Screen goes blank unexpectedly

Ask Fedora
, , , ,
1

I have been using Fedora 40 workstation with gnome since 3 months and being faced this issue since the beginning.
ISSUE: The screen goes dim, so dim that it’s black under normal light. But if in a dark room, I am able to see the desktop and its working fine, the mouse, the keyboard inputs, and applications. I have not been able to figure out what causes this. I use Brave browser, VS code, VLC media player, I experienced the same on all the application making me suspect this is a gnome-shell issue.

ALSO: I fix this issue by suspending or locking the gnome-shell by Super+L. And then logging in again. Its fixed but doesn’t guarantee that screen won’t go dim again. As I’m writing this, screen already went dim one time.

I use default gnome-shell login meaning wayland protocol.

I also had another issue, I posted here.

2

Could you test if the same happens with a newly created user? This would indicate if it is a user-level or rather a system-wide behavior.

It would also be helpful if you could provide the output of inxi -Fzxx, and post it here as preformatted text (using the </> button).

3

Unlike my the activities view issue, this one is too uncertain. I am still not able to figure out how to reproduce this potential bug. In 7 hour work session, it goes off 2-5 times. Interestingly, while watching a video of 1 hour, it goes off 5-7 times. I’m suspecting it’s because of Nvidia drivers. I am hoping for a solution. Here is my inxi -Fzxx.

System:
  Kernel: 6.9.11-200.fc40.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 2.41-37.fc40
  Desktop: GNOME v: 46.3.1 tk: GTK v: 3.24.43 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 40 (Workstation Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: Victus by HP Gaming Laptop 16-s0xxx
    v: Type1ProductConfigId serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 8BD5 v: 79.43 serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: 8L7Y4PA#ACJ UEFI: Insyde v: F.15 date: 02/15/2024
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 58.5 Wh (81.9%) condition: 71.4/70.1 Wh (101.9%)
    volts: 16.1 min: 15.4 model: Hewlett-Packard PABAS0241231 serial: <filter>
    status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS w/ Radeon 780M Graphics bits: 64
    type: MT MCP arch: Zen 4 rev: 1 cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 8 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1041 high: 2238 min/max: 400/5137 cores: 1: 400 2: 400
    3: 2238 4: 400 5: 1397 6: 400 7: 400 8: 1591 9: 1397 10: 1397 11: 1397
    12: 400 13: 1397 14: 400 15: 1397 16: 1660 bogomips: 121371
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GN20-P0-R-K2 [GeForce RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU]
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nouveau v: kernel arch: Ampere pcie:
    speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8 ports: active: none empty: HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:25ac
  Device-2: AMD Phoenix1 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: amdgpu v: kernel
    arch: RDNA-3 pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,
    DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, DP-5, Writeback-1 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:15bf
    temp: 38.0 C
  Device-3: Quanta HP True Vision FHD Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 0408:5487
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.1
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x162e res: 1920x1080 dpi: 137
    diag: 407mm (16")
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.1.4 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon 780M (radeonsi gfx1103_r1 LLVM
    18.1.6 DRM 3.57 6.9.11-200.fc40.x86_64) device-ID: 1002:15bf
    display-ID: :0.0
  API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:2291
  Device-2: AMD Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640
  Device-3: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_pci_ps v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.5
    chip-ID: 1022:15e2
  Device-4: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 05:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
  API: ALSA v: k6.9.11-200.fc40.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.7 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: AzureWave driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:7961
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 2000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: IMC Networks Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5:2 chip-ID: 13d3:3567
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.2
    lmp-v: 11
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 241.23 GiB (25.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVL21T0HDLU-00BH1
    size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 39.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 96.66 GiB used: 51.62 GiB (53.4%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p9
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 513.8 MiB (52.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p8
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 256 MiB used: 94.2 MiB (36.8%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 96.66 GiB used: 51.62 GiB (53.4%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p9
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 2.29 GiB (28.7%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 39.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 14.9 GiB used: 9.76 GiB (65.5%)
  Processes: 582 Power: uptime: 5h 49m wakeups: 1 Init: systemd v: 255
    target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Packages: pm: flatpak pkgs: 22 Compilers: clang: 18.1.6 gcc: 14.1.1
    Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 running-in: alacritty inxi: 3.3.34

I will test on fresh user and send reports here if I get time. Thank you Mike, for your help! I really appreciate it.

4

Are you using the discrete or integrated graphics? The thread carries the tag amd but you mention Nvidia drivers in your last comment so this could be a little confusing.

You could perhaps try switching to the other GPU to see if the problem goes away? If it does, then you would know the primary source/cause of the issue.

1 Like
5

A few more questions:

  • are you dual booting with Windows or another OS? If yes, can you reproduce it on the other OSs? Hardware issues should be ruled out first.
  • given that you have an Nvidia dGPU, why are you booting with nouveau drivers? Did you install the Nvidia drivers from RPM Fusion?
  • what is the output of cat /proc/cmdline?
1 Like
6

EDIT: Sorry this comment is misleading. Issue still persists. Keep an eye on new comments

Thank you Mike! It looks like the issue is solved. Nouveau is the culprit !!! (I think)
The fedora installation asked me if I wanted proprietary drivers, I chose yes. Turns out, it only installed the rpmfusion repo, not the driver itself.

Apart from the how-to you linked, which was very helpful, there are a couple of additions I would like to make.

  1. If your system’s secure boot is enabled (all modern systems have), then do the secure boot step first.
  2. If, by any chance, you missed the order. Follow these steps
    1. sudo dnf remove kmod-nvidia-$(uname -r)
    2. sudo akmods --force
  3. or alternatively sudo akmods --rebuild --force
    (source: Nvidia driver not loading)

Even though the fedora experience wasn’t top notch, I wonder what made me stick.

Anyway, here are the answers to your questions, Mike. Thanks for being kind.

  1. Yes, I’m dual booting from same physical drive. I guess its driver issue after all.
  2. Really, why was I not using official drivers!!! Why!!!
  3. Here is the output for cat /proc/cmdline:
    BOOT_IMAGE=(hd0,gpt8)/vmlinuz-6.9.11-200.fc40.x86_64 root=UUID=34aa273b-f6e1-4bf9-94df-a430b11c36fc ro rootflags=subvol=root rhgb quiet rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau
nouveau, BLACKLISTED!!!!!!!

but big L for FLOSS

1 Like
7

That’s because Fedora doesn’t ship proprietary, patent-encumbered software, but provides the users with the means to access such software, if they choose so.

Give it a chance and it might grow on you.

8

I’m sorry Mike, but the issue still persists. I checked inxi -Fz, I’m using nvidia drivers. I guess driver isn’t the culprit. Neither is hardware.

9

What are your power settings (GNOME Settings → Power)?

I would also rule out a hardware issue. Is it possible to attach a different monitor?

10

image
image765×1034 50.3 KB

During my initial troubleshoot, I turned off the dim screen. Issue persists.

11

I missed the information that you’re using a laptop. Does this happen also when plugged into a/c (not on battery)?

If it’s happening also when plugged in, I would carry out another test with Power Mode = Performance.

I would also make sure the firmware is up to date.

Other than that, I am left out of ideas at the moment.

12
  1. Yes. it happens with AND without AC power supply.
  2. On to testing on Power Mode = Performance
  3. System is up-to-date. I pull sudo dnf upgrade --refresh and Gnome Software App and System Updates daily. I am not sure if firmware settings are included in these.