Screen goes black or flashes with Dual Monitors when certain apps are opened.

[Pablo180]

This has been going on for a while, but only seems to occur on dual monitors and when certain applications are opened. Previously the screen would go black and then reappear and be fine. Now the screen either goes black and does not come back until one of the monitors is removed or it flashes on and off like it is trying and re-trying to set the resolution but failing. This goes on until I unplug a monitor.

Applications that cause this behaviour range from Viber Desktop to Wine programs through to System Settings and Totem Video Player (in this example in the bug) but it can be random, sometimes but not always do they cause this behaviour. Just to clarify, this does not happen with the laptop screen, only when external dual monitors are used.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-27.50-generic 3.13.11
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-27-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed May 28 13:42:02 2014
DistUpgraded: 2014-04-27 17:46:29,919 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:054d]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-02-07 (474 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MachineType: Dell Inc. XPS L421X
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-27-generic root=UUID=5ce6b55e-d260-430c-a0cf-bd634db73afa ro resume=UUID=e7da6c40-f59f-4118-b11a-6a8dcb87b771 quiet splash intel_pstate=enable vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-04-27 (30 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 05/22/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A14
dmi.board.name: 08HDPJ
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A14
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA14:bd05/22/2013:svnDellInc.:pnXPSL421X:pvrA14:rvnDellInc.:rn08HDPJ:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA14:
dmi.product.name: XPS L421X
dmi.product.version: A14
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140423-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu36
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.0-4ubuntu5
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.0-4ubuntu5
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Wed May 28 13:33:25 2014
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 30324
 vendor BNQ
xserver.version: 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Pablo180 (paultait22)]

Thanks for the response. I updated my BIOS shortly after posting this bug report, but it made no difference whatsoever everything was still as it was before.

The output to that command is:

A16
12/17/2013

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Pablo180, could you please test for this via http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the results?

[Pablo180 (paultait22)]

Sorry it took so long but I had to reinstall due to an unrelated problem. The reinstall didn't make any difference to this problem though. I also tested Windows 8 with dual screens, just to rule out the monitor(s) and it worked fine in Windows 8.

I tried the daily image on a Live USB and that worked fine too, no problem at all even when opening and running programs that always seemed to cause this problem, i.e. System Settings, Totem Video Player et al. Dual monitors worked flawlessly. I will try and free up some disk space and install the live image onto a disk and test it that way too just to be sure.

[Pablo180 (paultait22)]

I've installed that image to another partition and played around with it and the problem seems to not be present on that installation. I certainly couldn't trigger the problem.

I guess the question is now, how do I get that stability in my 14.10 install? Is there a package I can update in 14.10 to a newer version of something?

Thanks.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Pablo180, would you need a backport to a release prior to Vivid, or may this be closed as Status Invalid?

[Pablo180 (paultait22)]

Thanks for all the help Christopher, but I think that I will just upgrade to Vivid as soon as I can, as it is only a few weeks away, so no backport needed and it can be closed as invalid.

Thanks again for the help.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Pablo180, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1324113/comments/9 regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.