external monitor flicker in radeon driver on RV710/M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4530/4570/545v]

[Ted]

When using Compiz/Unity at my external monitor's full resolution (1920x1080), my external display displays horizontal distortion. Sometimes the vertical alignment will also waver.

This doesn't appear using metacity, so it's not a hardware issue. This also doesn't appear using the next highest resolution (1680x1050).

I'm using the radeon open-source driver.

lspci -k:

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV710/M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4530/4570/545v]
 Subsystem: CLEVO/KAPOK Computer Device 0770
 Kernel driver in use: radeon

tedks@anglachel:~$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-ati:
  Installed: 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
  Candidate: 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
  Version table:
 *** 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-radeon 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-36.63-generic 3.13.11.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-36-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.4
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Sep 8 12:31:09 2014
DistUpgraded: 2014-06-09 15:06:48,193 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.13.0-32-generic, x86_64: installed
 virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.13.0-33-generic, x86_64: installed
 virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.13.0-34-generic, x86_64: installed
 virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.13.0-35-generic, x86_64: installed
 virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.13.0-36-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, including running git bisection searches
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV710/M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4530/4570/545v] [1002:9553] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: CLEVO/KAPOK Computer Device [1558:0770]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-04-18 (873 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120327.1)
MachineType: CLEVO W76x/M77xCUH
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-36-generic root=/dev/mapper/hostname-root ro quiet splash nomdmonddf nomdmonisw vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-06-09 (90 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/21/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: CALPELLACRB.86C.0000.X.0000000000
dmi.board.asset.tag: Tag 12345
dmi.board.name: W76x/M77xCUH
dmi.board.vendor: CLEVO
dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: CLEVO
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrCALPELLACRB.86C.0000.X.0000000000:bd09/21/2010:svnCLEVO:pnW76x/M77xCUH:pvrNotApplicable:rvnCLEVO:rnW76x/M77xCUH:rvrNotApplicable:cvnCLEVO:ct9:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: W76x/M77xCUH
dmi.product.version: Not Applicable
dmi.sys.vendor: CLEVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11.2+14.04.20140714-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2.1
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 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Stefan Björk (bluebirch)]

I have exactly the same problem -- but on different (older) hardware:

lspci -v:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV630/M76 [Mobility Radeon HD 2600] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30c5
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 49
 Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 I/O ports at 4000 [size=256]
 Memory at e4400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 [virtual] Expansion ROM at e4420000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
 Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
 Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
 Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
 Kernel driver in use: radeon

I have screen flicker on 1680x1050, but not 1600x1000. This is not a big difference in terms of resolution -- if it weren't for the terrible screen scaling that cannot be turned off.

I get the suspicion that the driver has some timing/performance issues.

[Stefan Björk (bluebirch)]

I finally solved this by replacing the DVI cable with a VGA cable. This implies there might be some problem with the DVI stuff.

Switching from VGA to DVI might not be a solution for higher resolutions though; VGA has its limitations.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Ted, anything change updating to the Vivid enablement stack as outlined in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack ?

[ZhiFeng Hu (hufeng1987)]

This affect me as well, i have an old laptop which had only one Readeon HD4530 family display driver card.

The screen always flicker, both laptop screen , external monitor.

ubuntu 14.04, 14.10, 15.04, 15.10 beta had the same issues.

I can not find any help to deal with it.
I thought it because the OpenGL , because i installed Gnome shell desktop, the screen flicker less than ubuntu unity desktop.

But we can not display OpenGL by hand. or Unity desktop broken.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xserver-xorg-video-ati (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[penalvch (penalvch)]

ZhiFeng Hu, it will help immensely if you filed a new report with Ubuntu via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug xorg

Please ensure you have the package xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information.

Also, please feel free to subscribe me to it.