I have some issues probably with i915 driver. I tried a lot of parameters, edited my grub file but not working. My screen blinking/flickering (white light) when I move cursor or typing. This happens also on log-in screen when typing. Now I use XFCE environment but on KDE or GNOMe issue persist. Can you help? My CPU i5-M560. This is ironlake cpu, first gen i5. My GPU is Intel Integrated Card. When I did not move cursor screen semms to not flickering at all.
I tried add this parametet to the boot option in grub: i915.enable_psr=0
Did not help. I tried also others options. Issue is still there
Your title says kernel 6.17.1.
The current updated kernel is 6.17.12 and many other packages have also been updated since fedora 43 was released.
Please try an update in a terminal window using sudo dnf upgrade and let us know how many packages get updated. Also reboot after that upgrade and let us know if the screen issue changes as well.
Unfortunately, I can’t compile my own kernel due to errors. Probably too low performance (4GB RAM and an old first-generation Intel i5 processor). I did update and now my kernel is: Linux fedora 6.18.3-200.fc43.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Jan 2 20:10:56 UTC 2026 x86_64 GNU/Linux
With 5.19.4-200.fc36.x86_64, the issue is still present, but with 5.8.4-200.fc32.x86_64 the issue is resolved. This indicates that the problem is kernel-related and is a regression in newer kernels.
There have been many changes between 5.8 and today’s kernels.
Newer kernels are less friendly towards systems with limited RAM, so you may need to switch to a more lightweight desktop. Use journalctl to look for errors in a boot that had the issue.
The last working kernel is 5.18.19-200.fc36.x86_64 from Fedora 36. The first kernel where the issue appeared is 5.19.4-100.fc35.x86_64, so there couldn’t have been many changes between 5.18.19 and 5.19.4 — it’s just that no one reported it, and the problem has persisted. The issue concerns Fedora because it’s based on the Linux kernel that has the problem. Where did the idea even come from that this doesn’t affect Fedora?
He said is unlikely to be specific to Fedora, not that it did not affect fedora.
If you waited 8 release versions and many many kernel releases/updates before complaining it must have not been too serious.
It is impossible for the average user to go back that far into the EOL versions and attempt to recreate your problem. At this point there is no reason to continue harping on the time it may have begun since that is history and cannot be changed. The approach should be to take the systems as they are, report the issue to the developers by filing a bug report with the information you already have and work with them to find a solution.
A system with that old hardware is very rare today and the earlier suggestion to switch to a release spin that is less demanding of the hardware seems reasonable to me.
One item to keep in mind is that fedora (many releases back) switched from using a physical swap device to using a virtual zram swap device that resides in RAM. It seems quite likely that the performance and blinking may be caused by an extreme shortage of RAM for operation when (kernel, desktop gui, apps, swap, etc.) all reside in that 4GB of RAM.
It is serious. I wasn’t “waiting” at all. This laptop used to belong to my mom and it originally ran Windows 7 next Windows 10 was installed. When Windows 10 reached its end of life, I decided to give the machine a second chance and install Linux on it, instead of throwing it away.
This computer may be old, but it still matters to me. I use it at my university every day for basic C programming, and it’s frustrating to run into these issues on hardware that I’m genuinely trying to keep useful rather than sending it to the trash.
From the very beginning, I have been using a Fedora Spin — Fedora 43 with the XFCE desktop environment. I chose it deliberately because it is lightweight and well-suited for older hardware. Why you thinked that I use Fedora 43 with heavyweight GNOME environment?
If it helps as a point of comparison - I have an old laptop with 4GB RAM and a 2nd gen i5 processor.
When I try the Fedora 43 KDE live ISO on that, it’s slow (as expected) but I don’t see any of this screen flickering.
So I tend to agree that what you’re seeing is a driver problem with the 1st gen iGPU.
I also notice that you see this problem at the login screen (i.e. before you’ve started a session and opened any apps). While 4GB RAM is quite limiting these days once you start running apps, I wouldn’t expect RAM problems to hit you as early as the login screen.
Yes, I have the problem at the login screen. This is not an issue with the graphical environment. As I mentioned, on some older kernels this issue does not exist, so it appears to be a regression in newer kernels.
My machine is too slow to compile a custom, clean kernel from upstream , so a fix for this issue won’t come quickly. It’s possible that I might fix it myself once I reach a good level of skill in the C language.
The newer kernels are larger than the older ones so it may still be related to the amount of RAM available. Adding RAM might (or might not) eliminate the problem but is a relatively inexpensive upgrade to obtain better performance overall.
I know you said it is a laptop, but some were designed to allow RAM upgrades.
I think that you are wrong but DDR3 RAM memory is cheap so maybe it is a good think to try this solution. I can upgrade from 4 GB to 8 GB because one slot is empty.
This reminds me of a problem I saw with F43 XFCE spin and latest Nvidia driver. XFCE is lagging the fiend in transition from X11 to Wayland, and I don’t think they have everything sorted yet. I suggest trying a desktop other than XFCE. I switched to F43 MATE-Compiz myself.
I tried Gnome and KDE and was the same. I sold this laptop today and I will have Acer with i5-7200u, 8 GB DDR4 and Intel UHD620. We will see if this is only for that hardware or all Intel graphics.
, so a fix for this issue won’t come quickly. It’s possible that I might fix it myself once I reach a good level of skill in the C language.