Bug 436143

Hello, 

could you send output of "lspci" and "hwinfo --gfxcard" ?

Thanks 

Sure:

linux-h7s7:/home/oddball # lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2)       
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMBus (rev a2)                 
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1)        
00:05.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 IDE (rev a2)                 
00:07.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)                   
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2)     
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)     
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)     
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)     
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration                                                                     
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map       
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller   
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control                                                                                       
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV410 [Radeon X700]               
02:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 5e6f                              
linux-h7s7:/home/oddball # hwinfo --gfxcard                                               
08: PCI 200.1: 0380 Display controller                                                    
  [Created at pci.318]                                                                    
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1002_5e6f                                         
  Unique ID: 2Oa+.N_dvdiucx53                                                             
  Parent ID: WL76.+sikFBX9nz3                                                             
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:09.0/0000:02:00.1                                 
  SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.1                                                               
  Hardware Class: graphics card                                                           
  Model: "ATI Display controller"                                                         
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"                                               
  Device: pci 0x5e6f                                                                      
  SubVendor: pci 0x174b "PC Partner Limited"                                              
  SubDevice: pci 0x0671                                                                   
  Memory Range: 0xfdce0000-0xfdceffff (rw,non-prefetchable)                               
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d00005E6Fsv0000174Bsd00000671bc03sc80i00"                   
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown                               
  Attached to: #16 (PCI bridge)                                                           

09: PCI 200.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
  [Created at pci.318]                             
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1002_5e4f  
  Unique ID: B35A.M4QdkQchSQF                      
  Parent ID: WL76.+sikFBX9nz3                      
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:09.0/0000:02:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "ATI Radeon X700 SE (RV410) 5E4F (PCIE)"
  Vendor: pci 0x1002 "ATI Technologies Inc"
  Device: pci 0x5e4f "Radeon X700 SE (RV410) 5E4F (PCIE)"
  SubVendor: pci 0x174b "PC Partner Limited"
  SubDevice: pci 0x0670
  Memory Range: 0xe0000000-0xefffffff (rw,prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xfdcf0000-0xfdcfffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0xbc00-0xbcff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xfdc00000-0xfdc1ffff (ro,prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 16 (46051 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001002d00005E4Fsv0000174Bsd00000670bc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: radeon
  Driver Info #1:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: radeon
    3D Support: yes
    Extensions: dri
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #16 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #9
linux-h7s7:/home/oddball #

..your welcome;)

Please attach /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

Created attachment 246059 [details]
xorg.conf

Created attachment 246060 [details]
Xorg.0.log

Created attachment 246144 [details]
xorg.conf

Created attachment 246145 [details]
Xorg.0.log

Having seen the endless logfile it seems some RANDR application polls the state, which is bad. Which desktop are you using? KDE3, KDE4, Gnome, Xfce?

I am using only KDE4 atm...

I know that the first versions of KDE4 did not trigger this behaviour, so i suspected that something had changed... only i do not know what.
I can install Xfce to see what happens, but my guess is that it is a KDE4 thing only... 

I think it's krandrtray. I thought this polling had been disabled meanwhile. Please try with Xfce or a failsafe Xsession to verify.

Booted failsafe: No flickering wse.
How to disable that 'polling' manualy?

(In reply to comment #12 from Robby Verberne)
> Booted failsafe: No flickering wse.

I told you to start *failsafe Xsession*, *not* booting failsafe entry. Booting failsafe entry means starting fbdev driver, which isn't RANDR 1.2 capable.

It might sound stupid but how to start a 'failsafe Xsession'?
if i go to init 3, i have to be root. if i startx from there, and i hit ctr+enter, root-gui is entered, but still flickering screens. How do i know i am in failsafe-mode?

You can select failsafe Xsession from your display manager (kdm/gdm).

KDE failsafe session is there, true.
As i enter init 5, from init 3, the flickering allready starts.
The loginscreen and the KDE4 start screen seem/are quiet, but as soon as the desktop begins to show, heavy flickering commences...

Installed Xfce.
Some flickering now and then appears...
When opening an app, the flickering is triggered, until the app is fully functional, the flickering is visible and annoyingly present.
Rest of the time much and much more quiet..

IceWm is very quiet, starting FF triggers flickering, but far less than Xfce or KDE4.1
Krusader does not trigger flickering at all, thunar does.
Oo does not flicker in IceWm, but it does in Xfce..

Ok. Forget about failsafe/Xfce. Seems to be to complicated. Try the following.
Switch to runlevel 3 ("init 3"), login as root. Run

  X :0 & sleep 3; DISPLAY=:0.0 xterm

In the xterm run 'twm &' to have a simple window manager.

Still any flickering? Attach /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

Well, maybe the word 'flickering' calls a different image between us...
In the Xterm, the wallpaper, some grey cloth image, becomes very unquiet; which you can call flickering. But the flickering i opened this bug for is horizontal stripes, as wide as the screen, on various heights flashing white bars.
Upper half > lower half > middle > top > lower, and so on...

Created attachment 246436 [details]
Xorg.0.log

Created attachment 246437 [details]
Xorg.0.log

With grey wallpaper you probably mean the X pattern of the Xserver. Run

 X -br :0 & sleep 3; DISPLAY=:0.0 xterm

to prevent this. 

But even with the new logfile with only twm and xterm running I see something which looks like RANDR polling (3 times).

[...]
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:ddc2" removed.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:ddc2" removed.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "VGA-0:ddc2" removed.
(II) RADEON(0): Output: VGA-0, Detected Monitor Type: 0
Dac detection success
in RADEONProbeOutputModes
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1440x900
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1366x768
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1360x768
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1280x800
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1152x864
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1280x768
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1280x720
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1024x768
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1280x600
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 1024x600
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 800x600
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 768x576
(II) RADEON(0): Adding Screen mode: 640x480
(II) RADEON(0): Total number of valid Screen mode(s) added: 13
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "DVI-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "DVI-0:ddc2" removed.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "DVI-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "DVI-0:ddc2" removed.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "DVI-0:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
(II) RADEON(0): I2C device "DVI-0:ddc2" removed.
(II) RADEON(0): Output: DVI-0, Detected Monitor Type: 0
Dac detection success
[...]

I do not understand this. Reassigning.

You mean the DAC detection?

Output detection in general.

Like something is looping...

Strangely there is some output detection going on after the Xserver has been fully started, DAC detection could certainly be the reason for flickering on a VGA output.
I'm not sure what is causing the monitor detection to happen. Neither the Xserver nor the driver should do this.
Could you do an X -logverbose 7 :1
in a console, please check if you can still observe any flickering, then kill the server with crtl-alt-bs (twice!) and check if there are still mutiple such monitor probes at the end of the log file.
 
This  flickering could also come from linebuffer starvation during drawing operations. There are too may entities accessing local memory on the card. 
Robby: just for testing: could you add the option:

Option "NoAccel" 

to the device section of the config file and try again?

X -logverbose 7 :1 took me to init 3.
ctrl-alt-bs (2x)
did not visible change anything, nor to the log.

Option "NoAccel", did not reduce flickering, but slowed down scrolling xtremely, so i removed that.
I added the configfile from my 10.3 install, where everything is normal, to compare with the one from 11.1B2.

Created attachment 248003 [details]
xorg.conf 10.3

You mean when using the config file of 10.3 on 11.1 you don't see these issues?

--- xorg.conf.10.3      2008-10-26 14:29:32.000000000 +0100
+++ xorg.conf.11.1      2008-10-26 14:27:31.000000000 +0100
@@ -130,8 +130,7 @@
   BoardName    "Radeon X700 SE (RV410) 5E4F (PCIE)"
   Driver       "radeon"
   Identifier   "Device[0]"
-  Option       "monitor-VGA-0" "Monitor[0]" 
-  Option       "NoAccel"
+  Option       "monitor-VGA-0" "Monitor[0]"
   Screen       0
   VendorName   "ATI"
 EndSection

This means you had disabled acceleration on 10.3 as well.

Ooops!
Sorry, this was the wrong attachment;)
I mean this one:

Created attachment 248010 [details]
xorg.conf 10.3

(In reply to comment #32 from Robby Verberne)
> Created an attachment (id=248010) [details]
> xorg.conf 10.3

Obviously on 10.3 you're using the fglrx driver, which also answers the question, if this config works also on 11.1. The answer is no, since ATI didn't release a driver yet, which works with X.Org 7.4. 

==> This information is useless.

I was afraid of that, because with the sax problem (not able to set right res.) in 11. it did not work either.
Helas i do not have an Xorg.conf from a working 11.1A*, because i did not expect to need one ;)

Could well be, that on 10.3 you saw the same issues with radeon driver and therefore switched to fglrx driver. At least there is hope. ATI will release
a working fglrx driver for X.Org 7.4 in time for openSUSE 11.1 release. 

Matthias, I have a X600 Pro gfx card for testing available. Maybe you can reproduce the issue with that card as well.

*** Bug 440912 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Hello,

I have also a very irritating flickering problem on my display. The screen flickers every 9-10 seconds and in my opinion it goes over the complete screen. But if I cover up the whole screen, except 1 square cm at one of the corners, I still see 2 flickerings, 9-10 seconds in between and that repeated every 50 seconds. The flickering looks like a darker line flashing downwards over a third of the screen height.
I have a GEFORCE 8400 GS NVIDIA card

Regards,
            Frans

Frank, Nkoli, your issues might very well be another duplicate of Bug #427645.

Hello,

I forgot to mention that I have noticed this in beta3 liveCD as well as installed and now in beta4 live CD. I have not looked at earlier versions.

Regards, frans

The issue of Bug #427645 still exists on Beta4.

Frank, Nkoli,

closing this as duplicate of bug #427645 for now. They should *really* be fixed in Beta 5.

If the issues still turn up with Beta 5, please reopen this bug (except for if bug #427645 is reopened itself).

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 427645 ***

$ qdbus org.kde.kded /kded unloadModule randrmonitor

did the trick for me also, as said in bug 427645