Bugzilla – Bug 393332
Screen gets black shortly every few seconds
Last modified: 2008-06-25 09:58:38 UTC
After updating opensuse 11 beta 3 to latest factory, in KDE my screen has a weird flickering problem. it gets black for sub-second duration every few seconds. that doesn`t happen if i don`t move the mouse, but as soon i move the mouse, this starts happening. the interval doesn`t seem to be regular, but random. i don`t have a clue why this happens. this doesen`t happen at the logon screen or in xcfe or gnome - so i assume it`s a kde issue.
Which window manager do you use? Do you have compositing effects enabled?
>Which window manager do you use? Do you have compositing effects enabled? i didn`t set anything special - so it must be default kde4 window manager!? what is compositing effects ? i can take a closer look tomorrow...
ALt+F3->Configure->Window Effects - is it enabled?
i don`t se Window Effects setting I assume you meant ->Alt/F3->Configure Window Behavior -> Desktop Effects ? no - they are not enabled
after some trial and error search, i found that the blinking stops when i kill krunner. i don`t have a clue what`s the purpose of krunner. anyway - taking a look with strace , it shows lines like these every time when the screen going black: ) = 0 (Timeout) clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {1529, 316880854}) = 0 select(17, [], [], [], {0, 2075}) = 0 (Timeout) clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {1529, 320860083}) = 0 clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {1529, 320958679}) = 0 time(NULL) = 1213126589 select(6, [5], [5], NULL, NULL) = 1 (out [5]) writev(5, [{"\204\1\2\0A\0\0\0", 8}], 1) = 8 select(6, [5], [], NULL, NULL) = 1 (in [5]) read(5, "\1\0\303\1\0\0\0\0@\0\0\0\221\305\3\0\377\n\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\25o\10x/W\10", 4096) = 32 read(5, 0x805d3fc, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable) time(NULL) = 1213126589 select(6, [5], [5], NULL, NULL) = 1 (out [5]) writev(5, [{"s\0\1\0&\0\2\0A\0\0\0", 12}], 1) = 12 select(6, [5], [], NULL, NULL) = 1 (in [5]) read(5, "\1\1\305\1\0\0\0\0A\0\0\0=\0\200\1U\1?\0U\1?\0\20\0 \10H\257\204\277", 4096) = 32 read(5, 0x805d3fc, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable) select(6, [5], [5], NULL, NULL) = 1 (out [5]) writev(5, [{"\211\7\1\0", 4}], 1) = 4 select(6, [5], [], NULL, NULL) = 1 (in [5]) read(5, "\1\0\306\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\1\0\364O\36\0100\257\204\277(S^\10\10\257\204\277p#\t\10", 4096) = 32 read(5, 0x805d3fc, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable) select(6, [5], [5], NULL, NULL) = 1 (out [5]) writev(5, [{"\204\1\2\0A\0\0\0", 8}], 1) = 8 select(6, [5], [], NULL, NULL) = 1 (in [5]) read(5, "\1\0\307\1\0\0\0\0@\0\0\0\215\320\3\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\25o\10x/W\10", 4096) = 32 read(5, 0x805d3fc, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable) clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {1529, 327079549}) = 0 read(5, 0x805d3fc, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable) clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {1529, 327300155}) = 0 clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {1529, 327379939}) = 0 select(17, [5 6 7 11 16], [], [], {4, 991576}
problem still exists after update to opensuse 11. krunner being part of package kdebase4-workspace. this is on my system: Name : kdebase4-workspace Relocations: (not relocatable) Version : 4.0.4 Vendor: SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany Release : 24.1 Build Date: Sun Jun 8 14:50:50 2008 Install Date: Fri Jun 20 05:15:42 2008 Build Host: alsa2.suse.de Group : System/GUI/KDE Source RPM: kdebase4-workspace-4.0.4-24.1.src.rpm Size : 16639580 License: GPL v2 or later Signature : DSA/SHA1, Sun Jun 8 14:56:37 2008, Key ID a84edae89c800aca Packager : http://bugs.opensuse.org URL : http://www.kde.org/ Summary : The KDE Workspace Components Description : This package contains the basic packages for a K Desktop Environment workspace. Authors: -------- The KDE Team <kde@kde.org> Distribution: openSUSE 11.0 (i586)
i found (With the helpp of Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo@kde.org>), that the problem is related to screensaver. if i disable screensaver entirely, the problem immediately disappears. onfortunately, aaron seems to be too busy for a debug-session. (still no further reply) i`m curious why the problem goes away if i either kill krunner or disable screensaver from control panel. the screensaver timeout is set to 5 minutes, so what makes my screen flicker every 4 seconds if krunner is running or screensaver is set to active. does krunner schedule the screensaver ?
I'm experiencing this issue also. I'm not using compositing effects either. It's distracting. I've noticed it while using the Euphoria screensaver. I haven't tested that much, it is rather annoying though. I'm using openSuSE 11 Final, with KDE4.
please update kdebase4-workspace from KDE:KDE4:STABLE:Desktop and report the result. I'm pretty sure that this issue got fixed there (due to another bugreport). please confirm.
I'm not sure how to do that, could you please give me instructions. Also, will this interfere with me getting normal updates through automatic updates? Thanks.
yes - confirmed! the problem is resolved after updating that package. thank you, Dirk !
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 401351 ***