Screen flicker in Ubuntu 10.10

[Anurag Bhatia]

Hi guys!

I am using ubuntu 10.10 my Del. But my screen screen keeps on flickering at intervals of 10-15mins. It's quite annoying. I installed oepnsuse 11.3 en Debian 5, they alle have the same problem. Windows 7 gives no problems/

Does anyone know to solve thii.s

[Robert Zaleski (rzaleski81)]

I seem to have the same problem and it seemed to start right after the upgrade.

Every minute or so, sporadically I'll get line artifacts over a portion of the screen, generally every other line or so. It will clear up after a few seconds, but at times it will stay for awhile.

Here's the important bits from glxinfo

display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset GEM 20091221 2009Q4 x86/MMX/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.7.1
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20

And the lsmod info without printing and sound modules
Module Size Used by
binfmt_misc 6587 1
ppdev 5259 0
dm_crypt 11331 0
joydev 8708 0
lib80211_crypt_tkip 7596 0
dell_wmi 1793 0
dell_laptop 6856 0
dcdbas 5422 1 dell_laptop
wl 1959598 0
lib80211 5046 2 lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl
dm_raid45 81647 0
xor 15028 1 dm_raid45
fbcon 35102 71
tileblit 2031 1 fbcon
font 7557 1 fbcon
bitblit 4707 1 fbcon
softcursor 1189 1 bitblit
vga16fb 11385 0
vgastate 8961 1 vga16fb
i915 282354 3
drm_kms_helper 29297 1 i915
drm 162471 4 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 5028 1 i915
usb_storage 39425 0
sky2 40775 0
video 17375 1 i915
ahci 32008 1
intel_agp 24177 2 i915
agpgart 31724 2 drm,intel_agp
output 1871 1 video

Let me know if you want any more info to help diagnose.

Thanks.

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

Same issue.
Video card info: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

Very random, and appears in the bottom 1/3 to 1/2 of the display as a momentary series of black lines when viewing a page with a white backround.

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

The frequency of the event drops a lot after several cycles of screensaver and display shut-off.

[hogrod (hogrod)]

Same issue with an Asus K60 laptop, this was a clean install of 64bit 10.04. No such video issues with Windows 7.

[rcorlett (xcorlett)]

Same here, with a brand new Asus UL30VT-A1. Issue does NOT appear in Windows 7.
Running Ubuntu 10.04 64bit. Full desktop install, dual boot with grub.

Bug: A considerable number of lines appears for an instant in the lower 1/3 to 1/2 of the screen. Very short burst. Looks different each time. Possibly only black lines but sometimes I'm sure I see colored lines mixed in. It's annoying and is sure to detract novice users.

GPU: Switchable GEFORCE G210M / Intel GMA 4500MHD. I usually have the Geforce powered down.

[leofenix (leotaglia)]

I have the same issue. Is exactly the same as described by rcorlett. I have Ubuntu 10.04 only, no dual boot, installed in a Lenovo T400 (6474-D51). My appearance Visual Effects are set on Normal. It started as soon I installed it and no fixes that I downloaded has solved the problem.

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

As posted, the description by rcorlett is exact. Adding: I have seen it take nearly 2/3 of the display, and repeat once, sometimes twice about 5 seconds after it occurs.

[Sergei Sadovski (bloodycrocodile)]

I run World Of Warcraft under wine-1.1.42 when it happened on my Lenovo Ideapad notebook. I've successfully run it during last several days.
Operating System: Linux-x86_64.
Graphics Processor: GeForce GT 240M
NVIDIA Driver Version: driver version 195.36.24. Installed through "Hardware Driver" utility.
System is up-to-date.

Let me know if you need further details.

Thanks,
Sergei.

[David Tester (david-g-tester)]

This sounds like a dup of bug #538648?

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

I believe what's listed here is the same as #538648 as described in comment #2

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

With current updates in place, the issue appears to be the same.

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

It can occur more frequently at times; it's very annoying and can become embarrassing. It can re occur 3 times in 10 minutes... This issue is real and needs to be addressed!

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

It may be worth noting that the effect is far easier to see in lower surrounding light levels: in darker room light.

[nnamdizobeashia (nzobeashia-yahoo)]

i also have the same issue with my dell inpirion 1440 it is beginning to embrass me and friends see ubuntu as a joke which is annoying....

[Alain Kalker (miki4242)]

I wonder if it is possible, for any of you who experience the problem, to take a screenshot (not with a camera but with PrtScr) at the very moment this screen distortion happens.

That way it may be possible to distinguish between
- a videocard -> display control issue (timing or dot clock issue)
versus
- a memory corruption issue (a small block of misplaced data or junk in VRAM often results in this very same kind of screen distortion).

I've often seen the latter in the past, during the period where some drivers had issues with the agpgart kernel module.

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

It happens very quickly; I doubt anyone could have such quick reaction time. The appearence is as if many lines on the display were distorted into long flattened Z's all across the display. It can seem to be anywhere from a few lines at the bottom to 1/3 of the display at almost any level (never at the top). Rarely, it may seem to occur over close to 3/4 of the display. It never happened at all in 9.04 or 9.10. If by strange chance I get a prt screen, I'll e-mail it to where ever it's wanted.

[coder68 (coder68)]

This needs fixed please. This does not happen when running Windows 7 on my Dell 1545. Only when running 10.04. So it has to be a driver issue, not hardware. The longer I use the laptop, the worse this issue gets. 1/2 the screen has gotten frozen this way for minutes at a time. Once it would not come out of it at all. I have reinstalled four times, fresh each time.

I hope nominating it for release was the right thing to do...

Thanks,

Coder68

[Erik Corry (erik-arbat)]

I had this issue. In my case I have two large monitors and the second monitor flickered whenever the screen was updated (windows move etc.). I solved it by going into the nVidia setup program and setting the resolution and refresh speed manually. The driver seems to autodetect the speed to a level where the card can't keep up. Setting the speed to 60Hz made the issue go away. On a flat screen there's no real difference between 60Hz and a higher update speed, so this works fine for me.

System->Preferences->Monitors->Yes(to using graphics vendor's program)->X Server Display Configuration->Resolution->1920x1200 60Hz->Apply

I didn't have to set the resolution and update speed on the second monitor to make the issue go away.

[kshatriya.amit.singh (kshatriya-amit-singh)]

hi all...please provide a solution to this flickering issue...i m not upgrading because of this...m still on karmic...i installed 10.04 but had to remove it because of this issue

[chucupistacho (lorena-ronquillo)]

I hope this bug is fixed soon. This flickering is really annoying! I don't know how to stop it, and I wouldn't like to come back to 9.10 version! :S

[Tommy Hoyer (witeshark17)]

For how it may help, I have once seen this happen in repeated bursts, up to 8 or 9 times within 20 seconds.

[Ivan S (ivan-sliskovic)]

I have same problems, after upgrade 9.10(works perfect) - > 10.04(problems) my screen start to flicker.

ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-intel

[salous (salous)]

I have the same problem too with my Intel GMA 4500M display adapter.

[Jan Hama (hamaeker)]

On Dell Latitude E4310 amd64 I have the same problem too
powersave=0 workaround does not work!
kernels 2.6.32.21 or 2.6.32 22 do not have the problem !
kernel 2.6.32.23, 2.6.32.24, 2.6.32.25 have the flicker problem !
so some update from 2.6.32 22 to 2.6.32.23 is probably buggy

[Anurag Bhatia (me-anuragbhatia)]

Update to ubuntu 10.10 has fixed problem for me. From last 2days, it is
fine.

I will confirm after a week or so.

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Jan Hama <email address hidden> wrote:

> On Dell Latitude E4310 amd64 I have the same problem too
> powersave=0 workaround does not work!
> kernels 2.6.32.21 or 2.6.32 22 do not have the problem !
> kernel 2.6.32.23, 2.6.32.24, 2.6.32.25 have the flicker problem !
> so some update from 2.6.32 22 to 2.6.32.23 is probably buggy
>
> --
> Dell inspiron screen flicker after upgrade to ubuntu 10.04
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/587935
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Hello there!
>
> I am using ubuntu from around an year on my Del Inspiron 1545 laptop. All
> was OK, till I upgraded to ubuntu 10.04
>
> After upgrading, screen keeps on flickering at intervals of 10-15mins. I
> have also applied latest security and bug fixes, but it didn't fixed the
> issue.
>
> I am using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx
>
> Thanks!
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/587935/+subscribe
>

--
Anurag Bhatia
([phone]
http://anuragbhatia.com

[Anurag Bhatia (me-anuragbhatia)]

Yeah - I can say now - bug is fixed in 10.10. All working fine for me :)

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 7:57 PM, Anurag Bhatia <email address hidden> wrote:

> Update to ubuntu 10.10 has fixed problem for me. From last 2days, it is
> fine.
>
> I will confirm after a week or so.
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Jan Hama <email address hidden>wrote:
>
>> On Dell Latitude E4310 amd64 I have the same problem too
>> powersave=0 workaround does not work!
>> kernels 2.6.32.21 or 2.6.32 22 do not have the problem !
>> kernel 2.6.32.23, 2.6.32.24, 2.6.32.25 have the flicker problem !
>> so some update from 2.6.32 22 to 2.6.32.23 is probably buggy
>>
>> --
>> Dell inspiron screen flicker after upgrade to ubuntu 10.04
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/587935
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>>
>> Status in Ubuntu: New
>>
>> Bug description:
>> Hello there!
>>
>> I am using ubuntu from around an year on my Del Inspiron 1545 laptop. All
>> was OK, till I upgraded to ubuntu 10.04
>>
>> After upgrading, screen keeps on flickering at intervals of 10-15mins. I
>> have also applied latest security and bug fixes, but it didn't fixed the
>> issue.
>>
>> I am using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/587935/+subscribe
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Anurag Bhatia
> ([phone]
> http://anuragbhatia.com
>
>

--
Anurag Bhatia
([phone]
http://anuragbhatia.com

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

@sofie
I close this report, can you please open another one.
Thanks
Fabio