(Gave Up) Mint 19 Intel graphics Acer laptop: Screen randomly goes black with second monitor plugged in

[baranadon]

I upgraded from Ubuntu 17 to Mint 19 (edit: clean install with Mint 19) for LTS and might have made a mistake going to such a new version. The intel graphics seems to have a rough time in general, but when I plug in an HDMI second monitor (extended) the laptop screen will randomly and unceremoniously go black. If I use the keyboard to switch between monitor modes and come back to extended it will sometimes resolve it. If not I have to close the lid, unplug the HDMI, open the lid, and plug the HDMI back in.

I could revert to Mint 18 but I like everything else about it and I have a lot of stuff installed and working great. I was planning on just waiting for a kernel or driver update to solve my problem, but it is getting frustrating.

PS I am not smart.

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inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Swift-3 Kernel: 4.15.0-34-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.9 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1) Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Acer product: Swift SF314-51 v: V1.08 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Acer model: M3_SK v: V1.08 serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: V1.08 date: 12/30/2016
Battery    BAT0: charge: 40.0 Wh 100.9% condition: 39.6/48.3 Wh (82%)
           model: OEM AC14B8K status: N/A
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-7200U (-MT-MCP-) 
           arch: Kaby Lake rev.9 cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10848
           clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 3097 MHz 2: 2176 MHz 3: 3095 MHz 4: 1668 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel HD Graphics 620 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
           drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 620 (Kaby Lake GT2)
           version: 4.5 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-34-generic
Network:   Card: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
           driver: ath10k_pci bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 256.1GB (38.2% used)
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: INTEL_SSDPEKKW256G7 size: 256.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 226G used: 84G (39%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
           ID-2: /boot size: 704M used: 152M (24%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.45GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-2
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 36.5C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 279 Uptime: 1 day Memory: 4673.2/7845.7MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56 

Edit: I should also add that the problems with graphics are that playing HD videos bogs down the CPU and there are black, flickering boxes around windows on the second monitor until I click on the background. I have seen these problems in other threads, but haven't found a solution.

Also, I should add that I see many similar posts out there but haven't found one with this precise problem. I think it is related to the graphics driver not being compatible with the kernel. I do not have sufficient knowledge to confidently revert to an earlier kernel.

[deepakdeshp]

It is advised to upgrade from version 18.3 to 19 and not from 17 to 19. Boot live USB version 19, do you get the same problem?

[baranadon]

Sorry, I made that confusing. I made a clean install of Linux Mint 19, not an upgrade. Booting from USB didn't experience the black screen, but I didn't use dual monitors while installing. I will check again and report here.

I didn't have the same problem with Ubuntu 17.04. prior to the clean reinstall.

[baranadon]

After 90 minutes running on the USB boot I could not reproduce the problem. I upgraded everything with the upgrade manager and stress-tested the machine with graphics, videos, etc. The inxi -Fxz while booted from USB showed the only difference with my install is that the USB kernel was 4.15.0-20 rather than 4.15.0-34.

I am currently running again from the installed version and the black, flickering outline of windows on the second monitor has immediately returned. Interestingly, while stress-testing I caused Cinnamon to crash and when it restarted the flickering was gone.

After running the machine on the installed Mint 19 for about one hour I experienced the blank screen again. I checked the /var/log/syslog and found it had been repeating this over and over:

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Sep 19 13:42:48 Swift-3 kernel: [ 3873.183171] pcieport 0000:00:1c.3:    [12] Replay Timer Timeout  
Sep 19 13:42:49 Swift-3 kernel: [ 3874.947797] pcieport 0000:00:1c.3: AER: Corrected error received: id=00e3
Sep 19 13:42:49 Swift-3 kernel: [ 3874.947801] pcieport 0000:00:1c.3: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, id=00e3(Transmitter ID)
Sep 19 13:42:49 Swift-3 kernel: [ 3874.947804] pcieport 0000:00:1c.3:   device [8086:9d13] error status/mask=00001000/00002000

Don't know if that is relevant. Maybe it has something to do with power settings? Perhaps this is a screen-saver issue?

Also, when I cycled back through the monitor settings to bring back the extended monitor the laptop monitor came back on and I had the syslog had the following:

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Sep 19 13:39:45 Swift-3 kernel: [ 3686.495614] [drm:intel_dp_start_link_train [i915]] *ERROR* [CONNECTOR:59:eDP-1] Link Training failed at link rate = 270000, lane count = 1

repeated several times.

Anyway, next I checked the .xsession-errors and found this:

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(csd-color:1386): color-plugin-WARNING **: 13:39:43.837: failed to reset xrandr-Chimei Innolux Corporation gamma tables: gamma size is zero

(csd-color:1386): color-plugin-WARNING **: 13:39:49.730: failed to reset xrandr-Hewlett Packard-HP w2338h-CNC9151S62 gamma tables: gamma size is zero

No idea what any of this means, but I am starting to suspect that there is a power setting to turn off the screen and that this is happening while I'm active on the second monitor but not on the laptop screen. I am now testing that hypothesis by making sure I'm not moving the cursor into the laptop screen. If this indeed reproduces the problem I may repeat the test in the USB boot.

[baranadon]

I was able to duplicate the problem with the power management settings. If I'm active in the external display and not the laptop screen, it shuts down the laptop display and everything goes buggy. It appears that some programs allow me to work in the second display without letting the computer know that I am active. Rather than trying to identify what those programs might be, I have implemented two workarounds:

1. I turned off the power management settings that turn off the screen when inactive and plugged in (set, "Turn off the screen when inactive for" to "Never").

2. I have turned the external display into the primary display, which makes more sense anyway.

I consider this to be resolved, and assume that the other issues will be resolved in later kernel and driver updates, but will re-visit it if the problem returns. Discussion is welcome.

[baranadon]

I'm re-opening this, because my workaround stopped working. Even with my external monitor set as the primary display and while actively using the machine, the laptop display went black. To turn it back on all I had to do was open the "Display" control and turn the laptop display off and then on. I checked my syslog and saw the following:

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Sep 23 10:07:38 Swift-3 kernel: [193371.178436] [drm:intel_dp_start_link_train [i915]] *ERROR* [CONNECTOR:59:eDP-1] Link Training failed at link rate = 270000, lane count = 1

Is that related?

I've identified one additional possible source of the problem, and that is that the power manager was still set to turn off the screen on battery power. Even though I've been plugged in the whole time, I've turned that off and I'm testing now. It would be very annoying if that was the problem because I essentially have lost my power management for the laptop. I can deal with it, but it is obviously a bug.

Edit: Nope. Still happens, even with the power manager turned off. Same error. Looking up this error gives me other problems related to kernels and intel drivers.

[baranadon]

Okay, still working on this. I reverted to the kernel 4.15.0-20-generic and so far no black screen, no flickering black outlines, and no repeated error messages in dmesg. I'll check in in the next few days and mark this as solved if I don't experience the black screen.

[baranadon]

Alright, this is officially a problem. Even running the older kernel, no power management, with the external display as the main display, the laptop screen went black. Even worse, the external display started flickering and bugging out.

I got this message in dmesg:

[ 72.605834] [drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe B FIFO underrun

No idea if that is relevant. Other people report it along with similar problems and is usually resolved by kernel updates.

I'm asking for help here.

[baranadon]

After attempting every online solution and testing every available kernel I finally solved the problem by installing Ubuntu. Goodbye Mint, I hardly knew ye.