black lines flash across screen when typing on nVidia chips

[Alan Hartless]

I'm using Dapper and the nv driver. When I type in a text box (in firefox, terminal, gedit, etc) black lines flash randomely arcoss the screen. Quite annoying. This does not happen when I use the nvidia drivers nor does it happen in breezy.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

I suspect it would be helpful to attach a hardware id (Applications -> System Tools -> Ubuntu Device Database ) along with mentioning which exact nvidia card you have.

[Yann Rouillard (yann-pleiades)]

I have the same problem.
Here is the output of lspci -v for my card.

0000:01:00
.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV28 [GeForce4 Ti 4200 Go AGP 8x] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0179
        Flags: bus master, VGA palette snoop, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
        Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Expansion ROM at fd000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [44] AGP version 3.0

I launched Ubuntu Device Database (which is not anymore in the menu in dapper) but how can I retrieve the information sent ?

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

If you start it again does it have a big button saying copy hardware address to clipboard?

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Nv driver works fine here on Feisty. If you can reproduce this on Feisty, please feel free to reopen.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

This started happening with me after the upgrade to the latest xserver-xorg-core. (2:1.4.99.906-2ubuntu3) in Intrepid.
It happens with both the nv drivers and the nouveau drivers, so I don't think this is a driver-specific issue.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Confirming due to duplicate.

[Daniel Roe (daniel-roe)]

I have the same video card as Yann. My system is a Dell Inspiron 8600.

lspci -v shows:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV28 [GeForce4 Ti 4200 Go AGP 8x] (rev a1)
        Subsystem: Dell Device 0179
        Flags: bus master, VGA palette snoop, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
        Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Expansion ROM at fd000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [44] AGP version 3.0
        Kernel modules: nvidiafb

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

I have:

01:09.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a4)
        Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device b089
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at dc000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at e1000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel modules: nvidiafb

[Shinjo Park (peremen)]

Me too.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 440] (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
        Memory at f2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at e8080000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0
        Kernel modules: nvidiafb, rivafb

[okmijn (azatom)]

Me too.
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 420] (rev a3)
 Subsystem: ABIT Computer Corp. Device 8f02
 Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
 Memory at de000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
 Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
 Memory at df800000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
 Expansion ROM at df7e0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel modules: nvidiafb, rivafb

the flickering lines it exist on various linux distors years ago on my hw with the nv driver (not the nvidia)

I think the problem is (vertical?) timing, because the screen is shifted on monitor (what the monitor can compensate with autosettings, but the flickering lines stil remain,)

[Ben Court (descendent87)]

Having the same problem but not using a nvidia card
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter

[Ben Court (descendent87)]

Sorry didn't post lspci -v
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter
        Subsystem: Packard Bell B.V. Device e012
        Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 11
        BIST result: 00
        Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at f6ae0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel modules: sisfb

[Cristina Precioso (cristina-precioso)]

Same here!

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter
 Subsystem: Elitegroup Computer Systems Device 0f52
 Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 11
 BIST result: 00
 Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
 Memory at dfee0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
 I/O ports at cc00 [size=128]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel modules: sisfb

[Bertrand Croq (bcroq)]

Same here

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8081
        Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 11
        BIST result: 00
        Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at e5800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at d800 [size=128]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel modules: sisfb

The lines are not always black... in fact, it looks like they are black on white images (eg: here while typing in firefox) or white on black images (eg: on the kde4 deskbar).

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

I am starting to see a theme here... I suspect it would be wise for the folks with an SiS card to create a (single) new bug and to link to that new bug from here (so other SiS people will find it too). My guess is that given that is is happening with two completely different vendors' cards there are probably two different problems that exhibit similar sorts of symptoms.

[Bertrand Croq (bcroq)]

I have tested on the same hardware but using the VESA driver... the problem is the same.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

Bertrand:
Yikes! Assuming that no kernel driver poked the hardware before hand that suggests some sort of hardware/BIOS related issue (e.g. card is not happy in that particular motherboard due to some sort of interaction issue)...

(For SiS 760 owners out there this may be of interest http://www.winischhofer.eu/linuxsispart1.shtml#13 . This does NOT apply to Bertrand but I still feel it would be worth SiS owners spinning off a separate bug).

[Bertrand Croq (bcroq)]

Wheeler:
I have the problem using an "old" Asus Pundit P1 with integrated Sis graphics chipset (newer ones use Intel graphics chipsets) with shared memory... this could also be a bandwidth related problem. I'll try reducing the color depth.

Also, I sometime have those black lines while only moving the mouse in Firefox.

[Bertrand Croq (bcroq)]

I have just tried using 800x600@56 16bpp instead of 1280x1024@60 24bpp, the problem is the same.

[Ben Court (descendent87)]

I have updated KDE on Kubuntu using the Project Neon nightly KDE repo and the problem has gone completely

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The original bug was against -nv, so recent reports with SiS graphics are probably seeing another issue. I agree with Sitsofe that SiS users should spin off their own bug.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

For -nv users, please let us know if you're still seeing this problem with Intrepid.

For SiS users, please file a new bug via `ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-sis`.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Yes, this is a problem for me in Intrepid when I use the nv drivers. (and is not an issue with the legacy proprietary drivers in intrepid-updates)

[okmijn (azatom)]

 > For -nv users, please let us know if you're still seeing this problem

yes

[Daniel Roe (daniel-roe)]

I can also confirm that, with -nv, this problem remains in Intrepid.

[nordy (i-am-nordy)]

Hi,

I am looking for the solution since two weeks after upgrading to Intrepid. The problem is same; flickering every 6-7 seconds and flickering when typing.

I hope there is a right solution but where?

zs

[skosch (koschsebastian-gmail)]

Second that for Intrepid with nv ... same video card as Yann.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thank you for reporting this issue about xserver-xorg-video-nv. Starting
with Lucid, Ubuntu is transitioning to using the -nouveau video driver
by default instead of -nv. The reason for this change is because
upstream development for the -nv driver has been quite slow. We are
quite pleased with the upstream development speed for -nouveau, and hope
this will translate into swifter bug fixes as well.

Because of this, I'm closing this bug report at this time. I'm marking
it wontfix because what you describe is probably a valid issue, but we
do not have further plans to work on it in Ubuntu. If you would still like
to see this issue investigated, I would encourage you to file it
upstream at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/.