Screen flickering, goes dark randomly, Mint 18

[Greg Zingler]

Periodically at random times, the screen will flicker to black and then return to normal.

Linux Mint 18

Intel NUC5I3RYH
-Intel HD Graphics 5500

Dual Monitor setup, 1 DP, 1 HDMI
Only happens on DisplayPort monitor, not HDMI monitor.

Seems to happen more often when playing video, either from internet or local hard drive.

Using whatever graphics drivers are built into OS.

Ran all safe updates (lv 1 -3), no change.

---Update--- (07/10/16)

I may have found a solution, however before I accidentally spread false information I am thoroughly testing this out.

I will post an additional update late Tuesday the 12th after I have had time to do stress testing.

Preemptively, I am posting STRONG WARNINGS. If this solutions works, I can only say it works for me. I cannot promise it will help anyone else with similar issues. It is also risky, and while it may correct the immediate problem, long term ramifications (side effects) are obviously unknown. I am not a Linux expert, guru, or even a long-term user. When I post again on Tuesday, proceed with caution, entirely at your own risk, and I would strongly advise making full backups before proceeding. You have been warned.

---Update--- (07/12/16)

My issue seems to be resolved. It was fixed by upgrading my Linux Kernel to version 4.6. I did this following the directions at this website: (http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2016/05/install-linux-kernel-4-6-ubuntu-16-04/)

If you are wondering how I got to this point, keep reading.

I reasonably determined that this issue was likely a video driver issue. I had not problems with Linux Mint 17.3. So I looked up Linux Intel Graphics drivers. That brought me to the this website: (https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads)

I noticed that the most recent "Intel Graphics Installer for Linux* 1.4.0" Listed Ubuntu 15.10, but not 16.04. I dug around the Intel site for a while and discovered that Intel assumes the latest graphics drivers are already installed in 16.04. However if you look back at the Download Page, at the top-most entry for "2016Q2 Intel Graphics Stack Release", there latest graphics drivers list Linux Kernel 4.6. Mint 18, as far as I am aware, runs 4.4 out of the box. There are also alot of other drivers and packages listed for the Stack.

I was frustrated at this point with the flickering so much that I threw caution to the wind and decided to try these latest drivers out. First thing was upgrading the Kernel. (See first paragraph of this update).

Turns out I didn't need any of the other updates/drivers/packages listed in the Intel Graphics Stack. I downloaded them but have not needed to install them because after upgrading my Kernel, problem solved.

Still don't know any other impacts this could potentially have to my system, devices, peripherals, other packages/software, etc, etc, etc. But so far I have had no new issues. If this works for you then fantastic. If not I apologize but that is why I posted the big warning in the 7/10 update to this post. Good luck all.

[George Hardy (ghardy2k)]

yep, me too. hp 850 laptop.

[vism (art123456)]

Also confirm.
CPU: Intel i5 M430
Video: embedded Intel HD

Blink when move the mouse cursor between the two monitors. Blink when move the mouse cursor near the player on youtube. Flashes when typing in the terminal. And in some other cases.

[Greg Zingler (gregz83)]

@ghardy2k: What are the CPU and GPU specs of your laptop?

[George Hardy (ghardy2k)]

Display
15.6" diagonal LED
-
backlit HD8 SVA anti-glare (1366 x 768)
15.6" diagonal LED
-
backlit FHD WVA anti-glare (1920 x 1080)

Graphics
Integrated: Intel HD8 Graphics 4400
Discrete: AMD TM Radeon HD 8750M, with 1 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory

[George Hardy (ghardy2k)]

ultimately, i just re-installed 17.3 for main os. it is almost perfect. but, i think i will setup a dual-boot for testing so i can help make mint 18 better...worth giving back to the product, but couldn't deal with cinnamon crashing and some of the graphics issues for daily use. .

[Rmkn85 (rmkn85)]

Happens to me too

Graphics: Card-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Mars XTX [Radeon HD 8790M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon,intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.01hz, 2560x1440@59.95hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes

Only works after turning the external screen on and off several times...

Didn't try to upgrade the kernel manually yet, hopefully there's a better more official solution.

Any plans for a maintainer to have this bug assigned?

[Phil Nash (pgbxxx)]

This occurs on my system too, MSI CUBI i5 with Integrated Graphics. I'm disappointed, just spent the day upgrading from Mint 17.3 where the problem did not exist.

[George Hardy (ghardy2k)]

upgrading to kernel 4.6 did not help the issue for me.

screen still blacks out momentarily. still random behavior. not sure if it is a mint bug or a kernel bug. mint 17.3 did not do this, but when upgrading to mint 18, the kernel changed too, so kinda hard to pin down without good knowledge of linux debugging.

[Piotr Korzuszek (piotr-korzuszek)]

Seems not only Intel cards has this issue. It is happening to me too.

Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GK107 [GeForce GTX 650] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz, 1680x1050@59.88hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 650/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 367.57 Direct Rendering: Yes

Not sure if this is the same issue. Sometimes only a part and sometimes the whole background (I mean the desktop) flickers and returns back to normal after a few seconds. Windows are not affected, only what lies beyond them.

[Luke T (luke-a-thomas)]

Same problem here. Auxiliary monitor turns black for a second when moving cursor across edge boundary to built-in monitor on laptop (Lenovo X201). Like others have stated, this behavior began with LM 18. No such problems with previous Mint versions. Have upgraded Kernel from 4.4.0-21 to 4.4.0-28 -same problem with both kernel versions.

My on-board graphics processing is provided by Intel:

  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 19
       bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
       logical name: enp0s25
       version: 06
       serial: f0:de:f1:27:19:d7
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation

[Luke T (luke-a-thomas)]

Upgrading my kernel from version 4.4.0-28 to 4.40-53 has resolved my problem (see above).

[Luke T (luke-a-thomas)]

Upgrading my kernel from version 4.4.0-28 to 4.4.0-53 has resolved my problem (see above).

[camypaj (mantonijevic)]

Hi all, please note that there probably more than one issue causing this, in roughly 2 classes:
1) black outs
2) flickering
so, please try to report them and analyse them as such.
For example, I've noticed my external screen blacking out when working docked (or with an attached display over HDMI), but without the power supply connected, as the battery gets closer to empty, on LM18, both with kernel 4.15 (latest), and 4.18 (latest) and Intel integrated graphics:

# uname -a
Linux XXXYYYYZZZZ 4.18.0-16-generic #17~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 12 13:35:51 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# lspci -vvv -s 00:02.0
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 Subsystem: Dell Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520]
....
 Kernel driver in use: i915
 Kernel modules: i915

# modinfo i915
filename: /lib/modules/4.18.0-16-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko
........
srcversion: 944CA56AA26689A8E095E03
...
name: i915
vermagic: 4.18.0-16-generic SMP mod_unload
signat: PKCS#7
....

I'm still not sure if that is a bug or a feature, this was just an example. So, please, please be very deliberate in analyzing and describing the problems you experience (not that my example above is a bug report - it's just an example). For more details, see posting guidelines or https://help.launchpad.net/

Regards,
camypaj