[nvidia] Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Desktop Screen blinking/flickering black and side menu bar turn upsidedown

[Filip Roland]

Sometimes after I change the used account to the not pirivleged user account and clik to side menu bar the (Xorg/Gnome) screen randomly start turn black and back to normal while i move the mouse, somtimes just stay black but if there is an opened window (used to be nautilus or FireFox) and is move over the mause cursor over its is start partially show the right content.
Paralelly the side menu turn upside down randomly.

I never experienced this with root account and find that if I lock the screen and relese it is used to solve the problem for a while.

The problem raised after upgrade Ubuntu from 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS

The computer is a desktop so there no accelerometer giroscope.
The screen is a 4K montior with 3840×2160 resolution and work on 29,97 Hz
The graphics card is an ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-52.57-generic 5.4.65
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-52-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.gpu0: Error: [Errno 21] Ez egy könyvtár: '/proc/driver/nvidia/capabilities/gpu0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.mig: Error: [Errno 21] Ez egy könyvtár: '/proc/driver/nvidia/capabilities/mig'
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0000.01.00.0: Error: [Errno 21] Ez egy könyvtár: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0000:01:00.0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend: suspend hibernate resume
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend_depth: default modeset uvm
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 450.80.02 Wed Sep 23 01:13:39 UTC 2020
 GCC version: gcc version 9.3.0 (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04)
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.10
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Oct 26 18:13:01 2020
DistUpgraded: 2020-10-07 15:58:42,341 ERROR got error from PostInstallScript ./xorg_fix_proprietary.py (g-exec-error-quark: Nem sikerült a gyermekfolyamat („./xorg_fix_proprietary.py”) végrehajtása (Nincs ilyen fájl vagy könyvtár) (8))
DistroCodename: focal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 nvidia, 450.80.02, 5.4.0-51-generic, x86_64: installed
 nvidia, 450.80.02, 5.4.0-52-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. HD Graphics 530 [1043:8694]
 NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] [10de:1c03] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] [1043:85ab]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-01-03 (1391 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=hu_HU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-52-generic root=UUID=74c33349-7cf3-4ced-8462-62ad4c43832d ro quiet splash crashkernel=512M-:192M vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-10-07 (19 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 06/29/2017
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 3504
dmi.board.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.board.name: MAXIMUS VIII HERO
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Default string
dmi.chassis.version: Default string
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr3504:bd06/29/2017:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnMAXIMUSVIIIHERO:rvrRev1.xx:cvnDefaultstring:ct3:cvrDefaultstring:
dmi.product.family: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.sku: SKU
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.14.1+20.04.20200211-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.101-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.0.8-0ubuntu1~20.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 20.0.8-0ubuntu1~20.04.1
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers-* N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2.4
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.6-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200226-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1
xserver.bootTime: Mon Oct 26 09:53:56 2020
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:
 systemd-logind: failed to release device: Device not taken
 systemd-logind: failed to release device: Device not taken
 systemd-logind: failed to release device: Device not taken
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:

xserver.version: 2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2.4

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This sounds like another Nvidia issue related to:

https://www.khronos.org/registry/OpenGL/extensions/NV/NV_robustness_video_memory_purge.txt

which mentions "VT switches", so that can include user switching.

There is no workaround right now, other than to avoid the Nvidia driver, or to avoid user switching and suspend/resume etc :(