[Notebook N7x0WU] Booting into desktop results in flickering

[lotuspsychje]

Ubuntu 18.04.2 with kernel 5.0.0-23-generic all up to date @ 1/8/2019

On a CLEVO Notebook product: N7x0WU American Megatrends v: 7.009 date: 05/14/2018

After HWE kernel updates to 5.0.0-23-generic booting into desktop gives flickering
after few seconds.

backlights are also not working (Fn keys brightness)

I filed the bug from a recoverymode, as a normal boot i cant escape the flickering

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: linux-image-5.0.0-23-generic 5.0.0-23.24~18.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-23.24~18.04.1-generic 5.0.15
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Aug 1 15:51:10 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-06-05 (57 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210)
SourcePackage: linux-signed-hwe
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Booting kernel 4.18.0-24-generic works without flickering

[Aptivi (eofla)]

Thanks for reporting the bug and making Ubuntu better! Keep reporting bugs.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

once you've noticed flickering, do 'dmesg > dmesg.txt' on a terminal and attach the output here

and then maybe test mainline builds like this:

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.1.21/

install generic image unsigned and matching modules, and reboot

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

I have been able to logout and select wayland as a test
and both GDM3 and wayland are flickering aswell

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Dmesg from a recoverymode 5.0.0-23-generic cause i cant get fast enough before the flickering starting

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

booting into:

lotuspsychje@Rootbox:~$ uname -a
Linux Rootbox 5.1.21-050121-generic #201907280731 SMP Sun Jul 28 07:34:07 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

does not flicker anymore, backlight working again aswell

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Linux Rootbox 5.1.0-050100rc1-generic #201903172231 SMP Sun Mar 17 22:34:30 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

also works

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Linux Rootbox 5.0.0-997-generic #201902072102 SMP Fri Feb 8 02:04:15 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

also works

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Catched a dmesg before the flickering:

[ 23.332952] [drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Suggested by Tom Reynolds booting kernel with drm.debug=0x1e log_buf_len=4M

dmesg in attachment

[Carl Fletcher (caf4926)]

I can confirm that I have experienced this and it is most definitely related to Kernel 5 >
If it clears in upward versions I can't say
I did let Kubuntu 18.04 upgrade to 19.04 and the issue appeared. Switching KDE settings to xrender seemed to help, but it didn't remove the problem totally.
I re-installed 18.04 and have been running it since, however, 18.04 just had the Kernel upgrade to 5 >
I let it run, just to see, and sure enough, there it was again. So i just booted from the older installed kernel and all is well.
So it's certainly Kernel related
My graphics are: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/jggjBGmS9x/

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

testing kernel:

Linux Rootbox 5.0.0-rc1 #12 SMP Thu Aug 1 19:38:58 EEST 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

is working

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

testing kernel:

5.0.0-050000rc4-generic results into flickering

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

testing kernel:

5.0.0-050000rc3-generic results into flickering

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

testing kernel:

5.0.0-050000rc2-generic results into flickering

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

testing kernel:

5.0.0-050000rc1-generic results into flickering

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

a Test with Tjaalton own kernel build:

Linux version 5.0.0-rc1 (<email address hidden>) (gcc version 7.4.0 (Ubuntu 7.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04)) #13 SMP Fri Aug 2 15:31:30 EEST 2019

made the desktop flicker

[Mike Wilson (mwilson-e)]

I am experiencing flickering on boot with the 5.0.0-23-generic kernel and on some newer kernels the flickering only starts after resuming from suspend.

This issue is happening on systems with both i5-8250U + i7-8550U processors using Intel graphics.

Settings `nomodeset` will also not present the issue.

The following kernels are not having this problem:
  5.3.0-050300rc1-generic
  5.3.0-050300rc2-generic

[Carl Fletcher (caf4926)]

So I just booted back to my 5 kernel. I switched KDE to xrender first
The flickering is present at the login screen, but not in the running desktop, however, I do know from previous experiments with xrender as a solution it can still start flickering, perhaps that's after a suspend but I'd have to check.

Here is more detail on my spec
@Mike Wilson, interesting you quote my processor
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/gP5mDFgCHS/

[Carl Fletcher (caf4926)]

I suspended a couple of times and no ill effect
Also I note someone mentions about backlight issues. Mine is fine
Also did a restart again today and actually no flickering, not even at login
Still on xrender in KDE settings

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Tested a 19.04 iso with kernel 5.0.0.23

and it results the same in a live, starts flickering after plymouth loading dots
at setup/language

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Tested on 19.10 daily live @ 4/8/2019 with kernel 5.2.0.8.9

confirmed working without flickering

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Tested a lubuntu 19.04 live with kernel 5.0.0.13

confirmed working without flickering

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Updated Clevo Bios & EC to latest

but still the flickering persist

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

booting with 5.3.0-994-generic #201908072204 daily build its working without flickering

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Confirming recent updates in HWE 5.0.0.25 also gives the flickering desktop

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Tom reynolds found a workaround booting kernel 5.0.0.25 with: intel_idle.max_cstate=4

fixed the flickering, after coming back from suspend its still fixed

[Tom Reynolds (tomreyn)]

Thanks for the credit, but it is not mine. This rather unspecific workaround, which will likely increase power draw, was not initially reported by me, but at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109215#c9

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

bug being worked on here aswell:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109215

[TJ (tj)]

There were quite a few changes in the i915 driver related to idle condition and states. Is it confirmed v4.19 exhibits the issue whilst v4.18 does not? If so then the candidate commits causing the regression could be in this list:

$ gitlog --reverse --grep=idle v4.18..v4.19 -- drivers/gpu/drm/i915

f25a49ab8ab9 2018-05-18 12:39:02 +0800 N Colin Xu drm/i915/gvt: Use vgpu_lock to protect per vgpu access
dd0cf235d81f 2018-05-19 12:50:57 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Speed up idle detection by kicking the tasklets
fe0c493538f4 2018-05-19 12:50:58 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915/execlists: Handle copying default context state for atomic reset
9a4dc80399b1 2018-05-25 09:51:49 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Flush the ring stop bit after clearing RING_HEAD in reset
a3db142829e6 2018-05-29 12:53:15 -0700 N Dhinakaran Pandiyan drm/i915/psr: Set idle frame count based on sink synchronization latency
cc7cc5343584 2018-05-30 12:11:10 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Remove stale asserts from i915_gem_find_active_request()
4dfacb0bcbee 2018-05-31 19:29:50 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Switch to kernel context before idling at runtime
0606035fcab6 2018-05-31 19:29:52 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: "Race-to-idle" after switching to the kernel context
1934f5deaf8f 2018-06-01 13:38:40 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Assert we idle in the kernel context
8571a05a9dd0 2018-06-07 08:42:36 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Use GEM suspend when aborting initialisation
697b9a8714cb 2018-06-14 08:16:12 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Make closing request flush mandatory
5422b37c907e 2018-06-14 09:00:57 -0700 N Rodrigo Vivi drm/i915/psr: Kill delays when activating psr back.
4a192c7e8b14 2018-06-14 19:20:33 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915/gtt: Free unused page tables on unbind the context
26eb4cd6c7c7 2018-06-20 22:22:52 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Disable bh around call to tasklet
3069290d9d6a 2018-06-22 11:34:53 +1000 N Dave Airlie Merge tag 'drm-intel-next-2018-06-06' of git://anongit.freedesktop.org/drm/drm-intel into drm-next
efe79d48a7de 2018-06-25 16:28:23 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Context objects can never be active when freed
c12e0643a05d 2018-06-26 11:44:55 -0700 N Dhinakaran Pandiyan drm/i915/psr: Fix race in intel_psr_work()
a61b47f672c1 2018-06-27 19:00:22 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Wait for engines to idle before retiring
c43dbcbbcc8c 2018-07-02 10:52:39 -0700 N Tarun Vyas drm/i915/psr: Lockless version of psr_wait_for_idle
ec625fb932bb 2018-07-09 13:55:41 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Provide a timeout to i915_gem_wait_for_idle()
2621cefaa42b 2018-07-09 13:56:42 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Provide a timeout to i915_gem_wait_for_idle() on setup
b7bb6138c2d5 2018-07-10 11:12:15 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Only reset hangcheck at the start of an activity cycle
c3d433617d20 2018-07-12 19:30:30 -0700 N Tarun Vyas drm/i915: Use crtc_state->has_psr instead of CAN_PSR for pipe update
9701975e8510 2018-07-13 22:32:20 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915: Do not short-circuit tasklets during reset
60a943245413 2018-07-13 22:32:43 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/i915/execlists: Drop clear_gtiir() on GPU reset
f1a498fa549e 2018-07-16 11:25:54 +0100 N Chris Wilson drm/...

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Tested kernel 4.19.0-041900-generic and also results into flickering

[ElizabethDahl (elizabethjdahl)]

Updated Clevo Bios & EC to latest

but still the flickering persist on https://rulesofplaying.com/ but problem is gone on second website

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Continued in bug 1948778 (assuming we don't need this one anymore)