Major screen flickering in Chromium and Google Chrome

[Vasya Pupkin]

On a fresh installation of Ubuntu 16.04 I noticed major screen flickering issues in Chromium and Google Chrome browsers. Since this never happened in Ubuntu 15.10 with exactly the same Google Chrome binary, I believe, bug is caused by something that was added/updated in 16.04. I came across some discussions where different people suggested that it is related to new X.Org version.

Here's a video to show what is happening: https://youtu.be/l21WsKz3fZc?t=45s

I could fix this flickering with --disable-gpu-compositing switch, but this slows down page drawing significantly so it can't be considered a workaround. There is also a Chromium bug report: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152, but I don't think they will fix an Ubuntu-specific bug.

Update: this indeed happens only when browser window is maximized.

WORKAROUND:

1. sudo apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-intel
2. sudo rm /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf (for those who created this file before)
3. reboot

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+13ubuntu3
Uname: Linux 4.6.0-040600-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity_support_test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
BootLog:

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: Sat May 28 00:01:20 2016
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: xenial
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 vboxhost, 5.0.20, 4.4.0-22-generic, x86_64: installed
 vboxhost, 5.0.20, 4.6.0-040600-generic, x86_64: installed
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0a2e] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller [1043:13bd]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-05-01 (26 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
MachineType: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. UX301LAA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.6.0-040600-generic root=UUID=172b2d49-444a-466b-ab91-b74605125b29 ro quiet splash rootfstype=ext4 vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 06/05/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: UX301LAA.211
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: UX301LAA
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrUX301LAA.211:bd06/05/2015:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnUX301LAA:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnUX301LAA:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: UX301LAA
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
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: Sun May 22 23:28:15 2016
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 5126
 vendor SHP
xserver.version: 2:1.18.3-1ubuntu2

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

Created attachment 123024
xorg log

Dell XPS 15 9530

kernel 4.6.0-rc3-00182-gb9f5dba (and many older versions)
Mesa 11.2.0
intel driver: SNA compiled from 2.99.917-634-g81029be
xserver 1.18.3

google chrome 49.0.2623.112 (with default flags in flags://) and when viewing youtube in fullscreen there is flickering visible depending on mouse movements (mouse over youtube overlayed texts/menus).

Problem is visible here:
http://ixion.pld-linux.org/~arekm/p2/intel-bug-x1.avi

This problem is there for many months, so older versions of kernel, mesa, intel ddx, xserver, google chrome were also exhibiting this behaviour here.

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Dirty cache lines are here again. To rule out the ddx mocs, can you please try

diff --git a/src/sna/gen7_render.c b/src/sna/gen7_render.c
index f707d39..a3c5007 100644
--- a/src/sna/gen7_render.c
+++ b/src/sna/gen7_render.c
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ static const struct gt_info hsw_gt2_info = {
                1 << HSW_PS_SAMPLE_MASK_SHIFT,
        .urb = { 256, 1664, 640, 8 },
        .gt = 2,
- .mocs = 5,
+ //.mocs = 5,
 };

 static const struct gt_info hsw_gt3_info =

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

See also bug 80948

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

(In reply to Chris Wilson from comment #1)
> Dirty cache lines are here again. To rule out the ddx mocs, can you please
> try
>
> diff --git a/src/sna/gen7_render.c b/src/sna/gen7_render.c
> index f707d39..a3c5007 100644
> --- a/src/sna/gen7_render.c
> +++ b/src/sna/gen7_render.c
> @@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ static const struct gt_info hsw_gt2_info = {
> 1 << HSW_PS_SAMPLE_MASK_SHIFT,
> .urb = { 256, 1664, 640, 8 },
> .gt = 2,
> - .mocs = 5,
> + //.mocs = 5,
> };
>
> static const struct gt_info hsw_gt3_info =

Doesn't help unfortunately.

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Ok, try patching it out of mesa as well:

diff --git a/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_defines.h b/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_defines.h
index 60b696c..522a75a 100644
--- a/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_defines.h
+++ b/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_defines.h
@@ -2864,13 +2864,13 @@ enum brw_wm_barycentric_interp_mode {
  * On Ivybridge, the PTEs do have a cache-in-L3 bit, so setting MOCS to 0
  * may still respect that.
  */
-#define GEN7_MOCS_L3 1
+#define GEN7_MOCS_L3 0

 /* Ivybridge only: cache in LLC.
  * Specifying zero here means to use the PTE values set by the kernel;
  * non-zero overrides the PTE values.
  */
-#define IVB_MOCS_LLC (1 << 1)
+#define IVB_MOCS_LLC 0

 /* Baytrail only: snoop in CPU cache */
 #define BYT_MOCS_SNOOP (1 << 1)

If that fails, we have to start questioning the kernel.

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

Unfortunately it fails (ddx + mesa patches applied).

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Can you please try (kernel):

diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
index 6ce2c31..4caccd2 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
@@ -3926,12 +3926,8 @@ out:
         * object is now coherent at its new cache level (with respect
         * to the access domain).
         */
- if (obj->cache_dirty &&
- obj->base.write_domain != I915_GEM_DOMAIN_CPU &&
- cpu_write_needs_clflush(obj)) {
- if (i915_gem_clflush_object(obj, true))
- i915_gem_chipset_flush(obj->base.dev);
- }
+ if (i915_gem_clflush_object(obj, true))
+ i915_gem_chipset_flush(obj->base.dev);

        return 0;
 }

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

No flickering with this patch (+ ddx + mesa patch).

(I'm seeing some stalls of browser for about half a second but I guess it's unrelated)

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Next up try:

diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
index 6ce2c31..2897f67 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
@@ -4491,6 +4491,7 @@ void i915_gem_object_init(struct drm_i915_gem_object *obj,

        obj->fence_reg = I915_FENCE_REG_NONE;
        obj->madv = I915_MADV_WILLNEED;
+ obj->cache_dirtry = true;

        i915_gem_info_add_obj(obj->base.dev->dev_private, obj->base.size);
 }

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

mesa patch dropped and i915_gem_clflush_object(obj, true)... patch applied -> no flickering

mesa patch dropped, i915_gem_clflush_object patch dropped, obj->cache_dirtry = true; applied -> flickering exists

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Does this help ? (xf86-video-intel)

diff --git a/src/sna/sna_display.c b/src/sna/sna_display.c
index 80b658a..a7429e8 100644
--- a/src/sna/sna_display.c
+++ b/src/sna/sna_display.c
@@ -6454,7 +6454,7 @@ sna_page_flip(struct sna *sna,
        if ((sna->flags & (data ? SNA_HAS_FLIP : SNA_HAS_ASYNC_FLIP)) == 0)
                return 0;

- kgem_bo_submit(&sna->kgem, bo);
+ kgem_scanout_flush(&sna->kgem, bo);

        sigio = sigio_block();
        for (i = 0; i < sna->mode.num_real_crtc; i++) {
@@ -8789,7 +8789,7 @@ void sna_mode_redisplay(struct sna *sna)
                                        continue;

                                sna_crtc_redisplay(crtc, &damage, bo);
- kgem_bo_submit(&sna->kgem, bo);
+ kgem_scanout_flush(&sna->kgem, bo);

                                arg.crtc_id = __sna_crtc_id(sna_crtc);
                                arg.fb_id = get_fb(sna, bo,
@@ -8889,7 +8889,7 @@ disable1:
                arg.flags = DRM_MODE_PAGE_FLIP_EVENT;
                arg.reserved = 0;

- kgem_bo_submit(&sna->kgem, new);
+ kgem_scanout_flush(&sna->kgem, bo);

                sigio = sigio_block();
                for (i = 0; i < sna->mode.num_real_crtc; i++) {

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Sorry, try

diff --git a/src/sna/sna_display.c b/src/sna/sna_display.c
index 80b658a..291b8f0 100644
--- a/src/sna/sna_display.c
+++ b/src/sna/sna_display.c
@@ -6454,7 +6454,7 @@ sna_page_flip(struct sna *sna,
        if ((sna->flags & (data ? SNA_HAS_FLIP : SNA_HAS_ASYNC_FLIP)) == 0)
                return 0;

- kgem_bo_submit(&sna->kgem, bo);
+ kgem_scanout_flush(&sna->kgem, bo);

        sigio = sigio_block();
        for (i = 0; i < sna->mode.num_real_crtc; i++) {
@@ -8789,7 +8789,7 @@ void sna_mode_redisplay(struct sna *sna)
                                        continue;

                                sna_crtc_redisplay(crtc, &damage, bo);
- kgem_bo_submit(&sna->kgem, bo);
+ kgem_scanout_flush(&sna->kgem, bo);

                                arg.crtc_id = __sna_crtc_id(sna_crtc);
                                arg.fb_id = get_fb(sna, bo,
@@ -8889,7 +8889,7 @@ disable1:
                arg.flags = DRM_MODE_PAGE_FLIP_EVENT;
                arg.reserved = 0;

- kgem_bo_submit(&sna->kgem, new);
+ kgem_scanout_flush(&sna->kgem, new);

                sigio = sigio_block();
                for (i = 0; i < sna->mode.num_real_crtc; i++) {

instead

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

All patches reverted (from mesa, kernel, ddx). Only patch from comment #11 applied. Flickering still exists.

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Drat. Best idea I had so far.

Likely no effect, but do please try:

diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
index 6ce2c31..1b296e2 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ static bool cpu_cache_is_coherent(struct drm_device *dev,

 static bool cpu_write_needs_clflush(struct drm_i915_gem_object *obj)
 {
+ if (obj->base.write_domain == I915_GEM_DOMAIN_CPU)
+ return false;
+
        if (!cpu_cache_is_coherent(obj->base.dev, obj->cache_level))
                return true;

@@ -1080,7 +1083,6 @@ i915_gem_pwrite_ioctl(struct drm_device *dev, void *data,
         * perspective, requiring manual detiling by the client.
         */
        if (obj->tiling_mode == I915_TILING_NONE &&
- obj->base.write_domain != I915_GEM_DOMAIN_CPU &&
            cpu_write_needs_clflush(obj)) {
                ret = i915_gem_gtt_pwrite_fast(dev, obj, args, file);
                /* Note that the gtt paths might fail with non-page-backed user
@@ -3926,10 +3928,8 @@ out:
         * object is now coherent at its new cache level (with respect
         * to the access domain).
         */
- if (obj->cache_dirty &&
- obj->base.write_domain != I915_GEM_DOMAIN_CPU &&
- cpu_write_needs_clflush(obj)) {
- if (i915_gem_clflush_object(obj, true))
+ if (cpu_write_needs_clflush(obj)) {
+ if (i915_gem_clflush_object(obj, obj->cache_dirty))
                        i915_gem_chipset_flush(obj->base.dev);
        }

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

All patches reverted. #13 applied. Flickers unfortunately :(

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Michael MacEachern (maceach-b)]

Affects me. Intel GPU, and seems to only affect maximized windows.

[David (daalcala)]

It flickers too in facebook videos

[Joe6832 (manfred-gron)]

Affects me too. There are a lot people outside this thread having this annoying flickering:

https://www.google.de/search?q=--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds+flicker&gws_rd=ssl#q=%22--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds%22+flicker+chrome

So i think this bug should categorized to high-prio!

[Vasya Pupkin (shadowlmd)]

<email address hidden> posted a real workaround on chromium bug tracker:

===
sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Paste this:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Intel Graphics"
  Driver "intel"
  Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

Save and reboot.
===

This works for me.

[Benjamin Gemmill (benjamin-gemmill)]

The xorg folks are aware of this too:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94987

[Benjamin Gemmill (benjamin-gemmill)]

This issue is also on the chrome bug tracker:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152

And the ubuntu bug tracker:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/xorg-server/+bug/1586539

The current workaround is to use UXA rather than SNA; something chrome does makes SNA unhappy.

[Joakim Koed (vooze)]

New and better fix if you still want to use SNA, insted of UXA.

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Section "Device"
   Identifier "Intel Graphics"
   Driver "intel"
   Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
   Option "TearFree" "true"
   Option "DRI" "3"
EndSection

Save and reboot.

[Gabriel Ionescu (justoneslave)]

Thank you Joakim. Fix works perfectly.

[D-freedesktop (d-freedesktop)]

Any chances someone will finally fix this very annoying bug?

[Vasya Pupkin (shadowlmd)]

This looks like a proper solution: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c73

[Vasya Pupkin (shadowlmd)]

Looks like this issue will never be fixed because no one cares about xf86-video-intel. Newer version of Ubuntu and Debian distributions switched to xf86-video-modesetting, more info can be found here: http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX

So the solution is simple:

1. sudo apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-intel
2. sudo rm /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf (for those who created this file before)
3. reboot

I've been testing this fix for 3 days and the only issue I found was xbacklight tool no longer working, which is a known issue as well.

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

Hm, seems that to reproduce the issue kde "desktop effects" need to be disabled.

Best to start freshly with that disabled ("enable desktop effects at startup" off and reboot) already because switching it on/off makes issue hard to reproduce.

[Joakim Koed (vooze)]

I had alot of glitches (not using chrome, but on the desktop, unity) using modesetting :/ Had to revert back to sna + config. I guess maybe unity is not optimised for modesetting?

[Bai Yingjie (byj.tea)]

I had the same problem of screen flickering or tearing, not only in Chrome but also in wine Warcraft III in opengl mode(D3D mode works fine), and by removing package xserver-xorg-video-intel as #11 gave, every thing just works perfectly so far.

I use this link to test, http://animated-gifs-funny.tumblr.com/archive, mentioned by https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c44, confirmed after the fix the problem is gone.

My system is HP xps15, Intel skylake i7-6500u, Linux mint 18, kernel 4.4.0-21-generic.

From what apt show xserver-xorg-video-intel tells it seems it is safe to remove the package if your hw is new enough.
"
This package is built from the X.org xf86-video-intel driver module.
 .
 The use of this driver is discouraged if your hw is new enough (ca.
 2007 and newer). You can try uninstalling this driver and let the
 server use it's builtin modesetting driver instead.
"

[Masi (soopo)]

It affects also non-maximised windows. Related: http://askubuntu.com/q/816631/25388

[Masi (soopo)]

Origin of the bug: xserver-xorg-video-intel

1) Adjustment in `/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf/20-intel.conf` when the bug does not occur in the internet browsers:

    # Joakim
    Section "Device"
       Identifier "Intel Graphics"
       Driver "intel"
       Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
       Option "TearFree" "true"
       Option "DRI" "3"
       Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
    EndSection

The resolution is somehow related to `intel_backlight` but we do not know how.

2) Another option is to purge the package but then you cannot make the other fixes (etc of F5/F6 keys) with the file 20-intel.conf.

Conclusion
---
(1) works such that you can use 20-intel.conf for other fixes. However, we do not understand how. Please, confirm if you can fix the case with (1) such that we can understand better the origin of the bug.

Hardware: Asus Zenbook UX303UA R4028T
Ubuntu: 16.04 64 bit
Linux kernel: 4.7
Related: http://askubuntu.com/q/816631/25388

[Joakim Koed (vooze)]

Masi:

I think you misunderstood what I meant :)

The issue / workaround is not related to

       Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"

but to:

       Option "TearFree" "true"
       Option "DRI" "3"

The reason it was not working for you before, was that you had "Section "Device" two times, so Xorg was using the first one, without the TearFree + DRI 3.

This is not an issue Ubuntu can fix really, since its a bug in Xorg + "AccelMethod" "sna" without the above workarounds to make it stop.

I fear if you jump to 16.10 you wont have the issue, but you will NOT be able to use intel_backlight since xserver-xorg-video-intel is being removed by default in the future. But I would guess by then your laptop will probably have better support, without the need for these "hacks"

Hope all that made sense. Glad I was able to help you out :)

[Arkadiusz Miśkiewicz (arekm)]

kernel 4.9rc3
SNA compiled from 2.99.917-722-g714052f (oct 24 2016)
mesa 13.0
google-chrome-54.0.2840.90

and problem is still there.

alt+shift+f12 (enable/disable desktop effects) under kde4 cures the problem (even after switching it off again)

[Jacob Doherty (theflatnz)]

Just some updated information that I hope is useful. This issue is still occurring.

See these bugs for more info as well:

Ubuntu Bug here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1586539

Chorimium Bug here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c63

I can replicate with:

X.Org X Server 1.18.4
xorg-server 2:1.18.4-0ubuntu0.2
Current version of pixman: 0.33.6

Ubuntu 16.04.1 (xenial)
Chrome 55.0.2883.87
Kernel: 3.10.18

MESA info:

Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
    Vendor: Intel Open Source Technology Center (0x8086)
    Device: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Bay Trail (0xf31)
    Version: 11.2.0
    Accelerated: yes
    Video memory: 1536MB
    Unified memory: yes
    Preferred profile: core (0x1)
    Max core profile version: 3.3
    Max compat profile version: 3.0
    Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
    Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.0

Related package information:

http://pastebin.com/6A5ebWTJ

Video information:

 *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 0e
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:104 memory:d0000000-d03fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:1000(size=8)

[Jacob Doherty (theflatnz)]

Just some updated information that I hope is useful. This issue is still occurring.
I understand it may be fixed going forward from 16.10 but I know 16.04 LTS will be around for a long time!

Any chance Ubuntu Xorg package maintainers can reach out to their upstream?

See these bugs for more info as well:
Chromium Bug here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152
Freedesktop Bug here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94987

I can replicate with:

Ubuntu 16.04.1 (xenial)
Chrome 55.0.2883.87
Kernel: 3.10.18

X.Org X Server 1.18.4
xorg-server 2:1.18.4-0ubuntu0.2
Current version of pixman: 0.33.6

MESA info:

Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
    Vendor: Intel Open Source Technology Center (0x8086)
    Device: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Bay Trail (0xf31)
    Version: 11.2.0
    Accelerated: yes
    Video memory: 1536MB
    Unified memory: yes
    Preferred profile: core (0x1)
    Max core profile version: 3.3
    Max compat profile version: 3.0
    Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
    Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.0

Related package information:

http://pastebin.com/6A5ebWTJ

Video information:

 *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 0e
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:104 memory:d0000000-d03fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:1000(size=8)

[Michael MacEachern (maceach-b)]

Yes as a first responder I would like to see this fixed in 16.04. My radio equipment only supports LTS releases and has no support for 16.10.

[agoodm (alan-goodmanemail)]

1 fixes this for me with Ubuntu 16.04 on Thinkpad X250 with the i7 CPU.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Vasya Pupkin, to clarify, if you undid your WORKAROUND, and use UXA instead of SNA, does this also provide another WORKAROUND?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Brandon MacEachern (maceach-b) / agoodm (alan-goodmanemail), so your hardware may be tracked, it will help immensely if you filed a new report with Ubuntu by ensuring you have the package xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information running the following from a terminal:
ubuntu-bug xorg

Also, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

For more on why this is helpful, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Jacob Doherty (theflatnz)]

One thing I found during troubleshooting - for my hardware at least the fix in #8:

Section "Device"
   Identifier "Intel Graphics"
   Driver "intel"
   Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
   Option "TearFree" "true"
   Option "DRI" "3"
EndSection

For me adding the Option "DRI" "3 line caused Chrome to begin locking up when right clicking on pages (the menu would begin to display then Chrome would freeze requiring it to be killed - I think it was also causing issues with Xorg / Unity as the desktop itself would not be responsive at the time.

[Michael MacEachern (maceach-b)]

Christopher M. Penalver (penalvch), why do we both need to file a new report? What exactly is wrong with this one?

Anyways, here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1657875

I don't have time to go back and forth on this as I have a lot to do daily, even the weekends. I just need a non seizure inducing system, thank you.

[Gakaza (gakaza3333)]

Hello guys, does this only affect Unbuntu 16.04? I have seen my Ubuntu 14.04 Chromium having the same issue shown in the same video that Vasya Pupkin (the user of the original post) posted.

I just happened to have my Chromium flickering whenever I'm watching YouTube videos or sometimes even pdf (rarely), and I have intel HD graphic as well with no additional graphic cards.

I tried to follow the above solution and edit the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf/20-intel.conf but the file doesn't exist. I also tried to disabled the "Override software rendering list" option in chrome://flags but it doesn't work either.

Sorry if I made this confusing, I'm a newbie to Ubuntu and hopefully could find a solution for this problem.

System: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
GPU: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gakaza (gakaza3333), to track your hardware, it will help immensely if you filed a new report with Ubuntu by ensuring you have the package xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information running the following from a terminal:
ubuntu-bug xorg

Also, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

For more on why this is helpful, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Tomeu Vizoso (tomeu)]

Jari, I guess this one can have its priority demoted as there's a few workarounds as mentioned in this summarizing comment?

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c132

[Benjamin Gemmill (benjamin-gemmill)]

Without knowing how priorities are set, fresh installs of linux on intel hardware show this bug, and one of the workarounds needs to be manually applied for chromium to work properly out of the box.

The chrome devs mentioned driver blacklisting as a possible solution in the chrome bug report, so prioritizing a fix instead would be amazing.

[Tomeu Vizoso (tomeu)]

(In reply to Benjamin Gemmill from comment #21)
> Without knowing how priorities are set, fresh installs of linux on intel
> hardware show this bug, and one of the workarounds needs to be manually
> applied for chromium to work properly out of the box.

Fresh installs of which distribution versions?

> The chrome devs mentioned driver blacklisting as a possible solution in the
> chrome bug report, so prioritizing a fix instead would be amazing.

[Benjamin Gemmill (benjamin-gemmill)]

The problem seems to affect fresh installs of Ubuntu 16.04 and variants (I use Mint):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1586539

[Tomeu Vizoso (tomeu)]

(In reply to Benjamin Gemmill from comment #23)
> The problem seems to affect fresh installs of Ubuntu 16.04 and variants (I
> use Mint):
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/
> 1586539

Sure, but Highest priority seems to be reserved for regressions that don't have a workaround yet.

[Juraj (ojura)]

I was reading Brandon's (maceach-b) bug report (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1657875). Besides the very entertaining flaming of Christopher (penalvch) by Brandon over there, I've found out in that report that this has been fixed in the newer Xorg stack, which can be installed on 16.04 by running the following, as mentioned in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack:

 sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-16.04 xserver-xorg-hwe-16.04

This also fixed the issue for me on Thinkpad W520.

[spike speigel (frail-knight)]

I've done the same here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1666994

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

commit 7aa6ca61ee5546d74b76610894924cdb0d4a1af0
Author: Chris Wilson <email address hidden>
Date: Mon Nov 7 16:52:04 2016 +0000

    drm/i915: Mark CPU cache as dirty when used for rendering

[Jacob Doherty (theflatnz)]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for fixing this - do you know what version/release it has been resolved in? I want to check with the package maintainers for my distro to try and get it included.

[Jacob Doherty (theflatnz)]

The Xorg team people believe they have resolved this now:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94987

commit 7aa6ca61ee5546d74b76610894924cdb0d4a1af0
Author: Chris Wilson <email address hidden>
Date: Mon Nov 7 16:52:04 2016 +0000

    drm/i915: Mark CPU cache as dirty when used for rendering

No idea of the release / version this has been resolved in though - and guessing the Ubuntu 16.04 packages won't be carrying the very latest commits and releases.

Any chance the Ubuntu package maintainers can reach out to their upstream to discuss and look at including?

[Jani-saarinen-g (jani-saarinen-g)]

just use drm-tip here.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

That's a kernel change which is included in v4.10.

Closing as fixed, on 16.04 the hwe-16.04 kernel will be updated to it before 16.04.3, and before that happens you can use the -edge kernel which is on v4.10 already.

[Gakaza (gakaza3333)]

Hello guys, thanks for the support, I was busy and wasn't tracking this issue recently. However, the problem has been fixed after some later updates, so Chrome in ubuntu 14.04 no longer flickers for me, though I'm not certain which update fixes the issue hmmm...

[Fabio A. (fadamo)]

Affects me too.

[Vignesh-raman-in (vignesh-raman-in)]

I'm seeing this issue with google-chrome,

kernel 4.14.103-rt55, debian stretch
Mesa 18.2.8-2~bpo9+1 (https://packages.debian.org/source/stretch-backports/mesa)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
 Subsystem: Intel Corporation 8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
 Kernel driver in use: i915
 Kernel modules: i915

xserver-xorg 7.7+19
google-chrome-stable 76.0.3809.100-1

Workaround:
Add --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds and --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers flags to /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop.

Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers %U