Bug 206417

Summary: Screen flickering on latest Dell XPS 7390 with kernel: [drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun
Product: Drivers Reporter: Sébastien Poher (spweb)
Component: Video(Other)Assignee: drivers_video-other
Status: RESOLVED INVALID    
Severity: normal CC: fkrueger, james.lim, tiwai
Priority: P1    
Hardware: Intel   
OS: Linux   
Kernel Version: 5.5.0-1.g3f183bf Subsystem:
Regression: No Bisected commit-id:
Attachments: lspci full output

Description Sébastien Poher 2020-02-04 19:54:40 UTC 
Created attachment 287123 [details]
lspci full output

[1.] One line summary of the problem:

Screen flickers and freezes on latest Dell XPS 7390 with kernel 5.5

[2.] Full description of the problem/report:

From time to time, the screen flickers and freezes. The following message can be seen in the journal:

kernel: [drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun

Sometimes it is only a small flickering but sometimes this problem leads to the computer being unusable, the entire screen is scrambled and the computer does not respond to anything (mouse or any key press).
Only closing the lid to put the computer to sleep and opening it again solves the problem.

This affects only the build-in screen in my case. Even if an external monitor is connected it does not seem to be affected so far.

[3.] Keywords (i.e., modules, networking, kernel):

i915, firmware, intel UHD Graphics

[4.] Kernel information
[4.1.] Kernel version (from /proc/version):

Linux version 5.5.0-1.g3f183bf-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 9.2.1 20200109 [gcc-9-branch revision 280039] (SUSE Linux)) #1 SMP Mon Jan 27 08:34:09 UTC 2020 (3f183bf)

[5.] Most recent kernel version which did not have the bug:

This issue is, at least, present since kernel 5.3 (since I bought the computer in November 2019).

[6.] Output of error message (found in dmesg):

[drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun

[7.] A small shell script or example program which triggers the
     problem (if possible)

The problem is hardly reproducible, but seems to happened when a new window/app is launched.

[8.] Environment

openSUSE Tumbleweed with GNOME desktop under Wayland session

[8.1.] Software (add the output of the ver_linux script here)
[8.2.] Processor information (from /proc/cpuinfo):

at /proc/cpuinfo 
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 142
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10510U CPU @ 1.80GHz
stepping	: 12
microcode	: 0xca
cpu MHz		: 982.605
cache size	: 8192 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 8
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 4
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 22
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp md_clear flush_l1d arch_capabilities
bugs		: spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips	: 4599.93
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

[8.3.] Module information (from /proc/modules):

i915 2461696 13 - Live 0x0000000000000000
i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 i915, Live 0x0000000000000000
drm_kms_helper 233472 1 i915, Live 0x0000000000000000
drm 548864 8 i915,drm_kms_helper, Live 0x0000000000000000
video 53248 3 dell_laptop,dell_wmi,i915, Live 0x0000000000000000

[8.4.] Loaded driver and hardware information (/proc/ioports, /proc/iomem)

cat /proc/ioports           
0000-0000 : PCI Bus 0000:00
  0000-0000 : dma1
  0000-0000 : pic1
  0000-0000 : iTCO_wdt
    0000-0000 : iTCO_wdt
  0000-0000 : timer0
  0000-0000 : timer1
  0000-0000 : keyboard
  0000-0000 : keyboard
  0000-0000 : rtc0
  0000-0000 : dma page reg
  0000-0000 : pic2
  0000-0000 : dma2
  0000-0000 : fpu
  0000-0000 : iTCO_wdt
    0000-0000 : iTCO_wdt
  0000-0000 : pnp 00:03
  0000-0000 : PNP0C09:00
    0000-0000 : EC data
  0000-0000 : PNP0C09:00
    0000-0000 : EC cmd
0000-0000 : PCI conf1
0000-0000 : PCI Bus 0000:00
  0000-0000 : pnp 00:03
  0000-0000 : pnp 00:01
    0000-0000 : ACPI PM1a_EVT_BLK
    0000-0000 : ACPI PM1a_CNT_BLK
    0000-0000 : ACPI PM_TMR
    0000-0000 : ACPI CPU throttle
    0000-0000 : ACPI PM2_CNT_BLK
    0000-0000 : pnp 00:05
    0000-0000 : ACPI GPE0_BLK
  0000-0000 : pnp 00:02
  0000-0000 : 0000:00:02.0
  0000-0000 : PCI Bus 0000:03
    0000-0000 : PCI Bus 0000:04
      0000-0000 : PCI Bus 0000:06
  0000-0000 : 0000:00:1f.4
    0000-0000 : i801_smbus

[8.5.] PCI information ('lspci -vvv' as root)

Please see attachement 'lspci.txt'

[8.6.] SCSI information (from /proc/scsi/scsi)

Empty

[8.7.] Other information that might be relevant to the problem
       (please look in /proc and include all information that you
       think to be relevant):
[X.] Other notes, patches, fixes, workarounds:

The bug was initially reported on the openSUSE bugzilla:

https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1161843
Comment 2 jameslim 2021-02-26 02:55:29 UTC 
I can confirm this happens with me too, except only on 5.10+ kernels

I get frequent screen flickering.

Ever since 5.10 Kernel released, on boot up, before entering Xorg, these FIFO underrun errors would be displayed.

sudo journalctl -p 0..3 -b -0 or sudo dmesg -l err

```
Feb 25 14:45:03 JL-Laptop kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun
Feb 25 14:45:03 JL-Laptop kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe B FIFO underrun
```

This causes the screen to flicker and tear once every 1-2 seconds in the TTY, which I boot into by default. In Xorg it flickers less often 1-4 seconds. It flickers more violently when going back into TTY with `ctrl-alt-F3`.

Also using intel UHD graphics

lspci

```
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake-U v1 4c Host Bridge/DRAM Controller (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics (rev 02)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 0c)
00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Thermal Subsytem
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP Shared SRAM
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP CNVi WiFi
00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Serial IO I2C Host Controller
00:15.2 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Device 02ea
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake Management Engine Interface
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SATA AHCI Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 02bd (rev f0)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 02b0 (rev f0)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP LPC Premium Controller/eSPI Controller
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP cAVS
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Comet Lake PCH-LP SMBus Host Controller
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Comet Lake SPI (flash) Controller
01:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS522A PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
06:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
```