I have a laptop with an integrated GMA3600 GPU. Every "modern" distro was unusable because the screen would flicker and black out like crazy, so I installed one of the few that didn't present this behaviour -- Crunchbang 11, based on Wheezy.
I'm trying to address this issue; I'll compare a few outputs from 1) my current setup (Crunchbang) and 2) one of the non-working alternatives (Lubuntu 14.10 on a live USB):
uname -r
1) 3.2.0-4-686-pae
2) 3.16.0-23-generic
sudo lshw -c video
1)
Code:
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Atom Processor D2xxx/N2xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 0b
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=gma500 latency=0
resources: irq:46 memory:80100000-801fffff ioport:30c0(size=8)
2)
Code:
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Atom Processor D2xxx/N2xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 0b
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=gma500 latency=0
resources: irq:45 memory:80100000-801fffff ioport:30c0(size=8)
The only difference is the IRQ used.
cat /proc/interrupts
1)
Code:
CPU0 CPU1
0: 41 0 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 517 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 1 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
9: 7245 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 2597 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
16: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb5
18: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
19: 13520 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ata_piix, uhci_hcd:usb3
23: 26138 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2
44: 369 0 PCI-MSI-edge eth0
45: 255 0 PCI-MSI-edge snd_hda_intel
NMI: 69 47 Non-maskable interrupts
LOC: 27594 20371 Local timer interrupts
SPU: 0 0 Spurious interrupts
PMI: 69 47 Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI: 0 0 IRQ work interrupts
RES: 33502 39919 Rescheduling interrupts
CAL: 407 6719 Function call interrupts
TLB: 1138 1213 TLB shootdowns
TRM: 0 0 Thermal event interrupts
THR: 0 0 Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE: 0 0 Machine check exceptions
MCP: 1 1 Machine check polls
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
2)
Code:
CPU0 CPU1
0: 46 0 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 2154 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 1 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
9: 37131 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 11292 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
16: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb5
18: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
19: 1309 11 IO-APIC-fasteoi ata_piix, uhci_hcd:usb3
23: 20420 6875 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2
44: 15634 0 PCI-MSI-edge eth0
45: 0 0 PCI-MSI-edge gma500
46: 194 0 PCI-MSI-edge snd_hda_intel
NMI: 147 132 Non-maskable interrupts
LOC: 70348 59679 Local timer interrupts
SPU: 0 0 Spurious interrupts
PMI: 147 132 Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI: 1 0 IRQ work interrupts
RTR: 0 0 APIC ICR read retries
RES: 20827 27012 Rescheduling interrupts
CAL: 1802 2767 Function call interrupts
TLB: 1875 1439 TLB shootdowns
TRM: 0 0 Thermal event interrupts
THR: 0 0 Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE: 0 0 Machine check exceptions
MCP: 4 4 Machine check polls
THR: 0 0 Hypervisor callback interrupts
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
dmesg | grep -i video
1)
Code:
[ 0.378029] pci 0000:00:02.0: Boot video device
[ 6.579368] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[ 6.614256] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB 2.0 PC Cam (090c:037c)
[ 6.616059] usbco registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 6.616064] USB Video Class driver (1.1.1)
2)
Code:
[ 0.338661] pci 0000:00:02.0: Boot video device
[ 11.048529] ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no)
[ 11.049314] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input10
[ 36.372066] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[ 36.908529] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB 2.0 PC Cam (090c:037c)
[ 36.961726] usbco registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[ 36.961733] USB Video Class driver (1.1.1)
[ 38.262977] systemd-logind[1547]: Watching system buttons on /dev/input/event5 (Video Bus)
dmesg | grep -i gma
1)
Code:
[ 5.465696] gma500 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 5.465749] gma500 0000:00:02.0: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 5.466125] gma500 0000:00:02.0: GPU: power management timed out.
[ 5.958548] gma500 0000:00:02.0: allocated 1280x800 fb
[ 6.402676] [drm] Initialized gma500 1.0.0 2011-06-06 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
2)
Code:
[ 11.030830] gma500 0000:00:02.0: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 11.030934] gma500 0000:00:02.0: GPU: power management timed out.
[ 11.420011] gma500 0000:00:02.0: trying to get vblank count for disabled pipe 0
[ 11.420060] gma500 0000:00:02.0: trying to get vblank count for disabled pipe 0
[ 12.016034] gma500 0000:00:02.0: fb0: psbdrmfb frame buffer device
[ 12.016039] gma500 0000:00:02.0: registered panic notifier
[ 12.045847] [drm] Initialized gma500 1.0.0 20140314 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
The last output hints that some problem is indeed detected but I don't know what to do from here.
EDIT: forgot to mention that the Lubuntu boot menu screen (this one) presents no flickering issues.