Bug 1829

For reference, this bug is also listed in the RedHat bugzilla here:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=133147

Just wanted to point out that, in the morning (or anytime I start up the
computer after it's been turned off for many hours), when I start up the
machine, I can use the Linux (Fedora Core 3) partition for about 30 minutes with
a nice, clear screen before the horizontal flickering lines begin to appear.
Shortly after they appear, though, the screen begins to grow worse and worse
with the lines until it's completely blank.

I thought it might be a hardware problem, but the screen is fine on the Windows
partition, so that makes me think it's a driver problem. Nevertheless, I'm going
to try this later today or tomorrow on a brand new IBM R51 just to test the
hardware theory.

FYI, I was unable to get one of the R51s to test this on, however, I'm not sure
whether it would make much difference. The R51s we have use the IBM ThinkPad
1024x768 LCD Panels, whereas the R40 I'm trying to get this to work on uses an
IBM ThinkPad 1400x1050 LCD Panel. Is the xorg driver made to handle such a high
resolution on laptops? My monitor is the 15" Active Matrix XGA-TFT display
(1400x1050). Most people who have Linux (Fedora Core 3) working on their IBM
R40s are using the 15 or 14.1 inch display, XGA (1024 x 768). I'm not sure
whether it makes a difference.

I am not having this problem with FC3 on a T42 with Radeon 9600 M10, 15.1 inch 
screen and 1400x1050. I am using the latest from devel tree which is 6.8.1-22. 
You may want to try this first. 

I went to
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/development/i386/Fedora/RPMS/
and grabbed the updated xorg-x11 RPMs, updating my installed RPMs from 6.8.1-12
to 6.8.1-22. After running 'rpm -Uvh xorg-x11-*.rpm' to upgrade/install all 18
RPMs, I rebooted the machine.

The same issue continues to occur when the machine boots into runlevel 5 (GUI).

I know this isn't exactly a help forum, but I was wondering if anyone is
actually working on this or having any luck with it? I'm still having this
problem, and I'm having to use my Windows partition for work. I'd love to be
able to use Linux again.

Thanks!

Do you find any useful info in #1129?

(In reply to comment #0)
> When booting up in graphical mode, horizontal lines will begin flickering in the
> display. The flickering lines become more and more frequent and the display
> begins to degrade to the point that it goes blank. However, the light in the LCD
> monitor is still on, because there is still a glow; it is just black. 
> 
> Pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 while it is doing this does take me to a full-screen
> terminal; however, the flickering still continues until the screen goes
> completely blank. I have blindly logged in through the terminal to reboot the
> machine.

You are saying that the flickering continues when you switch to a virtual
console?  This sounds like a hardware problem.

I take it that runlevel 3 on your distro is a no-X runlevel.  What happens if
you boot to runlevel 3 and let the machine run for an hour?  Or if you let the
machine run at high CPU usage for an hour?  Do you still see flickering?

Are you still experiencing this issue when using a current release of xorg?

Ping to the bug submitter!

Sorry about not responding. I submitted this problem a year and a half ago, and
I no longer have access to the IBM Thinkpad R40 with the XVGA display, so I
can't test it. It was owned by the company I worked for, and, since I no longer
work for them, I can't use the laptop. :-)

As there are no hardware available where this bug occurs I'm closing the bug. 

I'm not sure if I have the same problem, but I'm seeing screen flicker with a radeon 9250 and a x850xt on 1600x1200 with DRI enabled and doing some 3d stuff (like glxgears).  But it only happens with the DVI connector.

Anything I could try?