Screen flickering on after updating to Ubuntu 18.04 – how to fix it?

Question

I have just upgraded Ubuntu from 16.04 to 18.04.2 LTS on my PC (Intel i7, NVD9 GPU, Gnome). The problem was not present on 16.04. Now the screens flicker, especially when there are large blocks of black or blue. It does not render them useless, but is annoying and makes it harder to stare at the screen for hours every day.

It is much more intense on one of the screens (I have two, both connected with HDMI to the GPU).

I can't use Nvidia drivers as they just don't work with my NVD9 GPU, so I am sticking with Nouveau X.org.

I have tried changing refresh rates in /home/USER/.config/monitors.xml (they were at 59.XXXXX, I changed it to 60), but it does not seem to work.

I have made some changes to the settings of the monitor itself, reducing the ammount of blue light helped a bit, but the problem is still here.

Any ideas about how to fix it? I am pretty sure that it's a matter of the OS/drivers than the hardware itself, as all worked just fine on 16.04.

Thanks upfront!

Solution

I have managed to fix the problem by switching to nVidia drivers. Now the screen does not flicker any more.

Previously, I thought the nVidia drivers did not work with my GPU. However, the problem I had was related to the issues with using nVidia drivers by GRUB. I managed to fix the problem by updating grub to 'nomodeset'. I found the solution using some Askubuntu resources, I hope they will be helpful for you too.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/207175/what-does-nomodeset-do https://askubuntu.com/questions/38780/how-do-i-set-nomodeset-after-ive-already-installed-ubuntu https://askubuntu.com/questions/281119/how-do-you-run-update-grub

Comments

[naisanza]

Default nouveau drivers, installation and configuration are not able to display at 3440 X 1440 resolution without causing the entire screen to flicker while it is at that resolution. Nvidia drivers fixes the flickering issue, however with nvidia drivers, the screen remains black when the screen is resuming from being blanked.