Ubuntu
gnome-settings-daemon package

strange desktop flickering makes desktop unusable

Bug #339491 reported by Gavin McCullagh
10
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-settings-daemon

Hi,

I ran an upgrade last night which upgraded a large number of packages, presumably including the core gnome stuff.

When I logged in this morning gnome was very slow to start up. When everything was finally present the screen elements kept flickering horizontally (it's hard to describe to be honest) in a very distracting way. I was going to kill GSD (from experience I suspected it was reprobing constantly), but then it stopped after a minute or so. I thought all was okay.

Then after another five minutes or so, the flickering started again. I killed GSD and the issue immediately went away. I'm attaching my .gnome-session-errors.

Gavin

Tags: iso-testing
Revision history for this message
Gavin McCullagh (gmccullagh) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

Changed in gnome-settings-daemon:
assignee: nobody → desktop-bugs
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

could you get a stacktrace when it's using ressources? could you also run gnome-settings-daemon --no-daemon --debug on a command line and see what it's doing while you get the bug?

Revision history for this message
Gavin McCullagh (gmccullagh) wrote :

I managed to get a backtrace on the second attempt. If you look at the file attached, it has a failed attempt first, then a second attach, then a backtrace.

When the screen started flickering, I killed GSD with signal 3, then took the backtrace as suggested in the wiki.

Let me know if this is okay or not.

Revision history for this message
Gavin McCullagh (gmccullagh) wrote :

Hi,

It seems a reliable way for me to prompt the flickering to start is to unplug or replug the power cable. Whatever process goes on, at the point the flickering happens, there's no output coming from the gsd instance with debug:

gnome-settings-daemon --no-daemon --debug

Attached is the full output

Revision history for this message
Gavin McCullagh (gmccullagh) wrote :

Having realised that I should pass the --no-daemon --debug when using gdb, here's another backtrace using those options.

I've run 'killall -3 gnome-settings-daemon' during the flickering (which comes and goes) and taken a backtrace.

Revision history for this message
Gavin McCullagh (gmccullagh) wrote :

A recent set of package upgrades appears to have fixed this issue. I'm no longer seeing it now.

agavinmc@bambi:~$ apt-cache policy gnome-settings-daemon
gnome-settings-daemon:
  Installed: 2.26.0-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2.26.0-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2.26.0-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://ie.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

the fix was probably this update

"gnome-desktop (1:2.26.0-0ubuntu2) jaunty; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/101_output_props_events_use_cheap_call.patch:
    - libgnome-desktop/gnome-rr.c:
      + Additional gboolean argument for screen_update() static
        function so that TRUE means that the cheap call (with no
        hardware probing) is called while FALSE means that the more
        expensive one is used. This prevents the gnome-settings-
        daemon from causing X.org to waste CPU cycles when
        output properties are changed (LP: #339228).

 -- Alberto Milone < <email address hidden>> Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:51:14 +0100"

Changed in gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)
tags: added: iso-testing
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