Scary Screen on-off when Changing Sessions on HL-90 Desktop-Replacement

Koyae · 05-02-2010, 07:40 PM

I've got an HL-90 (which one of the Acer-chasis, even though I bought from iBP) has
Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT @ 512M
'recently got SimplyMEPIS 8.0.15 up and running.

Whenever I switch sessions between my standard logon and root (for example) the screen flashes frighteningly with patterns of system-fonts different-colored backgrounds several times before acutally giving me back control or showing the unlock dialog.

I rolled back XP recently, but had flashed the BIOS before then... I can't imagine they affected oneanother. The main reason I'm concerned is that my monitor switches on and off suddenly a few times during the process and I'm concerned it's strenuous on it.

Ideas?

AlucardZero · 05-02-2010, 08:15 PM

define 'switch sessions'. Going from GUI to VTY, via ctrl+alt+f1, and back with ctrl+alt+f7, for example? Are you saying this recently changed? What else did you do?

What kernel are you running? What graphics driver are you using? Try a very recent kernel, one with kernel mode setting. Try updating your graphics driver or switching to the nouveau driver.

Koyae · 05-03-2010, 05:49 PM

Correct -- the switching I'm just doing with the default Ctrl+Alt+F8 to switch to the root account/session, and Ctrl+Alt+F7 to switch to the normal account/session. Other than that I haven't done anything abnormal to prompt the behavior.

Below might be too much or just entirely the wrong info, but please bear with me, as I'm quite new to Linux.

Here's the output I'm getting straight from lsmod:

Code:

uinput                  8576  1
binfmt_misc             9352  1
rfcomm                 30864  0
hidp                   13824  2
hid                    34560  1 hidp
l2cap                  20224  10 rfcomm,hidp
bluetooth              48612  5 rfcomm,hidp,l2cap
ppdev                   8452  0
parport_pc             24228  0
lp                     10116  0
parport                29804  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
ipv6                  231940  18
acpi_cpufreq            8844  0
cpufreq_ondemand        8204  2
cpufreq_powersave       3584  0
cpufreq_userspace       4996  0
cpufreq_stats           5764  0
cpufreq_conservative     7688  0
freq_table              5248  3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats
xt_tcpudp               4736  116
nf_conntrack_ipv4      13964  76
xt_state                3840  76
ipt_REJECT              4608  2
nf_conntrack_ftp        8612  0
nf_conntrack_irc        6948  0
nf_conntrack_tftp       5908  0
nf_conntrack           51680  5 nf_conntrack_ipv4,xt_state,nf_conntrack_ftp,nf_c
onntrack_irc,nf_conntrack_tftp
iptable_filter          4480  1
ip_tables              11664  1 iptable_filter
x_tables               13188  4 xt_tcpudp,xt_state,ipt_REJECT,ip_tables
fuse                   46236  3
dm_crypt               13188  0
snd_hda_codec_nvhdmi     6144  1
joydev                 10304  0
snd_hda_codec_realtek   190724  1
snd_hda_intel          26112  4
snd_hda_codec          60288  3 snd_hda_codec_nvhdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_h
da_intel
snd_hwdep               8196  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm_oss            35232  0
arc4                    3712  2
snd_mixer_oss          14720  1 snd_pcm_oss
ecb                     4480  2
snd_pcm                60164  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
crypto_blkcipher       15876  2 dm_crypt,ecb
snd_seq_dummy           4612  0
snd_seq_oss            25728  0
snd_seq_midi            7712  0
snd_rawmidi            18976  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      7552  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                42608  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_m
idi_event
iwlagn                 77828  0
iwlcore                72644  1 iwlagn
mspro_block            15000  0
uvcvideo               47752  0
snd_timer              18440  3 snd_pcm,snd_seq
rtc_cmos               10400  0
compat_ioctl32          3072  1 uvcvideo
rfkill                  9240  2 iwlcore
rtc_core               14620  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 4352  1 rtc_core
snd_seq_device          7820  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmi
di,snd_seq
led_class               5380  1 iwlcore
i2c_i801               10128  0
videodev               30208  1 uvcvideo
evdev                  10144  9
psmouse                34704  0
jmb38x_ms               9860  0
v4l1_compat            13956  2 uvcvideo,videodev
serio_raw               6660  0
i2c_core               19604  1 i2c_i801
mac80211              137372  2 iwlagn,iwlcore
snd                    45988  20 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_cod
ec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
memstick               10012  2 mspro_block,jmb38x_ms
soundcore               7648  1 snd
cfg80211               22152  3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
snd_page_alloc          8968  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
battery                 8192  0
ac                      5120  0
video                  18704  0
backlight               5636  1 video
output                  4480  1 video
button                  7952  0
dm_mirror              17024  0
dm_log                  9988  1 dm_mirror
dm_snapshot            16932  0
dm_mod                 46280  4 dm_crypt,dm_mirror,dm_log,dm_snapshot
raid10                 20864  0
raid456               117776  0
async_xor               4864  1 raid456
async_memcpy            3840  1 raid456
async_tx                7888  3 raid456,async_xor,async_memcpy
xor                    16776  2 raid456,async_xor
raid1                  20096  0
raid0                   8320  0
multipath               8192  0
linear                  6528  0
md_mod                 69532  6 raid10,r
r8169                  25732  0
mii                     6016  1 r8169
sdhci_pci               8576  0
sdhci                  15108  1 sdhci_pc
mmc_core               39452  1 sdhci
uhci_hcd               20364  0
intel_agp              24892  0
thermal                17436  0
processor              34988  4 acpi_cpu
fan                     6276  0
thermal_sys            11944  4 video,th

Here's info (devinfo) on video.

Code:

filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.27-1-mepis-smp/kernel/drivers/acpi/video.ko
license:        GPL
description:    ACPI Video Driver
author:         Bruno Ducrot
alias:          acpi*:LNXVIDEO:*
depends:        output,thermal_sys,backlight
vermagic:       2.6.27-1-mepis-smp SMP preempt mod_unload 686
parm:           brightness_switch_enabled:bool

uvcvideo is for the builtin webcam I've got, I'm pretty sure (output was also huge... so I'd be reluctant to stretch the thread here more than necessary).

And finally here's devinfo videodev:

Code:

ilename:       /lib/modules/2.6.27-1-mepis-smp/kernel/drivers/media/video/videodev.ko
license:        GPL
description:    Device registrar for Video4Linux drivers v2
author:         Alan Cox, Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
depends:        v4l1-compat
vermagic:       2.6.27-1-mepis-smp SMP preempt mod_unload 686

So, my next few questions go like this:

Will nouveau be in charge of lcd-control, or can it be *put* in charge of lcd-control?

Is there a way for me to update my kernal without trashing all the shortcuts and UI-elements and so-on I've been remapping since I installed?