Bug 2674 - LCD display flickers (shuts down and immediately up) on dual-head radeon.
Summary: LCD display flickers (shuts down and immediately up) on dual-head radeon.
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: xorg
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Driver/Radeon (show other bugs)
Version: 7.0.0
Hardware: x86 (IA32) Linux (All)
: highest normal
Assignee: Xorg Project Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2005-03-08 04:00 UTC by Pavel Gurevich
Modified: 2007-02-22 14:27 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:


Attachments

Description Pavel Gurevich 2005-03-08 04:00:04 UTC
I'm using KDE as a desktop environment. Starting from Xorg 6.8.2rc1 I'm
experiencing the following problem: on some display updates, my primary display
(LCD, Apple Cinema 20"; I'm using Xinerama and radeon driver) shuts down and
after a moment it goes up again. This annoys me much and also I beleive it is
not health at all for my monitor. There was no such problem in Xorg 6.8.1.

Logs does not show any problems (dmesg too).

My configuration:
Linux kernel 2.6.{10,11}-smp (self-compiled)
Distribution: SuSE.
Video Card: Radeon 9200 VIVO.
MoBo: Tyan Thunder K7, dual Athlon MP 2200+
Memory: 1Gb

Here is my xorg.conf file:
==========================
### Modules
Section "Module"
        Load    "GLcore"
        Load    "bitmap"
        Load    "dbe"
        Load    "ddc"
#No dri with xinerama :(
        Load    "dri"
        Load    "extmod"
        Load    "freetype"
        Load    "glx"
        Load    "int10"
        Load    "record"
        Load    "speedo"
        Load    "type1"
        Load    "vbe"
EndSection

### Keyboard
Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "kbd"
  Identifier   "Generic Keyboard"
  Option       "MapName" "Standard Keyboard [ pc105 ]"
  Option       "Protocol" "Standard"
  Option       "XkbLayout" "us,il,ru"
  Option       "XkbModel" "pc104"
  Option       "XkbRules" "xfree86"
  Option       "XkbVariant" ",,winkeys"
EndSection

### Mouse
Section "InputDevice"
   Driver       "mouse"
   Identifier    "Configured Mouse"
   Option       "Buttons" "10"
   Option       "Device" "/dev/mouse"
   Option       "Name" "Logitech MX700"
   Option       "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
   Option       "Vendor" "Logitech"
   Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

### Apple output
Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Radeon0"
        Driver          "radeon"
        BoardName       "ATI Radeon 9200"
        Screen          1
        BusId           "PCI:1:5:0"
        Option          "NoAccel" "false"
EndSection

### Ctx output
Section "Device"
   Identifier      "Radeon1"
   Driver          "radeon"
   BoardName       "ATI Radeon 9200"
   Screen               0
   BusId           "PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
        Identifier "modes-ctx"
        Modeline        "1152x864" 77.55 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 871 902
        Modeline        "1152x864" 90.48 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 873 902
        Modeline        "1152x864" 103.40 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 874 902
        Modeline        "1152x864" 116.33 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 876 902
        Modeline        "1152x864" 129.25 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 879 902
        Modeline        "1152x864" 142.12 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 879 902
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Option       "CalcAlgorithm" "CheckDesktopGeometry"
  DisplaySize  320 240
  HorizSync    27-95
  Identifier   "ctx-monitor"
  ModelName    "VL710ST (1795SL)"
  Option       "DPMS"
  VendorName   "CTX"
  VertRefresh  50-160
  UseModes     "modes-ctx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Option       "DPMS"
  Identifier   "apple-monitor"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1680x1050"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      32
    Modes      "1680x1050"
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Radeon1"
  Identifier   "apple-screen"
  Monitor      "apple-monitor"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      32
    Modes      "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Radeon0"
  Identifier   "ctx-screen"
  Monitor      "ctx-monitor"
EndSection



### No dri with xinerama, commented out.
Section "DRI"
       Mode    0666
EndSection

### Default layout
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Dual monitors"
        Screen          0 "apple-screen"
        Screen          1 "ctx-screen" RightOf "apple-screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
        Option          "Xinerama" "true"
EndSection

### Default layout
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "3D"
        Screen          "apple-screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
        Option          "Xinerama" "false"

EndSection
Comment 1 Andreas Schultz 2005-03-11 07:20:39 UTC
different card, same problem here.

My graphics card is a HIS Excalibur Radeon 9600PRO Dual DVI, both heads are DVI
connected. The secondary head is shutting off for about a second from time to
time. The problem seems to be related to redraw operations on the primary head
(e.g. scrolling large screen areas).

Config:
Distri: Debian/sid
XOrg: Ubuntu Packages 6.8.2-2
Linux kernel: 2.6.10-1-686-smp (debin/sid version)
Mobo: ASUS P4P800-VM
Memory: 1Gb
Comment 2 Andreas Schultz 2005-03-15 01:38:20 UTC
some more details

- the flickering only occurs when the second monitor is connected via a DVI
connector
- a Dell LCD FP does not go dark, but instead flickers
- a ViewSonic LCD switches of for about a second 
- if the second head is connected via a VGA connector no problems occure

Summary: there is some kind of signal curruption on the seconday DVI only
Comment 3 Pavel Gurevich 2005-05-10 11:07:50 UTC
Pitily, there is no progress here, as I understand. I'm not sure at all that
such switches are healthy for a monitor. Seems that I need to build 6.8.1 and
switch back to it as there was no such a bug there.
Comment 4 Chris Burghart 2005-05-27 08:16:33 UTC
Same thing here.  Dual head w/Radeon card driving one head.  Under xorg 6.8.2 I
get the DVI Radeon-attached monitor blinking off then on again regularly and
with inconsistent frequency, but it can happen as quickly as every few seconds.
 It's apparently associated with screen updates, since the blinks can be tied to
new window popups, mouse moves, etc..  The secondary head is a DVI monitor
connected to an i915 onboard video, and it never hiccups. 

Downgrading to xorg 6.8.1 has made the problem go away.

I've seen the issue with assorted Fedora Core 3 stock SMP kernels (2.6.10 and
11).  My environment is Gnome based.  My xorg.conf is available at:

    http://www.eol.ucar.edu/~burghart/xorg.conf

Also, this bug seems to be described for a single-headed system in the thread at
redhat.com beginning here:

    https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-April/msg00046.html

Note that in that thread, changing to a VGA connection to the monitor also makes
the problem go away.
Comment 5 T. Hood 2005-09-23 09:21:12 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 2859 ***
Comment 6 Michael Kofler 2006-03-29 19:20:56 UTC
I have the same problem with xorg 7.0 (Fedora Core 5), so I don't see this bug
resolved.

Hardware: IBM T42p thinkpad, ATI FireGL Mobility T2, xternal TFT monitor
(1600x1200) connected via docking station
Comment 7 Erik Andren 2006-05-31 01:53:28 UTC
What is the status if you are using the current version of xorg (7.1)?
Comment 8 Johnny Accot 2006-06-01 06:50:56 UTC
Hi. I switched to Xorg 7.1.0 (Mandriva's cooker distribution) and I can't use
the fglrx driver anymore (module incompatibility).  Using the radeon driver with
my FireGL Mobility V5000 results in my screen flickering like crazy, very much
like the pictures at:

http://www.sisis.de/~guru/xorg/flicker.html

I am able to somewhat stabilize the image horizontally using xvidtune but I
can't get rid of the "echo" and horizontal lines that keep moving up or down my
screen.  I tried all the options people advised, without success.  I had the
same problem with Xorg 6.9 (or earlier) when I bought my computer in November. 
At that time, I switched to fglrx and it fixed my problem.  Another report on
the same problem at http://avkrok.net/nw8240/

If my problem is not really related to the bug described here (sorry), I'll file
a new bug.  Let me know if I can provide data that would help fix that issue. (I
am not sending my configuration file since I have the same problem with all
configurations I tried.)
Comment 9 Timo Jyrinki 2007-02-22 14:27:36 UTC
Marking broken (status null/blank) bugs in xorg with no activity in a long time as fixed. Please reopen if you think it's necessary, but first do a search if a similar bug report is already filed and in a NEW/ASSIGNED state. These bugs do not currently show in most search results as they do not have any status.

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