Screen inexplicably goes black occasionally

[Richard Cavell]

I'm running 64-bit Karmic alpha 3 with all updates applied, on a MacBook 2nd generation. Intel GMA945 graphics architecture.

Karmic alpha 3 is an order of magnitude better with its support for this chipset than Jaunty ever was. The new drivers are a huge step forward. However, about once every couple of hours, my screen goes completely black - as though it has turned off completely. After a second or two, it comes back on spontaneously. My programs etc are unaffected. The computer does not acknowledge in any way that the screen has turned off.

It is definitely not the screensaver. I cannot reproduce the problem by performing any particular action. It happens while surfing the Internet with Firefox, playing Half-Life under wine, using update manager, any old time. It definitely does not happen when I'm booted into OS X or a live CD, or under Jaunty, and I have spent enough time in each environment that I would have seen it if it were to happen in those environments.

I don't think my bug is a dupe because others have reported non-recoverable situations. Mine is completely recoverable.

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

This might be the same as my #401441 ?

Dave

[Adil Arif (adisari06)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Judging from your description, I am going to assign this bug to the intel package in hopes that it will have a faster response. If you believe that I have chosen the wrong package, please change your bug to the correct one. Good luck on getting it fixed!

[Richard Cavell (richardcavell)]

Yeah, I think it's the same as your bug, Dave. I don't confirm that pressing any key brings it back - I've experimented with doing nothing at all, and that works just as well as pressing any key. The screen always returns after a second.

Richard