Hello! As the title says, I’m having a weird screen flickering issue and was hoping someone had ideas as to why the issue would only impact the two distros and how to go about resolving it.
The issue: Intermittent screen flickers on only 1 of 2 monitors lasting a couple of seconds, occurring in few second/minute interval. Only affecting Mint Cinnamon and Fedora 40.
Specs: Only impacts Mint Cinnamon and Fedora 40 but NOT Ubuntu or Windows 10. R7 5700x CPU, ASUS ROG 3080 GPU. 32GB 3200MHz RAM. Monitors are similar but apparently slightly different models (did not know when purchasing). One reportedly runs at a slightly lower refresh rate (144Hz vs 143.93Hz). Both connected via DP.
What I’ve tried: Multiple reinstalled with clean installers. Switching between X11 and Wayland. Using both proprietary and open source drivers. Old and new NVidia drivers. Installing CUDA drivers. Changing refresh rates to match (both 120Hz). New wires to make sure it isn’t a wire issue. Flipping wires between monitors to make sure it isn’t a monitor issue.
I guess using Ubuntu isn’t the end of the world but I’d like to go back to Fedora if at all possible.
1 thing here, Windows in this comparison is irrelevant because it’s not the same Operating system/Display Manager or Compositor. Ubuntu could be modifying the compositor to some extent.
Also, what spin of Fedora were you using? Workstation , Cinnamon or other ?
That I recall, Cinnamon uses a slight different compositor than Gnome, or older version? So this could entirely be an issue with Cinnamon no matter the Distribution. Also, not sure whether or not they have a proper Wayland implementation. VRR as a feature would solve many of these issues which is available on Gnome, but not sure about Cinnamon.
Adding onto the confusion, unplugging the problem monitor, plugging in another, unplugging the other monitor, then replugging in the problem one seems to fix the issue until the next reboot.
Also, just tried the KDE Plasma version with no luck.
Regarding Fedora installation, were you also an F39 user, and if yes, did you have the same issues on F39?
Which version of Ubuntu are you using?
Do you mean you are experiencing the screen flickering issues both with nvidia and with nouveau drivers? Could you also share where did you install the nvidia drivers from?
There were some screen flickering issues after GTK upgraded its GL renderer, but that should affect mainly older hardware, so I wouldn’t go that route as of yet.
I’m on a RTX2060 mobile and a core i7 10750H, this my probably help you.
I have an hybrid refresh rate configuration (75 and 120Hz) on my laptop + external monitor.
The extreme annoyance of Nvidia drivers reduced a lot on my system since mid-2023 and I even, incredibly, using Wayland only for 8+ months.
So, on my system, I don’t use RPMFusion’s NVIDIA driver, I use Negativo17’s repo. Had to many intermittent problems with installations.
I install it and the only changes I make are:
Enabling the early loading for the kernel, which also helps with Plymouth making it show your LUKS prompt on all monitors during boot, with:
The obligatory, by NVIDIA’s documentation, Gnome’s experimental feature ‘kms-modifiers’. You can check it here Chapter 39. OpenGL, Vulkan and VDPAU on Xwayland, replace the 555.58.02 with your driver version, but as long as I read that all drivers I check need that enabled for Gnome.
For the the Early Loading thing to work, you’ll have to run Dracut after a Kernel or Nvidia driver update unfortunately (maybe there is a way to automate it) it doesn’t do it automatically.
sudo dracut --force --printsize --parallel --regenerate-all
# or for just the current kernel
sudo dracut --force --printsize --parallel
Mind you that it will significantly increase the space occupied by your kernel files inside /boot.
I also have Hyprland installed, which is my best Wayland experience yet. COSMIC also installed, and is really going to be a very good Wayland experience. With Plasma I had too many problems with 5.2x, 6.0.x and 6.1.x (until 6.1.1). Plasma on all those version have weird behaviours on Wayland including, flickering and full system freeze. Had to forcefully shut my computer down more than I should because of Plasma.
It is always advisable to let us know how the drivers were installed. The recommended way is to install from th rpmfusion repo, though others are available.
This comment seems to imply that you may have installed using the instructions from negativo? The fact they are compiled / installed using dkms takes it out of my wheelhouse so hopefully someone else can chip in here.
I would recommend uninstalling the drivers from whatever source you used then reinstall them from the rpmfusion repo if that is an option you would consider.
Not sure what you mean here, I’m just stating the config and things I’m using. Yes, DKMS from Negativo17’s repo, but no problems with AKMOD on Negativo17’s.
I’ll keep my Negativo17 one instead of the intermittent success of RPMFusion + AKMOD.
So this could entirely be an issue with Cinnamon no matter the Distribution. Also, not sure whether or not they have a proper Wayland implementation. VRR as a feature would solve many of these issues which is available on Gnome, but not sure about Cinnamon.