Ubuntu 12.04LTS black lines on screen

[MonsterSound]

Hello!

I am hoping someone may be able to shed some light on an issue that I have been having since installing my new OS. :confused:



I am new to the forum, but have been using Ubuntu for a number of years and have a basic knowledge of the OS but this issue has me stuck! So down to business... I have an AMD A6-3620 APU (64bit) with AMD Radeon HD 6530D and I have installed the ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX driver installed (post released updates installed).



The issue that I am having is that upon start-up once I have logged in I get numerous black horizontal lines flash on the screen. They are consistent and come on as soon as the screen logs in. I have discovered a temporary fix by opening the AMD catalyst control program and changing the refresh rate to 30hrz even though this is the default and what it is set to in the first place... after applying this and clicking OK the lines disappear. I have been doing this every day for several weeks, but although this removes the lines they come back upon reboot and I have to go through the same process.



I hope that someone can make sense of this. Please let me know if you need any further info.



Thanks in advance.

[Sef]

How did you install the drivers: from the driver manager or through ATIs site?

[MonsterSound]

Hi Sef,

Thanks for your reply. I installed the driver via the driver manager.

Thanks

[deadflowr]

A refresh rate of 30 seems pretty low. Have you tried increasing it?
That's half of what a standard monitor would read.

[MonsterSound]

Hi deadflowr,

The refresh rate max is 30... I also thought it was low as my old monitor was running at 75! I am currently using an led TV via an HDMI which might have something to do with it, however it seems to look pretty good in terms of the display. Well apart from the black lines!

Thanks.

[MonsterSound]

Any further help?

[Bradley129]

I suggest gong back to additinal drivers manger and installing the regular stable drivers and not the post release ones i had this issue and using the stable ones fixed it the post release ones is very unstable i learned that the hard way once you get the regular ones installed remeber to deactivate the post release ones

[cortman]

It sounds as though you've installed the fglrx driver- I've always had better luck with the radeon (open source) drivers. If you want to try using the open source drivers instead, open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and add the line


blacklist fglrx_pci

to the end of it. Save and reboot. If that doesn't work for you, you can unblacklist it by removing said line.

[oleink]

^this. Also maybe get drivers from another source if that doesnt work. You should not be getting such low refresh rates or lines on the screen

[MonsterSound]

Thank you for the replies...
So I have uninstalled the drivers (which I have done in the past to try and solve this issue) the problem now is that although the BLACK LINES HAVE GONE! The display is "zoomed in", by that I mean that the edges of windows and the unity bar etc. are off to the side of the monitor.

Any suggestions?


Please note that on the subject of the refresh rate this is now set to 75 or atleast that is what is being indicated by CompizConfig Settings Manager.

[MonsterSound]

Update:
Since uninstalling the drivers which had been previously installed... and the black lines going (nearly solved) I have come across another issue. The sound no longer works via the HDMI output. Infact the HDMI option has been lost from the sound menu output options, as it was part of the driver package I presume. Any help on this would also be highy appreciated! :)

Thanks

[cortman]

Thank you for the replies...
So I have uninstalled the drivers (which I have done in the past to try and solve this issue) the problem now is that although the BLACK LINES HAVE GONE! The display is "zoomed in", by that I mean that the edges of windows and the unity bar etc. are off to the side of the monitor.

Any suggestions?


Please note that on the subject of the refresh rate this is now set to 75 or atleast that is what is being indicated by CompizConfig Settings Manager.

What is the output of


xrandr

Does it give you the correct screen resolution as an option?

[cortman]

Update:
Since uninstalling the drivers which had been previously installed... and the black lines going (nearly solved) I have come across another issue. The sound no longer works via the HDMI output. Infact the HDMI option has been lost from the sound menu output options, as it was part of the driver package I presume. Any help on this would also be highy appreciated! :)

Thanks

Check alsamixer (run that command in the terminal) to make sure you indeed don't have an HDMI option there.

If you don't, please post the output of


lspci | grep -i vga
lshw -C video



as we'll need this info to make any more suggestions.

[zrdc28]

I believe now you can go to "settings" and then "display" and change the resolution and you might be ok

[MonsterSound]

Hi Cortman,

Thanks for the info. I have spent hours trying to sort this out and after uninstalling the driver etc upon reboot the screen became unstable and unable to read! (it was zoomed into the top corner for some strange reason) I tried everything I could think of and in the end reinstalled Ubuntu as it was a pretty fresh install anyway. So I am now back to square one, I have had to reinstall the AMD catalyst control center and the black lines are back up and running! :(

Output of xrandr

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920
DFP1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 16mm x 9mm
1920x1080 30.0*+ 25.0 24.0 30.0 24.0
1776x1000 25.0 24.0 30.0
1680x1050 24.0 24.0
1400x1050 24.0 24.0
1600x900 24.0
1280x1024 24.0 24.0
1440x900 24.0
1280x960 24.0
1280x768 24.0
1280x720 60.0 50.0 59.9 24.0
1024x768 24.0
1152x648 50.0 59.9
800x600 50.0 59.9
720x576 24.0 25.0 50.0
720x480 24.0 30.0 60.0 30.0 59.9
640x480 24.0 60.0 59.9
CRT1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Output of:

lspci | grep -i vga lshw -C video
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI BeaverCreek [Radeon HD 6530D]

Please note that this is on a fresh install with the drivers reinstalled!... according to the Catalyst Control Center the refresh rate is back to 30hrz.

Thanks so much for the help so far!

[cortman]

Well, I wasn't interested in the output of xrandr with the proprietary drivers installed. I have no idea how to troubleshoot them and like I said I've never had a positive experience with them yet. If you get all the resolution options from xrandr with the open source driver loaded, it may be as simple as resetting the screen resolution. Or it may not be, can't say for certain.

[MonsterSound]

Cortman,

Understood... what would be your recommendation as to the best way to get the open source driver?

Thanks

[cortman]

Cortman,

Understood... what would be your recommendation as to the best way to get the open source driver?

Thanks

If you blacklist the fglrx (proprietary) driver per my instructions earlier, the kernel falls back on the open source driver by default. It's already included in the kernel.

[MonsterSound]

Cortman,

Thanks for the reply and help. I have reinstalled with original driver I had... which was previously causing the black lines. As when I blacklisted the fglxr driver the open source once pushed most of the display off the monitor making the PC nearly unusable. However strange it may be the reinstalation of the driver has somehow worked and the black lines have vanished!

Thanks.

[cortman]

Well, that's good I guess. *scratches head.
If it ever comes back post back. Good luck!