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UI flickers every 4 seconds [answered]

asked 2014-03-20 11:55:18 +0200

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updated 2014-03-21 16:26:59 +0200

Tanghus gravatar image

From https://together.jolla.com/question/35315/ui-flickers-every-4-seconds/

After the 1.0.4.20 update I got a very annoying UI bug. The screen keeps flashing/flicekering every 4 seconds. I have tried different settings to find the root cause but no luck. Any ideas what could cause this and how to fix it? Very strange ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir-h8GKv8zk

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The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by molan
close date 2014-06-05 10:35:17.582849

Comments

Among other problems I hit pixelation that is seen in 0:23 mark of your video. Have you checked what I found causing my problems. Could be tracked down to resource eating process.

targon ( 2014-03-20 14:43:00 +0200 )edit
2

Yup had this too. A reboot helped. While it happened landscape mode also did not work in any application.

Setok ( 2014-03-20 15:17:52 +0200 )edit

Noticed it today too.

spacenewt ( 2014-03-20 17:42:55 +0200 )edit

I have same happened couple of times already after latest update.

tace ( 2014-03-20 18:31:00 +0200 )edit

Could the title be updated here so people find this better? Ie. use words like 'flicker'.

Setok ( 2014-03-21 13:05:10 +0200 )edit

3 Answers

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answered 2014-05-22 14:24:25 +0200

kjokinie gravatar image

I finally found a way to get the bug reproduced on my device, and a fix has been found. Will be released in next update. Thank you.

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Awesome! Just to satisfy my curiosity: Is is easy to explain what caused the issue?

Tanghus ( 2014-05-22 14:40:35 +0200 )edit

Yes, basically the display controller power mode register is sometimes reporting incorrect values. And we use that in detecting if static electricity has hit the display and should we reset it to recover. The fix was to read the value few times to be sure that the display has really gone to bad power state due to ESD.

In case of _real_ ESD shock, the register will keep on reading bad value until you reset it.

kjokinie ( 2014-05-22 15:41:36 +0200 )edit

Got it, thanks :)

Tanghus ( 2014-05-22 15:52:10 +0200 )edit
2

answered 2014-03-24 13:47:57 +0200

kjokinie gravatar image

This is a feature of the display to recover from bad state caused by electrostatic discharge (ESD). It is mandatory to have this due to CE certification requirements (device must be able to recover from interference caused by ESD). The display flashing caused by the recovery feature should pass away shortly after ESD occurred.

In the video, it seems the device is on a woolly mat. That is a good source of static electricity that could discharge to the device and cause bad display state.

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This has only started to happen after 1.0.4.20, I have my phone on a flat MDF desk and have never seen this "feature" before on any other phones. It looks more like two processes trying to get the display at the same time - in layman’s term. No idea about the inner magic ;)

The display flashing caused by the recovery feature should pass away shortly after ESD occurred.

Can you define "shortly"?

Tanghus ( 2014-03-24 14:27:01 +0200 )edit

it happened to me with the 1.0.3.8 too once. I had just installed gpodder and I thought it had to do with that. Sad to see that with the new update and without gpodder it appeared again two days ago!

petros ( 2014-03-26 16:07:03 +0200 )edit

@kjokinie If this is a feature I don't like it ;) My display has now been flashing for more than 5 minutes. It happened when I woke up the phone by double-tapping. The display didn't show anything but black, and after swiping up/down a couple of times the home screen showed and the flashing started. Anything we can do to debug this. journalctl log is a bit too long when I don't know what I'm looking for.

One thing stood out though. I got this several times: dbus-daemon[585]: dbus[585]: [system] Rejected send message, 5 matched rules; type="method_return", sender=":1.10" (uid=0 pid=835 comm="/usr/sbin/ofonod -n -- noplugin=dun_gw,hfp,hfp_ag ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.11" (uid=0 pid=845 comm="/usr/bin/fastdormancyd ") Apr 09 20:47:22 jolla dbus[585]: [system] Rejected send message, 5 matched rules; type="method_return", sender=":1.10" (uid=0 pid=835 comm="/usr/sbin/ofonod -n --noplugin=dun_gw,hf p,hfp_ag ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.11" (uid=0 pid=845 comm="/usr/bin/fastdormancyd ")

Tanghus ( 2014-04-09 21:54:35 +0200 )edit

This 5 minutes does not sound normal. We checked the ESD test with our HW partner, and only one reset cycle (one flicker) is needed to recover.

Does it help if you quickly put the display off and then back on from the power key?

Does it help if you keep the display off for long time and then put it back on?

Any clear cut ways to reproduce the issue? I have not seen this ever on my device, so I'm having a bit of trouble to verify if any change I make would help to the issue :(

The recovery (if that is what happens) should show in kernel logs, and you can check for these next time you have the issue (I assume you have enabled developer mode). So after you experienced the issue, check following as root from command line:

dmesg | grep LCM

dmesg | grep recovery_lcm

If you see both happening, please post the logs here.

kjokinie ( 2014-04-10 10:24:53 +0200 )edit

I don't know how to reproduce it, but when/if it happens again, I will follow the steps you mention to gather some hopefully helpful information. Don't know why I didn't think of dmesg :P Does Wayland have something equivalent to Xorg.[display].log?

Tanghus ( 2014-04-10 11:12:33 +0200 )edit
0

answered 2014-04-03 09:03:44 +0200

I have been noticing it since past one hour everytime I unlock the phone using power key.. :( and then, gradually after sometime the screen goes blank (locked, power saving mode)

Any pointers? a bug or a feature? ;)

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Hi @ashakunt I don't want to flood forum all over, but you may try to disable WLAN reboot the device and use Mobile data only until next Sailfish Update. I think I tracked down many of the problems to failing connections and what happens after that. See more in my own answer I marked as accepted (green) in stability-problems-findings thread

targon ( 2014-04-03 11:56:05 +0200 )edit

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Asked: 2014-03-20 11:55:18 +0200

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Last updated: May 22 '14