Intermittent Screen Flickering

r7nuk

On most days when I use my laptop, the screen will occassionally flicker for about 30 seconds.

When I run dmesg, I get the error message:

[drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun

I have updated my bios, but that hasn't resolved it.

My machine specs (from inxi -Fz) are:

System:
  Kernel: 5.6.19-159.current x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Budgie 10.5.1 
  Distro: Solus 4.1 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X411UA v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X411UA v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: X411UA.310 date: 04/16/2019 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 19.4 Wh condition: 35.4/42.1 Wh (84%) 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-8250U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
  Speed: 927 MHz min/max: 400/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1000 2: 1000 
  3: 1000 4: 1000 5: 1000 6: 1000 7: 1000 8: 1000 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver: i915 v: kernel 
  Device-2: IMC Networks VGA UVC WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.1.9

If anyone can give me any guidance or help, that would be fantastic.

Leandros_Adigard

Does this only happen on kernel 5.6.19? Or has it happened with other kernels?

r7nuk

Leandros_Adigard Sorry, I'm not sure I can link this issue to kernel versions. If it helps at all, I first noticed this in about August 2020.

Leandros_Adigard

r7nuk I wish I knew enough to tell you the exact issue and how to resolve it, but I don't. I did do some Googling though. Your mileage may vary with these and I may be duplicating some digging you've already done or that @david has done.

Looks like one person found a solution for themselves by disabling c-states in their BIOS setting. They're running Kubuntu. Note that it could increase battery consumption (I don't know enough to confirm that).

david

I also experience screen flickering occasionally. Your description sounds right about the same as mine. I've tried to resolve it, but not been successful.

One thing that is helpful is that moving the mouse will cause the flickering to stop immediately. And it never happens during active video. So I haven't tried to delve deep into the issue. (Not that I'd know what to do.)

I get the same dmesg error.

After reading
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=253754
and
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_graphics#Screen_flickering
I thought I had solved the issue.

But when I used the relevant commands in Solus that I thought would then help:

sudo mkdir /etc/kernel
echo 'i915.enable_psr=0' | sudo tee /etc/kernel/cmdline
sudo clr-boot-manager update

the issue remained.

I will look forward to see if anyone else has any thoughts.

For me, the issue started when I updated my system on 5/22/2020. It had not done so before.

My own specs:

System:
  Kernel: 5.6.19-159.current x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.2 
  Distro: Solus 4.1 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E7470 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0T6HHJ v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.22.8 
  date: 10/08/2019 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 21.5 Wh condition: 21.5/37.8 Wh (57%) 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-6300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  Speed: 700 MHz min/max: 400/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 715 2: 742 3: 779 
  4: 747 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Sunplus Innovation Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1600x900~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.1.9

r7nuk

david : At least I'm not suffering alone. 😄

Leandros_Adigard : Thanks for the help.

I do remember reading about the "disabling C-states" fix, but had forgotten about that whilst I worked out how to update my BIOS as a first step. I have now checked my BIOS settings (incl. Advanced section) and can't see anything in there related to setting C-states.

I did find this gist on What are CPU "C-states" and how to disable them if needed?. But I've not changed kernel parameters before, and so need to look through Solus Help Center: Boot Management first.

david

@Leandros_Adigard I appreciate the kind research on my behalf. Disabling C-states is not something I had tried. I will look into it!
@r7nuk Hope it works for you.

r7nuk

Just a quick update for anyone else suffering from this issue: I haven't tried the "disabling C-states" fix (as that felt more like a temporary workaround than a fix, and the actual issue is only sporadic at worst).

Also, I had a look at the Intel i915 kernel driver bug tracker and found a couple of open issues that look very similar, so it feels like this is an underlying issue with the driver:
i915 flickering in new XPS13 9380 (2019)
SKL: Display flickering - ERROR CPU pipe A FIFO underrun

Xmetalfanx

not sure if the dev team would want me to make another issue/thread or not but anyway on Solus Budgie (fully updated) I am having screen flickering here ... sometimes it's not bad but moments ago it was flickering alot ... and I cant pinpoint it to say "heavy CPU/GPU usage" or a specific app i am using when it happens either.

my graphics specs are:
Graphics: Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] driver: i915 v: kernel Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.3
general specs (I forgot the "full report style of inxi output" arguments for inxi )

'
 ~  inxi -Sxx                                                                                      1212ms  Sat 20 Feb 2021 09:00:26 PM UTC
System:    Host: solus Kernel: 5.10.12-171.current x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 Desktop: Budgie 10.5.2 
           wm: budgie-wm dm: LightDM Distro: Solus 4.2 
`

FishesBeCrazy

I'm adding to this because I found the same issue. Periodically the screen will start to flicker. Items near the bottom of the screen stretch downward (it's like the pixels 50 rows up just get duplicated for all rows below).

As it's intermittent, it's hard to validate a fix, but I have i3 installed as well. When running i3, I have yet to see the issue. Switching back to Budgie, it crops up occasionally, leading me to believe the issue is with Budgie.

System specs:
System: Kernel: 5.10.15-172.current x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: GNOME Distro: Solus 4.2 Machine: Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E7470 v: N/A serial: <filter> Mobo: Dell model: 0T6HHJ v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.21.6 date: 05/20/2019 Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 36.1 Wh condition: 37.4/55.0 Wh (68%) CPU: Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i7-6600U bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 4 MiB Speed: 2600 MHz min/max: 400/2600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2600 2: 2600 3: 2600 4: 2600 Graphics: Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] driver: i915 v: kernel Device-2: Sunplus Innovation Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.3 Audio: Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.15-172.current Network: Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM driver: e1000e IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter> Device-2: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter> Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb Message: Required tool hciconfig not installed. Check --recommends RAID: Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci Drives: Local Storage: total: 296.27 GiB used: 36.66 GiB (12.4%) ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: X400 M.2 2280 256GB size: 238.47 GiB ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Kingston model: DataTraveler 3.0 size: 57.8 GiB Partition: ID-1: / size: 229.57 GiB used: 36.66 GiB (16.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-2 Swap: Alert: No Swap data was found. Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 25.0 C mobo: N/A Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 Info: Processes: 204 Uptime: 1d 10h 55m Memory: 15.53 GiB used: 2.2 GiB (14.2%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.01
EDIT: I did get some flickering on i3. Less, it seems, than Budgie, but some flickering nonetheless.