[RS690M] screen flickers when CPU is at low frequency

[Jens Janssen]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

My laptop screen (1680x1050, HP Compaq 6715b, AMD RS690M/X1250, AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60) flickers when CPU frequency is at 800MHz (powersave or ondemand mode). Flickering occurs when screen content changes, for example switching between windows, moving windows, website with flash animation or scrolling in terminal window.

Flickering occurs no matter whether desktop effects are enabled/disabled, or DRI is enabled--(/disabled)-- (Edit: DRI seems to be always on even it's not mentioned in xorg.conf) (http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ATIRadeon). Tried several xorg.conf configurations. Tried 'Option "DisplayPriority" "HIGH"' (http://linux.die.net/man/4/radeon). Nothing helped. Flickering stays.

Flickering can be significantly reduced by setting CPU frequency to min 1600MHz or by reducing screen resolution (over display preferences).

Found another bug-report with the same issue:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=463023 --->same chipset, same problem

There are several bug-reports with flickering issue, for example:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/xserver-xorg-driver-ati/+bug/318325 --->flickering reduces while CPU is in use

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersion: Linux version 2.6.28-11-generic (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.3.3 (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu4) ) #38-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 27 09:00:52 UTC 2009
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge [1002:7910]
     Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30c2]
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series] [1002:791f]
     Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30c2]

[kulight (kulight)]

i have similar issues

[JeSTeR7 (cblocker)]

Wow, excellent find on the CPU frequency. I've had this problem since upgrading to Jaunty beta (and being forced away from fglrx).

I'm using the AMD64 version, and can confirm that setting minimum 1600mhz on my CPU dramatically reduces the flickering.

This is an excellent workaround until a fix HOPEFULLY is released, as I use my laptop plugged in most of the time.

Please let me know anything I can post (logs, configs, etc..) to help this bug get fixed.

[JeSTeR7 (cblocker)]

Also, I'll mention my problems occurred with a default resolution of 1280x800

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

This bug seems to be a bandwidth problem. When set to 800MHz the DRAM frequency is at 160MHz. Everything above 800MHz sets DRAM frequency to 320MHz (see http://www.linux-phc.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=46). So here is my little workaround:

Install sysfsutils.
Then edit /etc/sysfs.conf:

devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor = ondemand
devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold = 20
devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/sampling_rate = 620000

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

Tried radeonhd-driver:

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep 'RADEONHD: version'
(II) RADEONHD: version 1.2.4, built from dist of git branch master, commit 4e897263

Same result.

[kulight (kulight)]

i have found that doing the brnchmarks on the Peacekeeper
(http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/index.action) make the bug
appear in its worst

On Wed, 2009-04-15 at 19:02 +0000, Jens Janssen wrote:
> Tried radeonhd-driver:
>
> $ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep 'RADEONHD: version'
> (II) RADEONHD: version 1.2.4, built from dist of git branch master, commit 4e897263
>
> Same result.
>

[JeSTeR7 (cblocker)]

The second fix Jens posted seems to work pretty well, though the flickering is still there.

 I'd say this is a pretty big bug, considering that with the removal of support for so many legacy ATI cards, especially the x1200 and x1250, from the fglrx drivers, there will be thousands of users dealing with this flickering when Jaunty goes live.

[Beebock (richard-theraefamily)]

Hi,

Got the same laptop with the same issue. Would be nice to have it fixed.

thanks
Richard

[Charles Chan (charles-wh-chan)]

Using an Acer laptop similar spec. (ATI X1250, and AMD Turion x2 TL-60), I get the flicker in 9.04 (official release) also. Was not a problem in 8.10 with fglrx proprietary driver. Problem occurs with/out desktop effects enabled (Appearance dialog).

[Stefan Friesel (stefan-friesel)]

Could s/o please set the importance of this bug?

[Stefan Friesel (stefan-friesel)]

>kulight wrote on 2009-04-15:
>i have found that doing the brnchmarks on the Peacekeeper
>(http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/index.action) make the bug
>appear in its worst

another more simple test is running "cat /dev/urandom" on a fullscreen terminal

>Jens Janssen wrote on 2009-04-15:
>Tried radeonhd-driver:
>$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep 'RADEONHD: version'
>(II) RADEONHD: version 1.2.4, built from dist of git branch master, commit 4e897263
>Same result.

Testing with radeonhd 1.2.5 (from http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu/) I get absolutely no flicker.

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

Installed PPA from https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates. Here are my results:

radeon 6.12.2:
With or without Compiz flickering is still there.

radeonhd 1.2.5:
Flickering still there but no flickering when desktop effects are disabled.

[Mark Finch (markfinch)]

This bug also effects Toshiba A215 series laptops.

Jens Janssen's work around of running at 1.6ghz or higher CPU clock also can be confirmed. So it would seem to be an issue with memory timing at the lower clock frequency since the x1250 uses system ram instead of dedicated.

I am willing to test since I will stay on Intrepid and leave Jaunty on it's partition but not actively used for now.

Mark

[Art (sunsolaris)]

I am experiencing the same problems on my Gateway T1616 laptop with ATI RS690T chipset and Radeon® X1270 graphics controller.

[nathan (ferrisn)]

I have similar issues on my Lenovo T60 with an X1300

[Eric W. (ewitt84)]

I'm also having this problem on my Toshiba A215 with x1200 card. It seems to be particularly bad when using wobbly windows or docky with Gnome Do.

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

Nathan, does the flickering depends on CPU frequency?

[skyh (grant-furgiuele)]

I can also confirm this running Jaunty AMD64 with a Radeon XPress 1250.

I decided to play around with some of the drivers from X on the Edge, and in running the latest available:

xserver-xorg-video-ati
xserver-xorg-video-radeon
1:6.12.2.99+git20090504.da58e351-0ubuntu0tormod

I have yet to see any screen flickering with or without visual effects running the processor on the "powersave" daemon, even when trying things such as rapidly moving a window around the screen, and maximizing a terminal and running the command

cat /dev/urandom

[nathan (ferrisn)]

I tried fiddling with the cpu freq settings on my machine and it seems like there is less flickering at higher frequencies. However, I could only set the frequency of my cpu down to 1.0GHz and as high as 2.0GHz. While there was less flickering at 2.0GHz there was still some and it's hard to quantify how much less than at 1.0GHz. I haven't tried any of the more bleeding-edge drivers yet.

[Stefan Friesel (stefan-friesel)]

>skyh wrote 3 hours ago:
>[...] and in running the latest available:
>
>xserver-xorg-video-radeon 1:6.12.2.99+git20090504.da58e351-0ubuntu0tormod
>
>I have yet to see any screen flickering with or without visual effects running the processor on the "powersave" >daemon, even when trying things such as rapidly moving a window around the screen, and maximizing a terminal >and running the command
>
>cat /dev/urandom

I don' get any flickering with that version, too. For anyone else who wants to test this (development!) version, the package is here: http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-video-ati/xserver-xorg-video-radeon_6.12.2.99+git20090504.da58e351-0ubuntu0tormod_amd64.deb

[JeSTeR7 (cblocker)]

Can also confirm the package provided by Stefan removes the problem and gives me flicker-free video at 800mhz. Thanks, devs!

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

Hell yes! Confirm working. Hope everybody with this problem can say this. Thanks devs and testers!

[Onaka (brollejunior)]

Also has this problem on a dell inspiron 6400 with the ati mobility radeon x1300 card.

[Onaka (brollejunior)]

The package linked to by Stefan is a 64-bit package. I have a 32bit intel CPU, is there another package I may try?

[Stefan Friesel (stefan-friesel)]

>Onaka wrote 7 minutes ago: (permalink)
>
>The package linked to by Stefan is a 64-bit package. I have a 32bit intel CPU, is there another package I may try?

The 32-bit version of the package is: http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-video-ati/xserver-xorg-video-radeon_6.12.2.99+git20090504.da58e351-0ubuntu0tormod_i386.deb

[Onaka (brollejunior)]

The 32-bit package is: http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-video-ati/xserver-xorg-video-radeon_6.12.2.99+git20090504.da58e351-0ubuntu0tormod_i386.deb

Try this if you have the flickering problem with a laptop running in 32-bit mode.

This removed most of the flicker for me! ...

[bwashed (kjartan-hoie)]

I just tried the development drivers from today. No flickering on my 6715b (Same model as the bug-issuer). Also, when compiz is on, the average Xorg cpu usage is now 1-5%, compared to a constant >15% on Ibex.

Nice work!

[lbthrice (lbthrice)]

Couldn't follow the link to the latest 32-bit version of these drivers. (dead link?)

Confirm flickering behavior with Toshiba A215S labtop with Jaunty KDE4.

[code] lspci
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series] [/code]

[bwashed (kjartan-hoie)]

Onakas link is specific for the 05 june snapshot. Old snapshots are deleted. Try downloading a newer one.

http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-video-ati/

[mookie kong (ultramookie)]

turning off dri makes flicker go away with radeonhd.

[Valient Gough (vgough)]

Installing the snapshot fixed it for me on a Toshiba laptop.

This problem causes a poor out-of-box experience, and almost caused me to give up on Ubuntu 9.04 within 24 hours of installing it. What is the holdup on having a fix in the official distribution?

[Andrew J Lea (andrew-j-lea)]

I am having this same problem and have been chasing the solution for a while. I have an RS690M chip in an intergrated X1200 card in my Toshiba Satellite A215 with TurionX2 64 chipset.
I tried, in order:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and added the following line under the Section "Device":
Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

This virtually eliminated flickering, but it also eliminated the use of skype and cheese and other webcam-streaming apps, so I returned to the default xorg.conf configuration.

So then I tried the updated:
 xserver-xorg-video-ati - 1:6.12.99 and xserver-xorg-video-radeon - 1:6.12.99
many people listed it as the fix for thier machines, but when it booted, I had a really fuzzy, bloated display that looked like it was 600x800 resolution, but no flickering. I would like to try it again and see if there is a way I can change resolution to match my screen (1280x800), becaue this seems like the best driver yet, no flicker at all.

So I returned to the Jaunty default:
 xserver-xorg-video-ati - 1:6.12.2 and xserver-xorg-video-radeon - 1:6.12.2
and everything worked just as with the original install.

Then I installed just the radeonhd 1.2.5 .deb package files, but without the full ubuntu-recommended installation guide (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonHD), just did a double click .deb package install. This changed nothing that I could tell, so I entered xorg.conf again and pointed it towards the radeonhd driver.... still can't tell a difference. lots of flicker, but still have skype and cheese webcam stream, just like the default. I am going through the steps to try the manual install of the radeonhd driver, but my hopes aren't very high. One question on this: do I need to purge the default radeon and ati 1:6.12.2

Any other suggestions on combinations of packages or advice on changing the resolution with the 1:6.12.99 package or something I may have missed?

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

Besides the PPA from Tormod Volden you can try the PPA from Xorg-Edgers:

https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

But be aware: Both PPAs are (daily) snapshots and can kill you XServer. If a Snapshot is working fine, leave it as it is. Do not update.

My suggestion is to wait until Tormod Volden releases the next snapshot. This can take a few days but can solve your problem or make it worse than ever before :-)

[Andrew J Lea (andrew-j-lea)]

One more quick question:
Do I need to purge the default radeon driver 6.12.2 and ati wrapper 6.12.2 packages in order to enable radeonhd 1.2.5? or are there dependancies in the radeonhd 1.2.5 driver that rely on the default radeon and ato 6.12.2 packages?

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

You only need to change the xorg.conf.

[Mark Finch (markfinch)]

I tried July 10th, snapshot and found that it still flickers on the Toshiba
A215. It does seem improved and the most obvious flicker seems to occur
when there is a progress dialog, such as on Firefox download window.

Mark

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 10:34 AM, bwashed <email address hidden> wrote:

> Onakas link is specific for the 05 june snapshot. Old snapshots are
> deleted. Try downloading a newer one.
>
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-
> video-ati/<http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolden/ubuntu/pool/main/x/xserver-xorg-%0Avideo-ati/>
>
> --
>

[Andrew J Lea (andrew-j-lea)]

Yeah, I was using the July 10th release of Tormod Volden's driver when I didn't have any resolution options. No flicker though.
I have temporarily solved the problem by doing the full manual install of the radeonhd driver (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonHD), and then in the xorg.conf file, instead of "EXA" Acceleration, I specified "XAA". Now I have almost no flicker at all and my cheese and skype video still work,... just as long as my desktop effects aren't enabled as well. If desktop effects are enabled, then skype just will display a black screen instead of webcam feed, and cheese will open as soon as the camera comes on.
It never stops...

[bidbrooken (ken-bidbroo)]

I've got the same problem - some flicker and slow rendering.

I'm a newbie and the most worrying bit for me is everyone goes on about editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf - mine is a zero byte file - everything seems to be working - but slowly - should I be worried?

[Jens Janssen (jayjay)]

Hi ken, /etc/X11/xorg.conf isn't a zero byte file. If you want to still use the radeon (not radeonhd) driver there is nothing to change.

But please post only bug-related information and questions. "Me too" posts doesn't help much. There is a button "This bug doesn't affect me (change)"! This is also the wrong place for asking how to install another driver.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Since this was mentioned as being solved with version 6.12.2.99+git20090504.da58e351, and we have a snapshot even newer than this in Karmic, I'm going to go ahead and assume this bug is fixed in Karmic now. A backport of this to Jaunty is probably not feasible since a lot in the code has changed, and extracting a regression-safe fix would probably be pretty non-trivial.