c0f-40f3-b8f1-42cd8d2c45d5 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-28 (19 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/30/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
dmi.bios.version: 04CM.M010.20090930.CYH
dmi.board.name: N130
dmi.board.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLtd.:bvr04CM.M010.20090930.CYH:bd09/30/2009:svnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:pnN130:pvrNotApplicable:rvnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:rnN130:rvrNotApplicable:cvnSAMSUNGELECTRONICSCO.,LTD.:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: N130
dmi.product.version: Not Applicable
dmi.sys.vendor: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau N/A

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

If I don't stop the 'flashing' immediatly, but e.g. after 15 minutes, a running application (Thunderbird) does not answer anymore and has to be terminated.

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

Stopping the flashing can also be done by pressing Alt-Tab one, two or three times.

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

I am running Natty on a Netbook with an additional screen -- the 'flashing' occurs only on the display of the netbook, not on the additional screen. And it occurs almost only when I pause and the system is idle.

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

@"If I don't stop the 'flashing' immediatly, but e.g. after 15 minutes, a running application (Thunderbird) does not answer anymore and has to be terminated."
After some minutes, applications are alive again.

@"I am running Natty on a Netbook with an additional screen -- the 'flashing' occurs only on the display of the netbook, not on the additional screen. And it occurs almost only when I pause and the system is idle."
1. It occurs also on the netbook display, when I'm using it without additional screen.
2. It occurs, when _the user_ (me) is idle, not when _the system_ is idle.

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

The recent updates made it rather worse (straight after start of the system, more often), not better.

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

When the screen saver starts (i.e. before the flashing occurs), it wouldn't occur anymore, as long as the user is idle.

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

The flashing becomes slower, when I move the mouse.
It stops, when I click the window selector.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hey m.h.a,

You filed this bug report against natty, but I see it's still open and
doesn't appear to have much activity recently. So, now that oneiric
is released and stable, this may be a good point for you to upgrade
and re-test if this issue is still present there.

If it's solved in the new release and you think it's worth backporting
the fix, please indicate that. Or if having the fix in the new release
is good enough, feel free to close out the bug (or let us know and we'll
close it.)

If it's not solved, leave the bug report open. I can't promise we'll
get to it (we get way more bugs filed than we can usually get to), but
your testing and feedback can help out if and when we do.

[Moriz (m.h.a)]

After updating the system to oneiric, the problem still exists -- flickering on the netbook display, but not on external display, but changed:
-- the flickering wouldn't occure anymore spontaneously;
-- the flickering occures, when I click on Display in the System Settings (behaviour similar as described for Bug #775088, worse than described for Bug #844235) or when I use the "encrease/decrease brightness" keys of the keyboard
-- I can't stop the flickering anymore (neither through right-click, Alt+Tab or Alt+Ctrl+Del nor through the Win-key [as described in Bug #844235 comment #5], Alt+Ctrl+F2 Alt+Ctrl+F7 [as described in Bug #775088 -- at least this has a little effect, the flashing is pausing or slowing down for a second])

In /etc/default/grub, I added "acpi_backlight=vendor" to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT parameters as described in comment #45 of Bug #810093, this didn't change anything.

Using the samsung-backlight package from https://launchpad.net/~voria/+archive/ppa as described in comment #26 of Bug #810093 helped: no flickering anymore, I can use System Settings > Display as well as the brightness keys to change backlight brightness just as I like. Thanks to Voria.

[papukaija (papukaija)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported (the samsung-backlight package blacklists the buggy samsung_laptop module) and is a duplicate of bug 810093, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[papukaija (papukaija)]

(While the bug 810093 didn't occur in Natty, the fix for that bug should fix all backlight control issues for Samsung netbooks, since the samsung_laptop driver/module is meant to be universal for all Samsung netbooks).