Why is it flashing during Boot?
 

It does it whenever i turn it off wrong and it goes away once i reinstall. This time it did it when i went into the terminal only thing and back into Gnome.

I have a video:
http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=vf8q9z&s=6

Computer:Gateway MD2614U laptop.

OS:Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit.

How can i fix it?

Thanks.

Hi there, welcome to LQ!!

I'm not sure what you're talking about; can you be more specific about what exactly is "flashing" and when "it" does it?
I looked at the video but don't really know what to make of it all.

Sasha

The movie shows a regular Ubuntu 9.10 boot strap from the start to the desktop.
During the boot, the only flashing occurs when some text appears briefly. There is usually some flashing during the boot, because the kernel is figuring out your general graphics modes and so on. This will smooth out in later versions.

The most anomalous part of the process in the film was after the login, when the screen flashed different colors - blue, black, red... I bet that is what is meant.

This is likely happening as part of custom settings in the user account - I notice that the user desktop is non-standard - eg. a mac-style dock.

See if the effects go away if you disable special effects.

Create a new user with a default profile, and log in to that. See if it makes a difference.

After a fresh install, it is reported that the effect goes away. So this is not an issue with the standard configuration.

I suspect the dock is causing this when it fails to exit properly (like when you "turn it off wrong"). Failing that, it is something you have added that we don't know about. See if you can duplicate the effect by "turning it off wrong" after a fresh install, which has not been modified.

Then add your modifications one program at a time, between each you retry duplicating the effect. When you find the offending program, check with that programs maintainer.

It does it right after i log in and before the barfinishes. I get a box flashing below the Ubuntu logo and in the background of the screen. Then it goes to my desktop like normal.

The only thing i can think of is the GPU but i'm pretty sure it's supported.

And it does it after i say turn it off by the power button. But today it did it after i hit ctrl+alt+f1 and then ctrl+alt+f7 and then rebooted.

Thanks.

Thanks!. I'll try that. Maybe Cairo dock instead?

I removed the Dock and turned off Metacity and it seems to have worked. I remembered earlier when i went Desktop>Right Click>Change Background>Effects and turned on medium i got a flash.

So i guess my card won't let me do anything like that.


Thanks.

It is more likely that the dock leaves something behind it when it exits badly, and that is throwing out your compiz settings. Report it to the dock maintainers.

Metacity is part of Gnome, and should be fine.

Of course it is possible that you have a video card which does not correctly handle some OpenGL features. That is not very unusual. Which card do you have?

ATI Radeon™ HD 3200(Integrated). 256MB of dedicated system memory.

Also, I went into the terminal UI and back to Gnome and it doesn't flash. But on boot and shutdown i get the terminal login screen for a second and then goes like normal. And when i turn it off or on. for a split second i get a black screen with some text(Not a terminal) I think when i boot up it does it after the Ubuntu circle of friends logo.

But that i'm not too worried about. I think it will go away/Fixable.

One last thing. Would switching to another Distro get rid of this?

Any idea? Thanks.

Ok, So now it's just doing the split second text.

Have you checked the System > Administration > Hardware Drivers to see if there is a choice for your card. Your card is RS780 chipset (check lspci) supported by the RadeonHD driver, which comes with Ubuntu. In the threads I've been reading, users have been trying fglrx binary from ATI or repos - which I also see spotty reports of mixed OpenGL support.

http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonhd
* RS780: Radeon HD 3100/3200/3300 Series

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=771837
http://frendhi.wordpress.com/2009/02...adeon-hd-3200/
http://forums.opensuse.org/hardware/...ntegrated.html

The split second text is when the splash screen loads.
That should go away in 10.04 - I think it is an artifact of the driver. Some people see a bit of flickering there too, as the kernel modeswitches. Karmic devs laid the foundation for smoother/faster boots so that they could be used in Lucid - as a result, some stuff is not quite one thing or another, creating small messes. To avoid this - only use the LTS releases.

Another distro may work better too - particularly one that does not use gnome-login or upstart, since these are the main programs affected. So you could try kubuntu (no gnome)?

But I urge you to tell the dock maintainers about the flashing colors. At least tell us what your dock program is.

I think i am going to go with Kubuntu 10.04 when it comes out. Between that and a different driver i should be able to go into terminal only without those issues-Right?

Under the devices menu it says that i am using an Open Source driver. Should i try the other one it mentions?(Propotary i think)

The dock is Avant. I'll file a bug report.


Thanks for your help. I think i have it solved now.

Update:

I installed the propotary driver and it still does it.

2 questions:

1:Which driver is better?(Open source vs propotary), And how can i get the Opensource one back?

2;Should i file a bug report/Who should i file a bug report to?(Ubuntu or ATI, About it doing that when you Ctrl+alt+f1)


Thanks.

The free software driver is usually better overall. Particularly in the longer term. The devil is in the details, sometimes the proprietary one will enable a particular feature more efficiently.

The bug report goes to the developer of that Dock you had. The issue is that the dock does not appear to recover well after an unclean shutdown with gnome and compiz. If the devs have a forum - put your observations in that instead of filing a bug report. (There may well already be one though.)

The ctrl+alt+f1 observations look like something to do with you - I see nobody else having this. Make sure it is still there in at least 9.10 but better 10.04 before saying anything - and then it goes to canonical launchpad. you also need to be able to list the steps to reproduce the effect from a default install.