Display keeps blacking out (i915)
I am experiencing a very annoying display problem on my laptop, which I am struggling to troubleshoot:
The display is frequently blacking out. When it does this, the system keeps running in the background (not a complete system freeze); however, the display stays off and the only thing it seems to respond to is if I switch virtual terminals (with CTRL-ALT-F1 etc). When I do that, the display comes back on again, but usually blacks out again within a few seconds.
The blacking out seems to happen mostly when I am in an X graphical session, and seems to coincide with events that cause fairly significant refreshing/redrawing of the screen (such as if I open a new application window or new web page). If I am working in a console terminal, it seems not to happen (or at least, not as frequently).
I am running Trisquel 8 (based on Ubuntu) on a Macbook 2,1 (it is a fairly old machine). The kernel version is 3.13.0-135. I have tried a slightly older kernel (3.13.0-39), but experienced the same problem.
So, I am obviously trying to figure out what is causing the issue, and whether it is due to hardware or software. The problem started about a week ago - before that, the display was working fine. Around that time, I updated a few packages and there was probably an initrd update, but I didn't update the kernel or modules.
Edit:
I tried booting up the machine from a Live USB (both Trisquel and Lubuntu). Neither of them worked. When I tried to boot Trisquel, I got a printed error message saying i915: Invalid ROM contents, then the screen went completely black. However, the system carried on booting in the background, because I was able to blindly open a terminal and type reboot to reboot the system.
macintosh display i915 trisquel
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
add a comment |
I am experiencing a very annoying display problem on my laptop, which I am struggling to troubleshoot:
The display is frequently blacking out. When it does this, the system keeps running in the background (not a complete system freeze); however, the display stays off and the only thing it seems to respond to is if I switch virtual terminals (with CTRL-ALT-F1 etc). When I do that, the display comes back on again, but usually blacks out again within a few seconds.
The blacking out seems to happen mostly when I am in an X graphical session, and seems to coincide with events that cause fairly significant refreshing/redrawing of the screen (such as if I open a new application window or new web page). If I am working in a console terminal, it seems not to happen (or at least, not as frequently).
I am running Trisquel 8 (based on Ubuntu) on a Macbook 2,1 (it is a fairly old machine). The kernel version is 3.13.0-135. I have tried a slightly older kernel (3.13.0-39), but experienced the same problem.
So, I am obviously trying to figure out what is causing the issue, and whether it is due to hardware or software. The problem started about a week ago - before that, the display was working fine. Around that time, I updated a few packages and there was probably an initrd update, but I didn't update the kernel or modules.
Edit:
I tried booting up the machine from a Live USB (both Trisquel and Lubuntu). Neither of them worked. When I tried to boot Trisquel, I got a printed error message saying i915: Invalid ROM contents, then the screen went completely black. However, the system carried on booting in the background, because I was able to blindly open a terminal and type reboot to reboot the system.
macintosh display i915 trisquel
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
see unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115925/… and askubuntu.com/questions/891990/… ; i915 has been a problematic thing for a while. Macs are also dual graphics cards, you might want to disable the other card to test it out if video card switching is a cause.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:08
@RuiFRibeiro thanks for the links. I will read those and see if any of the answers help. I'm fairly sure this Macbook only has a single Intel graphics chip though. It seems strange that everything was fine, then this problem just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:16
It has been a recurring thing having i915 buggy drivers in Linux and *BSD. I just do not bother with it in FreeBSD and use the framebuffer, even though the latest ones are supposedly working.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:19
@RuiFRibeiro Hmm, ok. When you say 'use the framebuffer', you mean use a different graphics driver to i915?
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:24
You seem to have posts about using the framebuffer from last year...?
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 18:50
add a comment |
I am experiencing a very annoying display problem on my laptop, which I am struggling to troubleshoot:
The display is frequently blacking out. When it does this, the system keeps running in the background (not a complete system freeze); however, the display stays off and the only thing it seems to respond to is if I switch virtual terminals (with CTRL-ALT-F1 etc). When I do that, the display comes back on again, but usually blacks out again within a few seconds.
The blacking out seems to happen mostly when I am in an X graphical session, and seems to coincide with events that cause fairly significant refreshing/redrawing of the screen (such as if I open a new application window or new web page). If I am working in a console terminal, it seems not to happen (or at least, not as frequently).
I am running Trisquel 8 (based on Ubuntu) on a Macbook 2,1 (it is a fairly old machine). The kernel version is 3.13.0-135. I have tried a slightly older kernel (3.13.0-39), but experienced the same problem.
So, I am obviously trying to figure out what is causing the issue, and whether it is due to hardware or software. The problem started about a week ago - before that, the display was working fine. Around that time, I updated a few packages and there was probably an initrd update, but I didn't update the kernel or modules.
Edit:
I tried booting up the machine from a Live USB (both Trisquel and Lubuntu). Neither of them worked. When I tried to boot Trisquel, I got a printed error message saying i915: Invalid ROM contents, then the screen went completely black. However, the system carried on booting in the background, because I was able to blindly open a terminal and type reboot to reboot the system.
macintosh display i915 trisquel
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
I am experiencing a very annoying display problem on my laptop, which I am struggling to troubleshoot:
The display is frequently blacking out. When it does this, the system keeps running in the background (not a complete system freeze); however, the display stays off and the only thing it seems to respond to is if I switch virtual terminals (with CTRL-ALT-F1 etc). When I do that, the display comes back on again, but usually blacks out again within a few seconds.
The blacking out seems to happen mostly when I am in an X graphical session, and seems to coincide with events that cause fairly significant refreshing/redrawing of the screen (such as if I open a new application window or new web page). If I am working in a console terminal, it seems not to happen (or at least, not as frequently).
I am running Trisquel 8 (based on Ubuntu) on a Macbook 2,1 (it is a fairly old machine). The kernel version is 3.13.0-135. I have tried a slightly older kernel (3.13.0-39), but experienced the same problem.
So, I am obviously trying to figure out what is causing the issue, and whether it is due to hardware or software. The problem started about a week ago - before that, the display was working fine. Around that time, I updated a few packages and there was probably an initrd update, but I didn't update the kernel or modules.
Edit:
I tried booting up the machine from a Live USB (both Trisquel and Lubuntu). Neither of them worked. When I tried to boot Trisquel, I got a printed error message saying i915: Invalid ROM contents, then the screen went completely black. However, the system carried on booting in the background, because I was able to blindly open a terminal and type reboot to reboot the system.
macintosh display i915 trisquel
macintosh display i915 trisquel
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
edited Jan 4 at 17:21
Time4Tea
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
asked Jan 4 at 15:33
Time4TeaTime4Tea
942320
942320
see unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115925/… and askubuntu.com/questions/891990/… ; i915 has been a problematic thing for a while. Macs are also dual graphics cards, you might want to disable the other card to test it out if video card switching is a cause.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:08
@RuiFRibeiro thanks for the links. I will read those and see if any of the answers help. I'm fairly sure this Macbook only has a single Intel graphics chip though. It seems strange that everything was fine, then this problem just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:16
It has been a recurring thing having i915 buggy drivers in Linux and *BSD. I just do not bother with it in FreeBSD and use the framebuffer, even though the latest ones are supposedly working.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:19
@RuiFRibeiro Hmm, ok. When you say 'use the framebuffer', you mean use a different graphics driver to i915?
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:24
You seem to have posts about using the framebuffer from last year...?
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 18:50
add a comment |
see unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115925/… and askubuntu.com/questions/891990/… ; i915 has been a problematic thing for a while. Macs are also dual graphics cards, you might want to disable the other card to test it out if video card switching is a cause.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:08
@RuiFRibeiro thanks for the links. I will read those and see if any of the answers help. I'm fairly sure this Macbook only has a single Intel graphics chip though. It seems strange that everything was fine, then this problem just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:16
It has been a recurring thing having i915 buggy drivers in Linux and *BSD. I just do not bother with it in FreeBSD and use the framebuffer, even though the latest ones are supposedly working.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:19
@RuiFRibeiro Hmm, ok. When you say 'use the framebuffer', you mean use a different graphics driver to i915?
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:24
You seem to have posts about using the framebuffer from last year...?
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 18:50
see unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115925/… and askubuntu.com/questions/891990/… ; i915 has been a problematic thing for a while. Macs are also dual graphics cards, you might want to disable the other card to test it out if video card switching is a cause.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:08
see unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115925/… and askubuntu.com/questions/891990/… ; i915 has been a problematic thing for a while. Macs are also dual graphics cards, you might want to disable the other card to test it out if video card switching is a cause.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:08
@RuiFRibeiro thanks for the links. I will read those and see if any of the answers help. I'm fairly sure this Macbook only has a single Intel graphics chip though. It seems strange that everything was fine, then this problem just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:16
@RuiFRibeiro thanks for the links. I will read those and see if any of the answers help. I'm fairly sure this Macbook only has a single Intel graphics chip though. It seems strange that everything was fine, then this problem just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:16
It has been a recurring thing having i915 buggy drivers in Linux and *BSD. I just do not bother with it in FreeBSD and use the framebuffer, even though the latest ones are supposedly working.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:19
It has been a recurring thing having i915 buggy drivers in Linux and *BSD. I just do not bother with it in FreeBSD and use the framebuffer, even though the latest ones are supposedly working.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:19
@RuiFRibeiro Hmm, ok. When you say 'use the framebuffer', you mean use a different graphics driver to i915?
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:24
@RuiFRibeiro Hmm, ok. When you say 'use the framebuffer', you mean use a different graphics driver to i915?
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:24
You seem to have posts about using the framebuffer from last year...?
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 18:50
You seem to have posts about using the framebuffer from last year...?
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 18:50
add a comment |
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see unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115925/… and askubuntu.com/questions/891990/… ; i915 has been a problematic thing for a while. Macs are also dual graphics cards, you might want to disable the other card to test it out if video card switching is a cause.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:08
@RuiFRibeiro thanks for the links. I will read those and see if any of the answers help. I'm fairly sure this Macbook only has a single Intel graphics chip though. It seems strange that everything was fine, then this problem just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:16
It has been a recurring thing having i915 buggy drivers in Linux and *BSD. I just do not bother with it in FreeBSD and use the framebuffer, even though the latest ones are supposedly working.
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 17:19
@RuiFRibeiro Hmm, ok. When you say 'use the framebuffer', you mean use a different graphics driver to i915?
– Time4Tea
Jan 4 at 17:24
You seem to have posts about using the framebuffer from last year...?
– Rui F Ribeiro
Jan 4 at 18:50