This is chrome://gpu result prior to changing any flags (the previously uploaded one was missing the file extension).

	No Flags.png 313 KB View Download

I too am experiencing flickering when there's a lot happening on the page in Ubuntu 16.04 (Gnome 3.18).

I am currently running Chrome 51.0.2704.22 beta. 

Fully disabling hardware accelleration "fixes" the issue, but it makes Chrome extremely slow in the process.

An update here: By enabling the flags above (Override software rendering list and Force GPU Rasterization) in cominbation with appending "--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds" to the Chrome launch command removes the flickering, but brings up image issue. See the Google Images Search image above to see what this overlay (can) look like.

So the flickering is caused by one of the workarounds it seems used by Chrome, but a workaround fixes the overlay (so disabling the workarounds fix the flickering, but cause the image issue). Anybody more knowledgeable then me want to give it a go?

Yet another update... by DISABLING all flags (or rather, using all defaults) and launching Chrome with the "--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers" parameters cause the flickering to disappear it seems and causes no weird image overlay. So if I were to guess, it's some workaround previously applied by default to cause it. Attached are the current results of chrome://gpu. Will continue testing tonight....

	First.png 246 KB View Download

	Second.png 496 KB View Download

	Third.png 311 KB View Download

Can confirm that --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers and reset chrome://flags to defaults appear to have resolved the issue for me. On 16.04/4.6RC5/Dell 9350

I can confirm that this solves the issue for me as well, also 16.04/4.6RC5/Dell 9350

So shall we expect in a soon Google Chrome update to have this bug fixed without the need to apply those flags every time we launch the browser?

Depending on the Linux distribution & desktop environment you are using, you may be able to edit the launcher so that you don't have to use the terminal each and every time. For example, in Ubuntu (with Unity), all the shortcuts located in Unity (the side bar and the dash), are in usr/share/applications. If you open this as root, you can edit the launcher command and append '--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers'. Other desktop environments (LXDE, KDE, Cinnamon, etc) may have the shortcuts pulled from elsewhere; you will need to consult your desktop environments specific help pages or Google a solution.

Although I still agree with the point; hopefully this is resolved or at least patched soon. 

The workaround worked well with Chrome 50. Now that it updated to 51, screen flickering came back even with --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers command line parameters.

Yes it seems to have come back... preliminary testing seems to show that the current fix is:

Enable Override Software Rendering List in chrome://flags
Enable Display 2D List Canvas
In addition to the previous commands, add --force-gpu-rasterization.

Again, only just got this update this morning, will continue to test but that seemed to fix it... again I happen to be on public Wi-Fi so I can't test super interactive pages.

Hey Google, wanna get a real fix in place so I can stop having to play around with your code?

Side note, I now run Arch Linux. Same hardware.

Confirmed that the flickering stops with the updated chrome://flags and started with:
google-chrome --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers --force-gpu-rasterization

Dell XPS 13 9350 running Ubuntu 16.04

The workaround now seems to produce image artifacts; note the top right corner of the movie preview image.

	Screenshot from 2016-05-26 15-18-48.png 1.1 MB View Download

Back to this problem... it's the '--force-gpu-rasterization' that causes that (found out through trial and error just now). But even with that flag, it seems to be an issue with flickering still (for me anyway, on Inbox).

Compounding, I've ruled out it being Flash (by disabling that). . I'm going to have to step off of Chrome for now and switch over to Firefox... 

For any body with more time and energy than me, here's what the two flags for the original fix accomplished:
--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds : FIXED the flickering. Some workaround they are applying causes this.
--enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers : IIRC, this fixes the image artifacts you noted above.

So my only conclusion is that SOMETHING they did in Chrome 51 vs 50 screwed with it... shame.

Potential fix... in Settings > Advanced Settings > System > uncheck 'Use hardware acceleration...'

Will try and use it as much as possible and see if it fixes it. Seems to do so for now...

Why is that bug unconfirmed? Google is filled with that bug: https://www.google.de/search?q=chrome+16.04+flicker&gws_rd=ssl#q=chrome+16.04+flicker+bug

Can someone fix that bug please? so annoying!

It seems that disabling hardware acceleration fixes it... at least from my use so far. 

I can confirm that something broke in Chrome 51 and these flags help no longer. Given that this is the second time in a month that a casual update breaks my browser, guess I'll be switching to something more stable.

This also just started happening for me.. I mean.. Google. You use Goobuntu + Chrome a lot of you.. How can no one notice this?

Just noticed this does not happen when it is NOT maximized.
Does also not happen on my desktop (nvidia GPU).

Only laptop with Intel GPU and maximized window.

I can confirm this:
- Only Intel GPU
- Only on maximized window (and fullscreen - F11 - also)

Running Ubuntu Gnome 16.04

I just downgraded to 50 for now, running with google-chrome --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers. Not at all a perfect solution, but better than using Firefox.

This flickering is also affecting me, and as mentioned on comment 25, Intel GPU, and only seems to do it when the windows are maximized.  I have starred this.

Also I am also on Chrome 51, and the flags that were a temp fix, no longer work.

Flag --disable-gpu-compositing fixes issue for me in Chrome 51, but slows drawing pages a lot.

By the way, it happens on pages without any video elements, so it would be nice if someone could change bug title.

Now, I have no idea if this is related to this bug, but on my Note 4, in Chrome while scrolling on Reddit mobile (the old mobile site, not the new mobile site), I am actually seeing the SAME flickering on the bottom of the screen.  Now that's really weird.

I have no idea if it's the same bug, or just another bug with the same apparent issue.  Would be interesting to know, because my phone definitely is not using an Intel GPU, haha.

I also created a bug in Ubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1586539. Please choose that it affects you to draw some attention to it.

Done.  Thanks.

maceac...@gmail.com Are you even using Ubuntu and not Android? If so, this is not really the place.

Playing a video in facebook can easly reproduce the bug. It also flockers in web pages that use a lot of js or ajax requests.

joakimk...@gmail.com, I am on Ubuntu 16.04.  It is indeed the place, so chill out.

I was stating that the same bug appears to be, or appears to even be on some Android devices.  That is key as it can help point out what may actually be wrong, as Android Chrome uses some of the same code too.

Still broken in latest 53-unstable.

Flickering here too :(
HW: Dell xps 13
Ubuntu: 16.06 
Kernel: 4.4.0-22-generic 
Chrome: 51.0.2704.79 (64-bit)
Flags workaround not working :(

Currently the only working workaround is to unmaximize window. You'll loose a bit of space but it won't flicker any more.

My Dell Inspiron 13-7359 is affected too. I think most people with skylake-GPU are affected.

I'd say most people with Intel GPU are affected.

For the record my CPU is a haswell and has flickering too on latest stable. 

Seems to be resolved for me on beta: 52.0.2743.33 beta. So I'll stick to 50, until 52 is on stable.

I'm still see the flickering on Version 52.0.2743.33 beta (64-bit).  It is not restricted to video--it happens on pages with many animated gifs as well.  Try a tumblr archive:  open up a few tabs to http://animated-gifs-funny.tumblr.com/archive .  Flipping between the tabs and scrolling up and down within them is enough to trigger frequent flickering.

chrome://gpu attached

gpu.html 53.5 KB View Download

 Issue 617453  has been merged into this issue.

I stand corrected. It was not fixed. I'm seeing flickering on gifs as well on beta52 + unstable53.

I've also been experiencing this issue on some websites since I upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04. Here are the details of my system:

Laptop model: Dell Inspiron N5110
Discrete GPU Model: NVidia GeForce 525M

I've also run a few diagnostic commands. Here's the output (long outputs have been sent to a pastebin):

uname -a: Linux Snowflake 4.2.0-16-generic #19-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 8 15:35:06 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
lspci: http://hastebin.com/roxifacovo

Example websites include amazon.co.uk and https://app.classeur.io/ when editing a file, but it should be noted that it doesn't happen all the time, and as such it can be a pain to reproduce. When it does happen though, it's seriously annoying.

Another thing to note is my kernel. Since I've recently upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04, I should be using the 4.4 kernel, but I get a black screen with that kernel. Also, I'm using the nvidia graphics driver version 364 and not version 367 because of the same issue. Rolling back one or the other didn't work - I had to roll _both_ of them back to make my system usable.

So guys, we have a REAL workaround:

Ubuntu 16.04: 

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Paste this:

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

Save and reboot.

:) Finally!

Not sure why the SNA is affected, but this is something for devs to look into.

@#49 What does that actually do please? I don't want to go making random changes to my system without knowing what I'm doing.

Its a different 2D accelerator, a bit slower but it works. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/intel_graphics#SNA_issues

I can confirm this issue on Ubuntu 16.04, Lenovo z50-70.

I don't want to change Acceleration mode to uxa. It's a way slower than sna mode. Look at http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_2dxorg30_ubuntu1404&num=3 

The xorg folks are aware of this too:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94987

Found another particularly bad website: http://www.ventusky.com/

How can we move forward from this? It seems nothing is happening in the xorg-bug, and no reply from google. Not even confirmed :/

Hello
I have the same issue , DELL laptop Latitude e7450  with ubuntu 16.04 HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell GT2) With Maximized windows only of Chrome!

Correct Using UXA and Chrome or chrominum 51 is a workarund ! but not the solution!
Benchmark  with glmark2 show that UXA is almost half as slow , Files attached! 
SNA =  glmark2 Score: 1534
UXA =  glmark2 Score: 747 

UXA-Benchmark 2.9 KB View Download

Found out that having this flags  --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers  and also enable-zero-copy ENABLED with version 51 does a better job I am not seeing any flicker so far!

#58: Not working here. Same result.

I've been stuck on 50 for a couple of months now, not good for security! Is any body going to own this issue? Can someone spend a few hours to at least confirm it? 

I ended up switching to Windows for now, until this issue is resolved, as I'm quite integrated into Chrome and can't just change browsers.

I hope someone at Google at least cares about the Linux world, considering they like to use it for their own products.

That's not Google who have to care about it. It's a bug in X.Org. The only thing Google can do is to add another workaround for Linux. But it's better if someone could actually fix the bug instead.

I think I found the solution:

flags  --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers  and also enable-zero-copy ENABLE

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
   Option      "DRI"    "3"
EndSection

YES! finally a solution.

Works here without the extra flags btw. All I needed was the extra options added to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf.

Cant wait to get away for xorg and use mir/wayland :)

What if we don't have the "20-intel.conf" file under /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ ?

In my case I don't have that one, inside /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ I only see this ones.

10-amdgpu.conf  
10-evdev.conf  
10-evdev.conf.save  
10-quirks.conf  
11-evdev-quirks.conf  
11-evdev-trackpoint.conf  
50-synaptics.conf  
50-vmmouse.conf  
50-wacom.conf  
51-synaptics-quirks.conf

Just create it and reboot after.

If we are creating it, what permissions should it have?  Want to make sure it's created properly.

Just create it as root in terminal.

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

The solution of https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c63 works perfect

HW: Dell xps 13
Ubuntu: 16.06 

I get a weird side bug with solution at comment #63 [which actually solves the flickering]: when I take a screenshot (printscreen), sometimes I get copied to the clipboard an old screen (from few hours ago) instead of the current one.

The problem disappears by removing 
Option      "DRI"    "3"

but that of course that brings back the flikering

So the modified xorg config and flags are working for me as well. Many thanks to all here, it was very annoying since long time. But the steps in https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c63 were not enough for me. So here for new users a summary:

1.

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
   Option      "DRI"    "3"
EndSection

restart

2. flags to be enabled under chrome://flags

enable-zero-copy
// missing flags in https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c63
Enable Override Software Rendering List
Enable Display 2D List Canvas

3. run with 
--disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --enable-native-gpu-memory-buffers

I've found a different workaround; removing the Intel video driver on ubuntu 16.04 causes X to use Modesetting, and by extension fixes up this flickering issue. There's only one step on 16.04:

sudo apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-intel

Then reboot and have a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log for these lines to see if it took:

[    13.050] (EE) Failed to load module "intel" (module does not exist, 0)
[    13.050] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[    13.050] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
[    13.050] (II) Module modesetting: vendor="X.Org Foundation"

Now start Chrome without extra flags or GPU parameters and you should be done.

Apparently three years without a stable driver has prompted Debian and Ubuntu to do this by default for future releases, so eventually there will be no manual steps:
http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX
https://tjaalton.wordpress.com/2016/07/23/intel-graphics-gen4-and-newer-now-defaults-to-modesetting-driver-on-x/

Relevant quote:
"...which is a nice change knowing that the intel SNA backend was constantly slightly broken for some GPU generation(s)"

This seems more like a fix than a workaround. I purged that video driver and things seems to be working great now.

Thanks a lot, Benjamin. That looks like a proper fix, indeed.

Now, does this fix, ruin dual GPU laptops, like mine, which have an Intel, and also an Nvidia?  Can anyone who has a dual GPU laptop, test this to see if it works, and that the Nvidia can still run?

Also, what is the OpenGL performance of modesetting?  Is it fully hardware accelerated?

I can't test right now as my laptops SSD took a dump on me.

I got the email, but you deleted your comment, I'm assuming you deleted it because you saw that I CAN'T test it right now.  ;)

The "fix" wasn't working too well for me (Haswell, HD4600), as I had trouble with occasional lags and stuttering, so I was reverting to the original settings.

But since debian discontinued the use of intel's driver, the problem is also fixed for me, without any side effects yet.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX

I tried it, maybe a bit placebo, but it seemed to stutter a bit more with "modeset".. For me

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
   Option      "DRI"    "3"
EndSection

works best, without any extra flags.

Scrolling seemed a bit laggy without it :/

Honestly I think the whole modeset, is just a plain software rendered frame buffer with no acceleration.  You know, just no display driver, standard VESA stuff.  That's why it was laggy, hence I wanted someone to check OpenGL performance, I bet there was no OpenGL.

Works perfect for me. No lags or whatsoever. An I believe Debian folks know what they are doing.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-DDX-May-Tests

"...while the xf86-video-modesetting driver just uses GLAMOR to accelerate 2D over OpenGL in a generic manner. With xf86-video-intel 3.0 still not happening and that release cycle being dragged on for years while SNA being a big maintenance burden, some have questioned whether xf86-video-modesetting is a better future for Intel hardware."

Looks like that decision was made. You can confirm the hardware acceleration part by looking at the output of glxinfo after purging the intel driver.

What does the output of chrome://gpu show with modeset?

Without xserver-xorg-video-intel it shows:

	chrome-gpu.png 232 KB View Download

That looks normal. So no problem there.

Yea I'm impressed and it looks quite promising.

Now I just need to wait for Sandisk to replace this SSD that failed in only 1 month of use.

I have a Dell Inspiron N5110 with an Nvidia GEForce 525M and Intel integrated graphics, but if I remove the intel driver I theorize that I'll get a black screen upon login. I've had some serious issues with the nvidia drivers and Ubuntu 16.04 recently.

I'm testing #80 workaround (setting TearFree=True and DRI=3, still using sna acceleration) and seems to work very good.


Regards

modesetting gave me some weird glitches / stuttering in the whole system. Had to revert to sna.

So is the general consensus that fix #80 works and have no other side effects?  I ask because I can run Linux now, but I really don't want to trigger epilepsy, for obvious reasons.  The flashing on my computer was *bad*.

Fix #80 seems to work. The only side effect I've found so far is that taking screenshots (with gnome-screenshot) takes an "old" screenshot (shows you some old content which was in exactly the same place before) or maybe it gives you only the background wallpaper, etc. Taking screenshots with Gimp works partially too.

Regards

Fix #80 makes dual monitor unusable on my Lenovo T460p (Ubuntu 16.04.1). What kernel version are you folks using?

modesetting makes Chrome hang sometime

Thinkpad X230 with Chrome 52.0.2743.82 

> Fix #80 makes dual monitor unusable

It's not a fix, it's an ugly workaround. #73 is a proper fix.

> What kernel version are you folks using?

I'm on latest stable (4.7.2 right now) from here: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=M;O=D

> modesetting makes Chrome hang sometime

Never happened to me since Jul, 24.

I am experiencing this issue, and was going to try the fix here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c63

Although, the contents of the following dir are:
$ ls /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
10-amdgpu.conf  11-evdev-quirks.conf      50-vmmouse.conf
10-evdev.conf   11-evdev-trackpoint.conf  50-wacom.conf
10-quirks.conf  50-synaptics.conf         51-synaptics-quirks.conf

So, should I create the 20-intel.conf file?

I do appear to have some sort of Intel GPU:
$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

#96, yes just create it :)

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Paste this:

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
   Option      "TearFree"    "true"
   Option      "DRI"    "3"
EndSection

and reboot.

I can confirm that #93 worked, brand new xps 13, upgraded from 14.04 to 16.04

Yup, #93/97 worked for me on a Skylake running Mint 18!

Alas, purging xserver-xorg-video-intel causes nasty, nasty problems later;
I had to reinstall it.
See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1577216

I can get the graphics stable with Linux Kernel 4.6 of backports and non-free firmware, please see http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/307211/16920 There is still a bug there if you need to switch often back and forth between Linux kernel 4.4 and 4.6. My /etc/X11/xorg.conf

    # http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/308709/16920
    Section "Device"
            Identifier "Intel"
            Driver "modesetting"
    EndSection

    ## Bugs 
    # 1. LK 3.16 will fail now but LK 4.6 will work. TODO in the thread http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/308709/16920

I've seen a few fixes, but then they cause other issues with other programs.  Modeset supposedly is kicking some users back to the login screen and isn't stable.  So what is the supposed fix now?  The flashing has almost triggered epilepsy and I can't risk this anymore.  I'm still on Windows for now until this is all fixed.

From what I've seen so far:  Modeset causes a crash in some situations, SNA causes screenshot issues, what is left?

All these bandaids are a big pain in the butt.

I'm using modesetting for a while on my Thinkpad T460s with Ubuntu 16.04. Only noticeable side-effects are:
- VGA output doesn't work (through displayport adapter)
- Gnome's lock screen isn't shown 99% of the times. When locked, the screen show the last known image of the desktop (like my e-mail) but I can type my password blindly to unlock the screen.

Anyone having crashes on modesetting?

BTW, I'm on the latest BIOS. This might make a difference.

I don't want to have those kind of side effects just to make Chrome happy.

Especially with the lock screen potentially showing the last image.  That's silly just for a web browser.  VGA I need to have, for when I'm presenting at a work place.

I don't know if this helps but I have been able to fix this by adding --disable-gpu to the chrome command line.  However, I still see the issue in Spotify for Linux where I don't see a way to pass parameters to the underlying web ui.

Version 53.0.2785.143 Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit)
With this update, the issue of flicker still occurs, just somewhat less frequently. There is NO fucking flicker on my Dell:
Version 37.0.2062.120 Ubuntu 12.04 (281580) (64-bit) Why??

Well the Dell you mention is running far older software, older OS, older drivers, and older Chrome, they didn't have the issue yet, that's why.

Also as to the comment 106, disabling GPU acceleration is NOT a true fix.  That's a bad bandaid that no one should have to do in this day and age.  Maybe 10 years ago, but these days disabling GPU acceleration isn't a good fix.  It'll slow down things.

We need a REAL fix, and the more I sit here waiting for the fix, the more I realize, it's time to just switch to Firefox, and if any Chrome devs are upset by that comment, then you had your chance.  Yes I'm bitter now, this is going on half a year.

Guys.. It's a bug in intel video driver (sna) .. This is not chrome's fault. You can switch to xua, use modesetting or fiddle with 20-intel.conf like said before.. You have plenty of options..

We have already learned though that changing these drivers cause other unpredictable results.  Since Firefox does not have the flickering issue nor does any other browser other than Chrome, then the only option would be to change the browser to not cause other results with the rest of the computer.

Do whatever you want :) Google is not going to fix this, since it's not their issue.

I personally have no problems with the 20-intel config file options.. Screenshots and all works just fine.

What about your lock screen?  Does it properly work?  And what window manager are you using?

lockscreen works just fine. I'm using unity with lightdm.

So theres no sense to keep this conversation here, theres a bug report on
some intel website ?

El sáb., 8 oct. 2016 15:57, joakimk… via monorail <
monorail+v2.2226764534@chromium.org> escribió:

I would hope so.  But in my 16 years experience doing bug reports with devs, it turns into a finger pointing contest on issues like this. They will say it's chrome because only chrome has an issue. Chrome devs will say it's an Intel driver issue because workarounds fix it. 

I propose a cat fight between intel video and google chrome people!!


Le samedi 8 octobre 2016, maceac… via monorail <
monorail+v2.2143246845@chromium.org> a écrit :

Going to chrome://flags and setting GPU Rasterization to "Force-enabled for all layers" has completely solved this issue for me, without the need to edit xorg.conf in any way. YMMV, of course, but I recommend giving it a try before messing around with your drivers.

Had this issue, setting GPU Rasterization to "Force-enabled for all layers" as suggested above fixed it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Setting GPU Rasterization to "Force-enabled for all layers" alleviated the symptoms (flickering and flashing). This is using Chrome on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

Just some updated information that I hope is useful. This issue is still occurring.

See these bugs for more info as well:

Ubuntu Bug here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1586539

Freedesktop Bug here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94987

I can replicate with:

Ubuntu 16.04.1 (xenial)
Chrome 55.0.2883.87
Kernel: 3.10.18

X.Org X Server 1.18.4
xorg-server 2:1.18.4-0ubuntu0.2 
Current version of pixman: 0.33.6

MESA info:

Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
    Vendor: Intel Open Source Technology Center (0x8086)
    Device: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Bay Trail  (0xf31)
    Version: 11.2.0
    Accelerated: yes
    Video memory: 1536MB
    Unified memory: yes
    Preferred profile: core (0x1)
    Max core profile version: 3.3
    Max compat profile version: 3.0
    Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
    Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.0


Related package information:

http://pastebin.com/6A5ebWTJ


Video information:

 *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 0e
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:104 memory:d0000000-d03fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:1000(size=8)

Now, is this issue in any way possibly related to this other issue I have encountered in Chrome?  This issue started at the same exact time the flickering issue started.

Sometimes pulldown menus don't render and are completely blank.  I have currently the rasterization set to force enable on all layers, (testing out to see if that fix does indeed work at all for the flickering---I don't want to pull out my drivers yet or modify them as a solution).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaRTD9LejMw

I see this at well ^

I also see the issues with drop downs. Chrome 55, Ubuntu 16.04, ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

Should I go ahead and start another bug-report, or do we feel it's related to the flickering issue?  So far I haven't seen flickering since enabling rasterization on all layers (I have only used it for an hour so far), but the pull down issue DOES remain.

That's a good point. I have enabled rasterization on all layers and the primary issue in this bug-report seems fixed. Perhaps a new one to address the drop-downs?

Hmm, I'll wait for later tonight to see what the consensus is on a separate bug report, if they aren't related.  It seems like it may not be, but have another underlying bug.  If I see no objection to another bug report, I'll make another.  For now I'll just wait.

Woops, I just had the screen flash on wftv's website, so the above "fix" did not work.  It took longer for it to show up but it did flash.

Thinkpad W541.

I really hate to be a bother, but SNA and DRI 3 fix for Xorg has FIXED the issue permanently, and has NOT had any issues whatsoever regarding screenshots.  I had been looking and picking for issues, but none so far.

So, I can without a doubt, confirm that the fix is comment #63.

I did NOT however do any of those flags.  It's working just fine without the flags.  Only thing I still have enabled is force rasterization on all layers, and that likely isn't even required either, but it helps Google Maps performance as is.

I'm experiencing the issue with very lightweight sites (e.g. Wikipedia), where the bookmarks bar flickers. Filed a separate report at #671540, but it's the same issue.

Dell E7450 laptop with Intel Graphics, Ubuntu 16.04.1, Chrome maximized. The easiest workaround is to "maximize" the window by resizing it manually.

Trying to summarize 131 comments:

- It sounds like there are bugs in the intel driver that we seem to tickle with our one-copy uploads. Not clear to me if it's a synchronization problem or a data consistency problem.
- It's reported that --enable-zero-copy avoids the problem which points at one-copy triggering it.
- Also reported that --force-gpu-rasterization avoids the problem. Since in this case we don't need to upload this correlated with one-copy uploads triggering the problem. (Users should note gpu rasterization is experimental on linux and not expected to be bug free yet.)
- By using --disable-gpu (or disabling hardware acceleration in chrome://settings) the issue is avoided, by not using the intel GL driver at all of course.
- Other flags listed would be at best tangentially related and perhaps happen to disable GPU compositing entirely, or were combined with other things that had an effect.
- Comment #80 solves this by changing the behaviour in the driver.

Typically we avoid buggy linux drivers by blacklisting them, which produces the same result as --disable-gpu. Chromebooks also use intel drivers but presumably we're not seeing this there.

I'm assigning to reveman@ as the most knowledgable person about one-copy implementation, if anyone can find a workaround it's him.

I actually have determined that this issue at least on my Haswell, was not resolved by using Rasterization (and that introduced some other graphical hiccups)..

Literally my only fix was to enable DRI 3 and SNA.  Ever since then I've had zero issues, and in fact, improved graphical performance and all is well in Haswell land now for me.  Not one bit of flickering.  Chrome itself is literally on all default settings (minus overide rendering lists, that's the only one enabled).

With that, this is an Xorg bug because before I made changes to the Xorg settings, even Firefox had some flickering (mostly on Imgur only) as well, but far far rarer.

Thanks for summarizing, Dana!

Another important bit - the issue only occurs if Chrome is maximized or running in full-screen mode. I have no idea about how rendering internals work, but would it be possible to preserve the hardware-accelerated rendering from windowed mode in maximized mode? Again, this may be totally off.

I'm surprised that --enable-zero-copy makes a difference as without native GMBs one-copy and zero-copy really does the same thing at the driver level (a texture upload).

One difference between one-copy and zero-copy is that one-copy supports partial updates. Can someone check if passing --disable-partial-raster to chrome makes a difference?

I've discovered that when I'm now experiencing this issue too on a brand
new Dell Inspiron new 15 5567. It's rather annoying.

While I'm here since getting a notification, has anyone else noticed, with any of the your preferred method of fixes, that the tooltip popups sometimes are corrupted, or all black?

Yes, I'm getting the corrupted/black tooltips as well. 

Thanks for the quick response on that.  I'm going to do some more testing on that on my side, as I don't think it's necessarily related to the bug in this post, but without the fixes we apply, it doesn't seem to happen until AFTER we apply the fixes.  Reason I feel it's not related, is because on my AMD Radeon 7500 on my desktop, it has the same tooltip bug that our Intel GPU's show after we apply any reasonable fix that prevents the flickering.

(Well, maybe it is related in a way then?)

Yes! My tooltips are sometimes corrupted. It's if the current tooltip is
larger than the previous one.

 Issue 689692  has been merged into this issue.

Raising to P1 based on the merged-in issue

I suspect the default Intel driver in Ubuntu 16.04 is also responsible for a lot of Chrome 56.0.2924.87 (64-bit) instability on an out-of-the-box install. I had tabs and extensions crashing very frequently until I switched to SNA and enabled DRI3 and the stability seems to have improved, haven't had issues so far.

Tried the idea in comment 146 on my laptop running Trusty with the Xenial HWE stack. It helped, but the problem doesn't entirely go away.

xorg.conf.d fragment I used:

Section "Module"
    Load "dri3"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel Graphics DRI 3"
    Driver      "intel"
    Option      "DRI" "3"
EndSection

# Note that AccelMethod is set to "sna" in another config fragment.

Also, the issue is *not* restricted to full-screen mode. It definitely occurs on non-full-screen maximized windows. Uncertain if it occurs in non-maximized windows.

'Option      "TearFree" "false"' seems to help a *lot*.

TearFree=false makes everything else look horrible.

On an x1v4, this seems to solve the problem entirely:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel Graphics DRI Settings"
    Driver      "intel"
    Option      "DRI" "2"
    Option      "AccelMethod" "sna"
    Option      "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

(And forget the dri3 module bits.)

Well, no. But it makes things a lot better.

It might be worth looking at modesetting too, since the issue doesn't seem to appear there for a number of users on this thread:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606152#c73

I'll look into KMS.

Also worth pointing out, Option      "DRI" "2" introduces a bug of its own: alt-tab appears to break. That is, alt-tabbing between Chrome windows causes them to stop drawing graphics to the screen. Another alt-tab and back causes drawing to resume.
Any keyboard/mouse input provided to the window while in the 'frozen' state takes effect as normal, with the results becoming visible when drawing resumes.

Just tried KMS. It causes Cinnamon to fall back to software rendering mode. So no sale.

My mistake. Figured out how to get KMS working on Trusty.

Interesting, that may be hardware dependent. I get acceleration (and no chrome flickering) under modesetting with this:

$ inxi -GSx
System:    Host: hostname Kernel: 4.4.0-64-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.1) Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Graphics:  Card: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 3200x1800@59.98hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Iris Graphics 540 (Skylake GT3e)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 12.0.6 Direct Rendering: Yes

As you say it's not a solution for everyone, although it might be a clue for what's going on.

Modesetting causes Chrome to disable software acceleration. This is a serious problem.

Uh, make that "switch to software acceleration".

Is that the effects of the rendering whitelist?

chrome://gpu on chromium 56.0.2924.76 with modesetting:

Graphics Feature Status
Canvas: Hardware accelerated
Flash: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Hardware accelerated
Compositing: Hardware accelerated
Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Native GpuMemoryBuffers: Software only. Hardware acceleration disabled
Rasterization: Software only. Hardware acceleration disabled
Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Video Encode: Hardware accelerated
VPx Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
WebGL: Hardware accelerated
WebGL2: Hardware accelerated

With chrome://flags override software rendering list:

Graphics Feature Status
Canvas: Hardware accelerated
Flash: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Hardware accelerated
Compositing: Hardware accelerated
Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Native GpuMemoryBuffers: Software only. Hardware acceleration disabled
Rasterization: Software only. Hardware acceleration disabled
Video Decode: Hardware accelerated
Video Encode: Hardware accelerated
VPx Video Decode: Hardware accelerated
WebGL: Hardware accelerated
WebGL2: Hardware accelerated

Nope, overriding the whitelist doesn't help.

... does Chrome hardware acceleration require the XVideo extension, perchance?

Scratch that. No matter what I do, I can't get it to work under modesetting.

(This is on a Skylake machine.)

Of note:

Log Messages
GpuProcessHostUIShim: The GPU process crashed!
GpuProcessHostUIShim: The GPU process crashed!

crbug/698055

Kabylake machine here having flickering specially visible on dark backgrounds, using 57.0.2987.133 (64-bit). No matter if fullscreen or not.
Additional problem (might not be related): Tab opening and closing ist very slow in normal mode (no problem in incognito mode, so surely extension related but still a new problem with this version of chrome). 

 Issue 626506  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 594940  has been merged into this issue.

Issue 610108 has been merged into this issue.

@#164: Chrome is running really slowly for you? I think I might have that bug! It happens for me every time I try to put a chrome window on more than one desktop. It didn't happen on my old linux machine.

reveman@ this issue has been P1 for a long time.  What are the next steps here?

Thanks!

Issue 671540 has been merged into this issue.

Issue 728619 has been merged into this issue.

I've had my issue merged into this as a duplicate (affecting Windows 10 x64). Has anyone else seen similar things in Windows and know of potential workarounds - or is it simply a case of toggling various GPU settings?

I haven't seen this on Windows, except on really old buggy cards.

This is on a Dell XPS, they were released about 18 months ago, not sure that would be considered an old card?

Nope

I've attached a recording of what I'm seeing in Windows. Only ever affects the DevTools console view, and it doesn't flicker (but it does change depending on what my mouse is over). Machine details:

Machine: Dell XPS 15 9550
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Display: Intel HD Graphics 530 
Render: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M

	Chrome DevTools.gif 802 KB View Download

Bump. Any ETA here? This makes using Chrome seriously unpleasant on Ubuntu Xenial. (Or Ubuntu Trusty with the Xenial HWE.)

It's also making Chrome pretty unpleasant on Windows 10 x64

Easy there mate, was only logged 16 months ago!

I've un-duped Issue 728619 from this issue, as that seems to be Windows + GPU Rasterization configuration.

Can anyone please confirm if --disable-partial-raster from comment #135 makes a difference here?  Thanks.

I just checked. Unfortunately, it doesn't.

Another workaround could be turning of v-sync via the vblank_mode parameter.
Even though this introduces the possibility of tearing but in my case I didn't experienced any so far.
So maybe it is worth a try. This parameter can be set permanently for all programs or per-program via the {$HOME}/.drirc file. This makes it very convenient as the flags for native-gpu-buffer usage seems to be command-line only and therefore require the editing of the .desktop file every time the (a) effected program was updated.
A short blog-post compiling several occurrences of this issue can be found at:
https://solutions4linux.blogspot.jp/2017/11/workaround-for-flickering-chrome-and.html 

.drirc 131 bytes Download