Screen is blank and won't recover

[Chuck McManis]

I am running Xubuntu 16.04, I have reproduced this problem on both the Gigabyte Brix system and the NUC5i7RYH system. Both use integrated Intel graphics.

The symptom is that after a long period of time (like overnight) the screen is blanked and moving the mouse or pressing keys on the keyboard will not switch the screen back on. Using Ctl-Alt-Fx will let me bring up an alternate VT however, so I can log in and look around. Switching back to VT7 (where Xubuntu is) the screen goes black again and won't wake up.

The only error message I can find is in lightdm.log which is as follows:

[160363.826] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x0.0 148.50 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync (56.2 kHz e)
[161295.000] (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
[161328.781] (II) AIGLX: Resuming AIGLX clients after VT switch
[161328.781] (EE) intel(0): sna_mode_shutdown_crtc: invalid state found on pipe 0, disabling CRTC:21

If I send a SIGHUP to the session manager it restarts and the screen wakes up with the Login screen again, that of course loses all my open windows from the previous session so it isn't really optimal.

The lightdm log seems to suggest that it tried to "wake up" but that something happened that wasn't supposed to. When it isn't in this state (say for example I am up and running and I use Ctl-Alt-F2 to switch to Vt2 and then switch back to lightdm it works as expected and there is no error.

I've set every parameter of every screen saver locker blanker etc to never suspend block or shutdown. And the screen still blanks. That makes me wonder what agency is turning off the screen.

Let me know where to look and I'll add data to this bug. The situation is quite reproducible.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+13ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-22.39-generic 4.4.8
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-22-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Tue May 10 11:30:30 2016
DistUpgraded: 2016-04-29 22:17:07,822 DEBUG Running PostInstallScript: './xorg_fix_proprietary.py'
DistroCodename: xenial
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0a16] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller [1458:d000]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-03-18 (53 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
MachineType: GIGABYTE MMLP5AP-00
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-22-generic root=UUID=7a790f8d-8940-4397-a820-c35ca84f7696 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-04-30 (10 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 08/29/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F2
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: MMLP5AP-00
dmi.board.vendor: GIGABYTE
dmi.board.version: 1.x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrF2:bd08/29/2013:svnGIGABYTE:pnMMLP5AP-00:pvr1.x:rvnGIGABYTE:rnMMLP5AP-00:rvr1.x:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct10:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: MMLP5AP-00
dmi.product.version: 1.x
dmi.sys.vendor: GIGABYTE
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.12.2+16.04.20160415-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.67-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 11.2.0-1ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 11.2.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.18.3-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.1-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.7.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.12-1build2
xserver.bootTime: Tue May 10 11:00:37 2016
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.devices:
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 6
 input Video Bus KEYBOARD, id 7
 input Power Button KEYBOARD, id 8
 input Logitech K400 KEYBOARD, id 9
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 10147
 vendor ACI
xserver.version: 2:1.18.3-1ubuntu2

[Chuck McManis (chuck-mcmanis)]

See also 15801302 about monitor blanking. You can get the monitor back on with xrandr --output DP1 --auto *if* you do that from an SSH session (not from one of the alternate terminals)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Chuck McManis (chuck-mcmanis)]

Ok, we've confirmed that this bug can be fixed by applying the patch to xfsettingsd from jkampe68 as highlighted in this XFCE Bugzilla bug : https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11107

Once applied the screen behavior is as expected (and most importantly the monitor re-lights after the system wakes up)