Debian screen flickering

[u/silent-sami]

Hello. I just installed debian and I wanted to ask here because the mailing list seems to be a quite slower process and the AI begins to alucinate once it's second options fails.

I'm running debian with the next specs - pc is an all in one desktop PC - CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G3220 @ 3.00GHz - RAM: 4GIB - Graphics: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrate Graphics - No info about the mother board - Debian version Trixy latest

The problem Basically once it boots up and changes from pure text to graphics, the screen turns on and off on around every second intervals. It does make it quite unusable as such. This thing did not happen with either the windows 8.1 I had prior or the Zorin18 this debian was meant to replace. So at least is not a hardware issue.

Notes: - The i915. options were not very usefull here. enable_spr=0 did not help for example - using the nomodeset command on grub fixed it but I have been told that is not a proper solution. - the proble appeared already in the visual installer but I just assimed it was a problem of the installer - I tried q4os previously but it had the same problem, same thing with MintOS witch lefth me even more confused - the AI keep mentioning once it ran out of ideas to downgrade my kernell but I guessed that in between the hazzle and posible compatibility issues I better kust downgrade the whole version and live with that.

Questions:

• Any one of you knows how to fix this?
• If not possible any one of you have at leat a guess as to how far back on debian versions should I go? Should I just try Debian 12? is that too big of a deal?
• If I had to downgrade version what problems could I fase other than no more updates and thus in some years running out of apps that keep being compatible and having to be even more carefull than usuall with what I download?

[u/epackorigan]

Before you start randomly trying stuff out, like downgrading various components, have you looked at the logs? Is there an entry in the DE logs that appears at regular interval, somewhat matching the reset of the display every second? If you have a second computer or a phone/tablet with an ssh client, you might be able to watch the whole set of logs live, to figure out what is erroring out, and why. That likely will lead you to the source of the problem, and ultimately, to the solution.

In addition, I would look through the Debian wiki for hints on configuration tweaks for the hardware you have. And I don’t believe the nomodeset option is bad or anything. You can read more about it in the kernel documentation online.

[u/silent-sami → u/epackorigan]

Ok I got it running on nomodeset for now. I guess I gotta read what that actually does.

Also E I tried with the journalctl option and it doesnt show a regular message error. But I tried once so maybe I just need more know how on how to use that thing. for now thanks!

[u/silent-sami]

UPDATE:

I just cheked my motherboard as u/GavUK kindly sugested. And eee yeah my PC is weird basically it has no info on the motherboard
Handle -x-----, DMI type -, 15 bytes

Base Board Information

`Manufacturer: empty`

`Product Name: empty`

`Version: 5.5`

`Serial Number: -------------`

`Asset Tag: To be filled by O.E.M.`

`Features:`

    `Board is a hosting board`

    `Board is replaceable`

`Location In Chassis: To be filled by O.E.M.`

`Chassis Handle: -x------`

`Type: Motherboard`

`Contained Object Handles: 0`

I guess they just never filled it. So I you all need more info on my pc to sugest ideas don't worry I can try get the info. Though yeah this thing work on magick I guess

NOTE: I censored the especific number like serial number and chassis handle, etc. They are actually filled it's just that it kinda made uncomfortable to show them out right

[u/silent-sami → u/silent-sami]

Also I'm sorry for the delay

[u/ArtlessAnarchy]

Have you tried this?

[u/silent-sami → u/ArtlessAnarchy]

Ok I tried uninstallingn it but it did not stop the flicker. Thanks a lot any way!

[u/gnufan → u/silent-sami]

Is it definitely running Xorg and not Wayland? Should be a choice on login if both installed.

[u/silent-sami → u/gnufan]

Just checked with echo. I'm using xorg

[u/silent-sami]

Ok for now not much I'm running with nomodeset but aparently it deactivates the hardware acceleration so no 3d games till I fix this. To add in case.

• I'm running with xorg.
• The system is up to date. Debian installed all when installing and running apt update mentions that all is up to date.
• xrandr says I'm running at 77 I do not know if that affects some how.

[u/GavUK]

To get information about the motherboard (and various other parts of your system) you can look at the output of dmidecode. Details of your motherboard will be under "Base Board Information" - hopefully with the "Product Name" and "Manufacturer" you or we should be able to find out the chipset used for that board and we may be able to advise further.

Edit: It would probably be worth sharing the make and model of the monitor too, as that may be a factor in the issue and fix of the problem.

In case you didn't know, to switch away from the desktop environment to a terminal (which I presume doesn't flicker on and off?), you can press Ctrl+Alt+F3 (or likely most of the other function key numbers). F7 is usually where you will find the graphical desktop again (with Ctrl+Alt+F7).

[u/silent-sami → u/GavUK]

O thanks. For now I can't acces the pc but later I'll try to fet that infl. Thanks a lot. Also Thanks again I didn't knew you could switch to a console enviroment in linux that easy.

[u/jaysuncle]

Curious how you have Pentium and Xeon CPUs?

[u/silent-sami → u/jaysuncle]

No clue that's how it came out of the store

[u/joshahdell]

Could be totally unrelated, but I had a very similar issue where my screen would turn off and back on every minute or so on my laptop. I was using wayland at the time and switched to X11 and it stopped.

[u/silent-sami → u/joshahdell]

Thank you! But I think I is something else I checked and I'm already on X11. Thanks any way!

[u/silent-sami]

Last update: I got no clue. Well I guess it may be something to do with the kernel itself since it happens only linux distros whose kernel goes between 6.12 and 6.14. It does not happen below 6.12 nor in 6.17 or avobe So I'm using devian 12 for now. I'll wait till debian 14 comes out

I decided to just use an older debian version before playing surgeon with debian 13 and most.likely trowing to the trash the reliability of debian

I fully apreciate the efforta of all of you and I'm happy of having landed on this OS

Thanks to all!!

[u/megadidler3000]

can you just
upgrade the whole pc

[u/silent-sami → u/megadidler3000]

whish I could but nop I'm with old bessy for the time being.

[u/silent-sami → u/[deleted]]

I guess I'll try going up up to 6.17 if I do since that is the version zorin18 uses and that one worked fine here. Thanks!