Screen flickers twice every startup

The screen flickers once during the login screen and once when loading the desktop. The flickers are about 1/2 second. During the login flickers, typing is interrupted. The desktop flicker causes desktop icons to move down slightly on the screen.

Ubuntu Mate 16.04 64bit using default interface. These flickers are very consistent and kind of annoying (especially the first one). The screen never flickers these 2a are finished.

This appears to be a bug which is not yet solved. I have the same issues on four different machines. Perhaps someone will point to a specific bug report shortly.

What hardware?, please tell us more so we have a better understanding of what you are running on!. :smiley:

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Enter this in terminal for your system specs.

inxi -b

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This issue is apparently solved in UM 16.10. Will UM 16.04 receive a bug fix?
In addition to the screen flickers as described by @fruity7skype77, the Ubuntu MATE logo of the default backgrounds also jumps from bottom to its centered default position when starting up the system. While this bug is not in any way stability or security-related, it is quite annoying for anyone using UM 16.04 for the first time and could potentially deter new users from using the system.
Hardware: Thinkpad X61, X220, T460 + older HP

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Hi @fruity7skype77 & @maro,

I cannot replicate this problem on either of my computers or those of my friends, we all have either Nvidia or Intel GPU’s so it may be graphic card related but don’t know?.

Keep on updating and see if a fix gets pushed through!:

I am also affected by this bug.
Great to hear it’s apparently solved in 16.10.

Ubunut MATE 16.04, 64 bit
Intel i5 6500 with IGP

I waited for a while to see if this changes with 16.04.1. How can I check whether I have it correctly installed? These are my system specs:

Kernel: 4.4.0-31-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
Desktop: MATE 1.12.1
Distro: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i5-6200U (-HT-MCP-) speed/max: 499/2800 MHz

Graphics:
Card: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0

Hi @maro,

with Intel graphics, the latest drivers are merged in the kernel so you should be good to go!.

What I did find out myself recently is that with older Nvidia cards, it is best to use the driver package “nvidia-current” rather than the recommended package!.

Your problem may lie with the window manager settings?, try switching the window manager between the various settings and see?. :confused:

I cannot post any screenshots as I am at work (school) on their server and they don’t have Linux!. :frowning:

The screen flickers are still there. Basically it looks like the login screen is loaded two times and the Ubuntu MATE logo “jumps” from bottom to the middle of the screen (if I use the default wallpaper).

I tried with all available window managers through MATE Tweak, so it is not related to that.

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HI @maro,

try the following terminal commands (Ctrl + Alt + t) and see if that helps!:

sudo apt-get --fix-missing install

The above command downloads and installs any missing packages on your system.

sudo apt-get --fix-broken install

The above command downloads and installs any broken dependencies on your system.

This is a bug in the intel driver or kernel. I have this same issue on my System76 Lemur. It’s not a big deal, because it doesn’t flicker after the initial flickers. There used to be a really bad flicker issue that made this happen every minute or so, but thankfully that’s been fixed. This bug should be fixed though. Has anyone reported it yet?

I tried that and the result was:
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 39 not upgraded.

It is good to know that others have the same issues. It is not a big deal but still annoying and as I mentioned earlier could deter new users from using Ubuntu MATE. It is not a very pleasant and smooth login experience.

In my opinion it would look good if MATE would have some animations at login like in KDE.
But that’s offtopic and just “nice to have” :laughing:

I agree with you on that, but new users have a lot more to worry about than that. Ubuntu 16.04’s base is by far the worst release in Ubuntu’s entire history. There are at least 5 bugs that affect me alone, including problems ranging from wifi not working after resuming from suspend, as well as screens randomly going blank, among other problems. While Ubuntu MATE 16.04 is great as a distribution and Wimpy and team did a marvelous job, the Ubuntu base on which it’s built is horrific this time around. I’m hoping that 16.04.2 is halfway decent, but as it stands, I can’t recommend anything based on 16.04 to anyone.

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Yeah, I think this seems to be the consensus among many users and reviewers. I have also heard Joe Collins say something similar. What do you currently recommend as alternatives to distributions based on Ubuntu 16.04? Is Linux Mint affected in the same way as it is based on Ubuntu 16.04 as well?

I can only assume that Linux Mint will suffer the same problems since it’s also based on 16.04. The only thing I can think of is to recommend everyone stick with 14.04 and Mint 17, and then we should re-evaluate the 16.04 base when 16.04 comes out, which will ship with a different kernel. Debian would also a great choice, but it’s not for beginners and the hardware support is lacking, so I can’t recommend that to anyone other than intermediate users. While I think the server platform for 16.04 is rock-solid, the quality of the 16.04 base in regards to workstations and laptops is inexcusable.

I’ve subscribed to all of the major bug reports for the issues I’m aware of, and I’m seeing effort from the developers to fix these issues. I’m cautiously optimistic for 16.04.2. I’ll be evaluating 16.04.2 when it comes out.

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HI @jay,

I have an Intel mini notebook and don’t have any problem running 16.04 on it! (or 16.10 dev version), it might be a bug but I can see no evidence of that?. :smiley:

Hi @maro,

have you run updates again as there is a newer kernel available?. :smiley:

hi, @wolfman

I’m using intel graphic for 16.04, and running into the same problem.
you can see screen flickering twice on login in my youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvyCW4TloA

Btw, I also ran into this problem in 14.04

I used your solution, the result is:
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 39 not upgraded.

nothing changed, any new solutions? thanks
@wolfman