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I first noticed this behavior in a newly purchased HP laptop. The login window goes crazy after I log out. The screen moves erratically, often the screen corner icons are in the middle. The only way out of this is a hard reboot.

Initially, I thought that this has something to do with the laptop hardware and I was about complain to the supplier. However, after a couple of weeks, another newly procured laptop showed the same behavior.

Some facts/observations.

  1. This occurs only at random, without any detectable pattern. The event can not be called to be predictable or always reproducible.
  2. This does not occur in case of Windows 8.1. The first laptop has Ubuntu only, the second one is dual boot.
  3. Both the laptops are running Ubuntu 15.04, upgraded to the latest version.
  4. The movements are more in the horizontal direction rather than in the vertical direction.
  5. The two laptops have different graphics cards. One has a built in card, the other one has a separate Nvidia card using a proprietary driver.

Could you please tell me how do I find a remedy to the situation?

EDIT

More informatin on graphics and display.

Laptop 1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell GT2). 14.0-inch diagonal LED-backlit display. Using default 1366X768 resolution.

Laptop 2: Intel HD Graphics 5500, NVIDIA GeForce 840M (2 GB DDR3 dedicated). 15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView WLED-backlit. Using default 1366X768 resolution. Installed the Ubuntu offered proprietary graphics driver.

Masroor
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  • Could you please provide some information about your graphics hardware - the more detailed the better. – cl-netbox Sep 10 '15 at 09:40
  • @cl-netbox Updated the question. Thanks. – Masroor Sep 10 '15 at 11:33
  • What is the maximum display resolution you can set on each laptop ? – cl-netbox Sep 11 '15 at 09:28
  • The maximum resolution that can be set is 1366X768, and that has been set by default (in both the cases). – Masroor Sep 11 '15 at 16:50
  • @Masroor - Is this incident with display happening too, when you are NOT logged into internet ?! Which nvidia-driver is installed - there is a different driver which you could test too. – dschinn1001 Sep 16 '15 at 06:11
  • @Masroor - what nvidia chipset is this exactly - here is a link about topic nvidia CUDA where a different driver was working better, but this different driver is more humblesome to install : http://askubuntu.com/questions/311151/how-can-i-install-nvidia-driver-gt-520-and-cuda-5-0-in-ubuntu13-04/311154#311154 – dschinn1001 Sep 16 '15 at 06:19
  • @Masroor - what if you switch down to a lower resolution ? - then same behaviour ? - when you switch down to resolution with 1.200x699 ? - – dschinn1001 Sep 16 '15 at 10:08

1 Answers1

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As you have quite new GPU hardware it might possibly be some kind of driver issue.

While intel chips are very well supported, there is actually nothing to do right now.

We may come to this later, but to sort things out - let us start with laptop 2 first.

Install the latest stable NVIDIA driver and Optimus support : 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-355 nvidia-prime
sudo reboot

Update :

Sorted out a lot of possibilities, it looks like it might be a kernel related compatibility problem.

Download the daily (test) build of the coming Ubuntu edition 15.10 with the newer kernel 4.2 :

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/wily-desktop-amd64.iso

Create an install media - boot from it to check.

Conclusion :

The problem does not occur on ubuntu 15.10.

Install it immediately or wait for final release.

Ubuntu 15.10 will be released on October, 22.

cl-netbox
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  • The nvidia driver got upgraded from version 346 to version 355 in the second laptop. The problem is not solved. Perhaps it has become worse. – Masroor Sep 11 '15 at 09:17
  • Just to be sure - did you switch to NVIDIA (NVIDIA X Server Settings -> PRIME Profiles), then performed logout and back in to use NVIDIA graphics ? – cl-netbox Sep 11 '15 at 09:51
  • I can not locate the `NVIDIA X Server Settings -> PRIME Profiles', so can not confirm on that. However, this image should substantiate that I am indeed using the latest nvidia driver. Please let me know if anything is missing. – Masroor Sep 12 '15 at 02:47
  • By `becoming worse', I wanted to mean that now the display is showing the additional symptom of going blank, coming back to the erratic motion (previously present) and then going blank again. Previously, you could at least get your coordinates, though the hard way. Now, you can not even see what is happening when you press a button. – Masroor Sep 12 '15 at 03:53
  • The screenshot only shows that you have NVIDIA driver 355.11 installed, not that you are actually using it. To access NVIDIA X Server Settings open the dash, type 'NVIDIA' and open settings application. Then go to 'PRIME Profiles', switch to NVIDIA, log out and back in. – cl-netbox Sep 12 '15 at 07:30
  • I am attaching the screenshot of the setting window the way I found it, I have not changed it an iota. As we can see, the NVIDIA prime driver was already being used. Are we facing a closed door, at least for the time being? – Masroor Sep 12 '15 at 13:31
  • Maybe, but don't give up too fast - boot from ubuntu install media, select 'Try Ubuntu' and check if the problem occurs here as well. Then boot installed ubuntu and add 'acpi=off' parameter to GRUB at the end of the Linux line (highlight ubuntu menu entry and press 'e'). After editing, boot the OS by pressing F10 key - check if the problem occurs as well. Post back the results. – cl-netbox Sep 12 '15 at 14:26
  • Booted from installation media (Ubuntu 15.04, 64-bit, DVD) with Try Ubuntu. Ubuntu worked fine. When logged out, the screen was nice and clean. The problem did not occur. Tested second time. The screen went crazy this time after log out. Tested third time. The problem did not occur after I logged out. Conclusion, the previously reported problem occurs at random when booted from installation media. Boot from installed Ubuntu, added 'acpi=off' parameter to GRUB as instructed. Ubuntu works fine. When logged out, the problem occurred. Tested three times. The same crazy behavior each time. – Masroor Sep 13 '15 at 04:37
  • This proves that we have some hardware related thing here. Next step : add 'nomodeset' parameter to GRUB and try if that works. If not check out other Common Kernel Options -> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions ! Then report back please. – cl-netbox Sep 14 '15 at 08:55
  • I want to report that I made a mistake in the previous test for acpi=off. Actually, with this parameter, after I pressed F10 to boot, the machine did not boot. Once, the screen went blank. Once froze with the Ubuntu logo displayed. Once displayed long diagnostic messages on black screen, last line was Fatal exception in interrupt. None of Ctrl-F1-F7 worked. The caps lock key blinked each time. Had to hard reboot each time. Tested three times. Sorry for any trouble. – Masroor Sep 15 '15 at 00:51
  • For the other tests you suggested, completely updated software before the test. Booted from installed media. Temporarily edited grub each time. Performed each test three times. In the following text, number inside parenthesis indicate the frequency of that incident. nomodeset: Failed to even login. After I provide password and press Enter, it tries to take me in and then kicks me out and the login window reappears. Utterly surprising. (Continued to next comment.) – Masroor Sep 15 '15 at 00:55
  • pci=noacpi: does not boot after I press F10. Only a violet blank window. No Ubuntu logo. Had to hard reboot. acpi=noirq: after login, no problem (3). After logout, no problem (3). Shutdown problems. Looked like it froze during shutdown, had to hard reboot. noapic: after login, no problem (3). After logout, crazy (3). irqpoll: after login, no problem (3). After logout, crazy (3). The machine booted normally after the end of the test. – Masroor Sep 15 '15 at 01:04
  • @Masroor : Did you try out the proposed solution on both laptops in the meantime ? I removed some of my comments to reduce the length of 'extended discussion' - please post back the results - Thank you ! – cl-netbox Sep 17 '15 at 07:54
  • I created an installation media from the ISO (wily-desktop-amd64.iso) file for Ubuntu 15.10 and booted the laptops from it. Laptop 1: Absolutely no problem after logout. Tried logging out three times in a single boot. Laptop 2 (NVIDIA): Absolutely no problem after logout. Tried logging out three times in a single boot. The desktop was darker that usual in both the cases. I am not sure why. – Masroor Sep 17 '15 at 23:52