FIXING SCREEN FLICKER ON INTEGRATED INTEL GRAPHICS CARDS

BuzzPCSOS

Using Solus (all builds) with some integrated Intel graphics cards causes an issue with screen flicker which is triggered by the mouse cursor being at certain X-Y coordinates. While not a critical issue, it can be very annoying.
The fix has been found to be helpful on Intel HD520 & 620 cards but is likely to be functional on other Intel cards too.
I was lucky enough to come across this suggestion on askbuntu.com. It worked very well on my fresh install of Solus and had the added bonus of only needing to log off and back on to apply, meaning that the fix could be tested for success on the Live environment before committing to the installed OS.

Would it be possible to incorporate this into future builds of Solus?

At /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ Create a file

Name the file: 20-intel_flicker_fix.conf

And place the following inside:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Intel Graphics"
 Driver "intel"
 Option "TripleBuffer" "true"
 Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

Log off and back on again (live) or reboot (installed OS).

WetGeek

BuzzPCSOS screen flicker which is triggered by the mouse cursor being at certain X-Y coordinates

My HD 360 is probably in the affected group, and I clearly remember that ailment from a while ago. Then, it was hard for me to avoid it. Now, I can't reproduce it despite trying for five minutes or so just now. That makes me wonder whether it's already been applied as a stealth fix. Anybody know for sure?

I took a look at that location, and none of the 20-* files there contained those options, but it's occurred to me that it might have been fixed in a kernel. In any case I can no longer reproduce it while using X11.

ReillyBrogan

BuzzPCSOS Not commenting on the validity of this fix at all, but note that you should put configuration snippets like this in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ instead. I went ahead and edited your post so that people coming to this thread after this post inevitably gets buried will know the correct directory to use.

I also added some backticks so you'd get proper code block rendering.

Miko

Oh I gotta check this tommorow then. Noticed some minor flickering as well

BuzzPCSOS

WetGeek When Solus 4.4 was released I tried Budgie and Plasma and the issue was not fixed for my HD620 card. To be fair it is difficult to find the sweet spot that triggers the flicker but it appears to be in the lower quarter of the screen, about one pixel wide for the whole width of the screen. Typically getting the cursor to stop on the exact spot with a trackpad was difficult but an external mouse made reproducing the fault much easier.
Considering the difficulty in causing the flicker to happen on purpose, it did occur an annoying number of times during an evenings browsing.

WetGeek

BuzzPCSOS it did occur an annoying number of times during an evenings browsing.

Yep, I remember it well. I was pretty sure that I didn't experience it on Wayland, but I couldn't get away from it on X11. When I just tried to reproduce it, I moved my mouse very slowly many times through the screen area that used to trigger it, and nary a reaction.

Axios

Yes adding the 20-intel.conf usually fixes some intel graphics issues.
I had to use it on the old budgie got me to thinking did I install it on mate.
And the answer is no and its the same computer.
So thats interesting and not every intel machine needs it so thats interesting to.
Think I read an article awhile back that intel was working on consolidating there drivers into one package
and updating them not sure if they have progressed on that. or how it panned out.