Dell monitor not updating properly

English Hardware
#1

I have a dell monitor, E153FPf, with an intel chipset 865G. I just changed from Debian to Open Suse 11.4. In Debian, everything worked fine. However, with Suse, every time I open a new window in Gnome, the screen will flash at about a 1 Hz rate, showing the new window, and then immediately revert to the previously displayed window.

If I change to a different workspace, and then change back again, the display works properly . . . until I open or close a new application window.

I made sure YaST2 had the correct refresh and resolution; I downloaded and installed the latest Intel drivers, I enabled the correct horizontal and vertical refresh rates in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-Monitor.conf - all to no avail. I have searched around for answers, but most of the issues seem to be with monitors not working at all - not new or closed applications not refreshing the screen properly.

Any suggestions?

#2

I have a dell monitor, E153FPf, with an intel chipset 865G. I just changed from Debian to Open Suse 11.4. In Debian, everything worked fine. However, with Suse, every time I open a new window in Gnome, the screen will flash at about a 1 Hz rate, showing the new window, and then immediately revert to the previously displayed window.

If I change to a different workspace, and then change back again, the display works properly . . . until I open or close a new application window.

I made sure YaST2 had the correct refresh and resolution; I downloaded and installed the latest Intel drivers, I enabled the correct horizontal and vertical refresh rates in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-Monitor.conf - all to no avail. I have searched around for answers, but most of the issues seem to be with monitors not working at all - not new or closed applications not refreshing the screen properly.

Any suggestions?

Sounds to me like a video driver issue and the Intel driver is built into the kernel though there are support files in Xorg. You can get the latest Xorg stuff compiled for openSUSE by adding in this repository (excluding the quotes):

"http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/XOrg/openSUSE_11.4/"

You could try using the kernel load option called: nomodeset

This option is already included in the Failsafe entry and can be typed at the options prompt before pressing enter or can be added to the /boot/grub/menu.lst file when you edit it as root.

One can also update the kernel version, all the way up to 3.0 as something else to try. Here is a link for that:

S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.50 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Now don’t use the shotgun approach. Do these in order. 1) Update Xorg and Mesa and reboot. 2) Try nomodeset and you could just do this first, but remove it if it does not help. 3) Try updating your kernel to at least 2.6.39. sack will keep your old kernel to switch back to if you need. The xorg.conf file is not actually required by openSUSE. You can try renaming the file, as root, rebooting to see if that makes any difference.

Thank You,

#3

First, THANK YOU for your very quick reply. I deeply appreciate it.

Second, the 2nd suggestion you had, nomodeset, worked. No more flicker and things update properly :slight_smile:

Third, I’ve looked around briefly at what this parameter does, but while there are suggestions on using it (including some I saw from you :D), I did not find what this setting actually does.

Thanks again for your quick and effective help!

#4

First, THANK YOU for your very quick reply. I deeply appreciate it.

Second, the 2nd suggestion you had, nomodeset, worked. No more flicker and things update properly :slight_smile:

Third, I’ve looked around briefly at what this parameter does, but while there are suggestions on using it (including some I saw from you :D), I did not find what this setting actually does.

Thanks again for your quick and effective help!

The nomodeset stops Kernel Mode Setting from working which just causes a secondary video driver for Intel to be used as the primary one is not working. Updating the Kernel major number (2.6.37 to 2.6.38 or 2.6.39 or 3.0) while removing the nomodeset parameter can see if the newer version works better. The bottom line however is if what you have now works OK for you, then there is no reason to go further. The newer drivers might be faster than the old but it is hard to know before hand if it is worth the trouble or not. Still, the sakc bash script makes it easy to try a newer kernel if you want to do so.

Thank You,