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Blank screen bug

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  Blank screen bug Tim <debian-bugreport@quuck.eu> - 2017-09-23 12:30 +0200
    Re: Blank screen bug Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2017-09-23 13:00 +0200
    Re: Blank screen bug Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@debian.org> - 2017-09-23 14:50 +0200
      Re: Blank screen bug Cindy-Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2017-09-23 17:00 +0200
        Re: Blank screen bug Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-09-23 17:10 +0200
        Re: Blank screen bug David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2017-09-24 04:00 +0200
      Re: Blank screen bug Tim <debian-bugreport@quuck.eu> - 2017-10-13 00:50 +0200
      Re: Blank screen bug Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2017-10-13 01:10 +0200
    Re: Blank screen bug David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2017-09-24 03:30 +0200
      Re: Blank screen bug Tim <debian-bugreport@quuck.eu> - 2017-10-08 12:10 +0200
        Re: Blank screen bug Jimmy Johnson <field.engineer@gmail.com> - 2017-10-08 13:10 +0200
        Re: Blank screen bug anxiousmac@gmail.com - 2017-10-08 14:10 +0200
        Re: Blank screen bug David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2017-10-13 00:10 +0200
    Re: Blank screen bug Jimmy Johnson <field.engineer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-24 07:20 +0200

#187125 — Blank screen bug

Hi,

I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not sure
which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I haven't found
a way to debug the issue either.

I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook 840
notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns blank, i.e.,
as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely enough, whenever I
attach another display, the other display doesn't go blank: It's only
the internal display of the laptop itself that turns completely black.

I've tried to debug the issue by looking a various log files (e.g.,
~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log, /var/log/kern.log, running
`journalctl`), but nothing would show up in these logs whenever it
occurs. I also tried to install `firmware-linux-nonfree` but that
didn't help either. Before, I was using jessy without the bug.

I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or how
to proceed from here.

Best,

Tim

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#187127

On 09/23/2017 05:01 AM, Tim wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not sure
> which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I haven't found
> a way to debug the issue either.
>
> I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook 840
> notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns blank, i.e.,
> as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely enough, whenever I
> attach another display, the other display doesn't go blank: It's only
> the internal display of the laptop itself that turns completely black.
>

[snip]

>
> I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or how
> to proceed from here.

Your phrasing causes me to wonder if you have a new hardware problem.
I suggest trying a Live-CD 
<http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/> of the release of 
Jessie you had been using.

HTH

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#187131

On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 12:01:31PM +0200, Tim wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not sure
> which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I haven't found
> a way to debug the issue either.
> 
> I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook 840
> notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns blank, i.e.,
> as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely enough, whenever I
> attach another display, the other display doesn't go blank: It's only
> the internal display of the laptop itself that turns completely black.
> 
> I've tried to debug the issue by looking a various log files (e.g.,
> ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log, /var/log/kern.log, running
> `journalctl`), but nothing would show up in these logs whenever it
> occurs. I also tried to install `firmware-linux-nonfree` but that
> didn't help either. Before, I was using jessy without the bug.
> 
> I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or how
> to proceed from here.
> 
I had this exact same problem with Jessie on an HP ProBook 650.  The bug
was in X.org and was fixed when I upgraded to Stretch.  The problem, as
I recall, was that certain display hardware inverts the sense of the
intensity, so that instead of it going from 0 (dark) to max (bright) it
goes from 0 (bright) to max (dark).  X.org sets the display brightness
to what it thinks is max on the log in screen to compensate for the
possibility that was turned all the way down by a previous user.

What I found as a "workaround" was that I could log in as normal and
then by using the brightness control function keys I could increase the
display brightness after logging in.

I am not sure if the problem is that X.org needs to be told which
hardware inverts the meaning of the brightness control value, but I
suspect that is root cause.

I apologize that I don't have any links, but it has been several years
since I dealt with this problem.  Perhaps this is enough to get you
pointed in the right direction.

Regards,

-Roberto

-- 
Roberto C. Sánchez

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#187132

On 9/23/17, Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@debian.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 12:01:31PM +0200, Tim wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not sure
>> which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I haven't found
>> a way to debug the issue either.
>>
>> I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook 840
>> notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns blank, i.e.,
>> as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely enough, whenever I
>> attach another display, the other display doesn't go blank: It's only
>> the internal display of the laptop itself that turns completely black.
>>
>> I've tried to debug the issue by looking a various log files (e.g.,
>> ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log, /var/log/kern.log, running
>> `journalctl`), but nothing would show up in these logs whenever it
>> occurs. I also tried to install `firmware-linux-nonfree` but that
>> didn't help either. Before, I was using jessy without the bug.
>>
>> I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or how
>> to proceed from here.
>>
> I had this exact same problem with Jessie on an HP ProBook 650.  The bug
> was in X.org and was fixed when I upgraded to Stretch.  The problem, as
> I recall, was that certain display hardware inverts the sense of the
> intensity, so that instead of it going from 0 (dark) to max (bright) it
> goes from 0 (bright) to max (dark).  X.org sets the display brightness
> to what it thinks is max on the log in screen to compensate for the
> possibility that was turned all the way down by a previous user.
>
> What I found as a "workaround" was that I could log in as normal and
> then by using the brightness control function keys I could increase the
> display brightness after logging in.
>
> I am not sure if the problem is that X.org needs to be told which
> hardware inverts the meaning of the brightness control value, but I
> suspect that is root cause.
>
> I apologize that I don't have any links, but it has been several years
> since I dealt with this problem.  Perhaps this is enough to get you
> pointed in the right direction.


Based on both of your posts, I took a quick peek at "apt-listbugs list
-s all xorg"..

#778573 xorg: Xorg shows blank black screen at startup instead of a
Display Manager.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=778573

That references....

#775012 nvidia-driver: startx initializes nvidia driver but kdm does not
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=775012

May not be exact same thing, especially since they're speaking of boot
and this thread sounds like it snaps off mid successful usage. But
maybe you all have come up with something no one thought of or
possibly even knew was possible.... or not. You never know. :)

Me? Never would have thought about manufacturers reversing how things
work. That's a very not user friendly twist on proprietary....... :)

A PS is that one poster got fussed at for allegedly hijacking a bug
report, was told to file their own report. It kind of sounded like the
"hijacker" was attempting to support, confirm the existence of the bug
by supplying their own experience so... I guess this is just a heads
up that this occurred in that arena.

Maybe there was prior history as to why that exchange occurred. One
last peek at it shows it didn't follow normal list rules, and that
made it harder to follow the intent. They did sound like they
encountered the bootup blank screen, did some manipulating, and got
something to work, although still not quite as expected. :)

Couldn't help it, looked one more allegedly "last time"... The reason
the comment didn't follow protocol was because it was entered via
*reportbug*. It wasn't the fault of the alleged "hijacker" that there
was no previous quote to follow in their post.

The alleged "hijacker" found a bug that matched theirs so they did as
would be expected per reportbug methodology. They simply addended
their experience to a bug subject line that matched their
experience... and then got "blessed" for doing so. I genuinely hate
when that happens... because that sounds exactly like something I
would do under the same circumstances. :)

Cindy
-- 
Cindy-Sue Causey
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA

* Geraldine Laverne, did you ever feed your goldfish the other day? *

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#187133

On Saturday 23 September 2017 10:49:44 Cindy-Sue Causey wrote:

> On 9/23/17, Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@debian.org> wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 12:01:31PM +0200, Tim wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not
> >> sure which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I
> >> haven't found a way to debug the issue either.
> >>
> >> I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook
> >> 840 notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns
> >> blank, i.e., as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely
> >> enough, whenever I attach another display, the other display
> >> doesn't go blank: It's only the internal display of the laptop
> >> itself that turns completely black.
> >>
> >> I've tried to debug the issue by looking a various log files (e.g.,
> >> ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log, /var/log/kern.log, running
> >> `journalctl`), but nothing would show up in these logs whenever it
> >> occurs. I also tried to install `firmware-linux-nonfree` but that
> >> didn't help either. Before, I was using jessy without the bug.
> >>
> >> I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or
> >> how to proceed from here.
> >
> > I had this exact same problem with Jessie on an HP ProBook 650.  The
> > bug was in X.org and was fixed when I upgraded to Stretch.  The
> > problem, as I recall, was that certain display hardware inverts the
> > sense of the intensity, so that instead of it going from 0 (dark) to
> > max (bright) it goes from 0 (bright) to max (dark).  X.org sets the
> > display brightness to what it thinks is max on the log in screen to
> > compensate for the possibility that was turned all the way down by a
> > previous user.
> >
> > What I found as a "workaround" was that I could log in as normal and
> > then by using the brightness control function keys I could increase
> > the display brightness after logging in.
> >
> > I am not sure if the problem is that X.org needs to be told which
> > hardware inverts the meaning of the brightness control value, but I
> > suspect that is root cause.
> >
> > I apologize that I don't have any links, but it has been several
> > years since I dealt with this problem.  Perhaps this is enough to
> > get you pointed in the right direction.
>
> Based on both of your posts, I took a quick peek at "apt-listbugs list
> -s all xorg"..
>
> #778573 xorg: Xorg shows blank black screen at startup instead of a
> Display Manager.
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=778573
>
> That references....
>
> #775012 nvidia-driver: startx initializes nvidia driver but kdm does
> not https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=775012
>
> May not be exact same thing, especially since they're speaking of boot
> and this thread sounds like it snaps off mid successful usage. But
> maybe you all have come up with something no one thought of or
> possibly even knew was possible.... or not. You never know. :)
>
> Me? Never would have thought about manufacturers reversing how things
> work. That's a very not user friendly twist on proprietary....... :)
>
> A PS is that one poster got fussed at for allegedly hijacking a bug
> report, was told to file their own report. It kind of sounded like the
> "hijacker" was attempting to support, confirm the existence of the bug
> by supplying their own experience so... I guess this is just a heads
> up that this occurred in that arena.
>
> Maybe there was prior history as to why that exchange occurred. One
> last peek at it shows it didn't follow normal list rules, and that
> made it harder to follow the intent. They did sound like they
> encountered the bootup blank screen, did some manipulating, and got
> something to work, although still not quite as expected. :)
>
> Couldn't help it, looked one more allegedly "last time"... The reason
> the comment didn't follow protocol was because it was entered via
> *reportbug*. It wasn't the fault of the alleged "hijacker" that there
> was no previous quote to follow in their post.
>
> The alleged "hijacker" found a bug that matched theirs so they did as
> would be expected per reportbug methodology. They simply addended
> their experience to a bug subject line that matched their
> experience... and then got "blessed" for doing so. I genuinely hate
> when that happens... because that sounds exactly like something I
> would do under the same circumstances. :)
>
> Cindy

Which I've also done, and been yelled at for doing. ReportBug simply 
drops the ball AFAIAC.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>

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#187142

On Sat 23 Sep 2017 at 10:49:44 (-0400), Cindy-Sue Causey wrote:
> On 9/23/17, Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@debian.org> wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 12:01:31PM +0200, Tim wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not sure
> >> which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I haven't found
> >> a way to debug the issue either.
> >>
> >> I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook 840
> >> notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns blank, i.e.,
> >> as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely enough, whenever I
> >> attach another display, the other display doesn't go blank: It's only
> >> the internal display of the laptop itself that turns completely black.
> >>
> >> I've tried to debug the issue by looking a various log files (e.g.,
> >> ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log, /var/log/kern.log, running
> >> `journalctl`), but nothing would show up in these logs whenever it
> >> occurs. I also tried to install `firmware-linux-nonfree` but that
> >> didn't help either. Before, I was using jessy without the bug.
> >>
> >> I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or how
> >> to proceed from here.
> >>
> > I had this exact same problem with Jessie on an HP ProBook 650.  The bug
> > was in X.org and was fixed when I upgraded to Stretch.  The problem, as
> > I recall, was that certain display hardware inverts the sense of the
> > intensity, so that instead of it going from 0 (dark) to max (bright) it
> > goes from 0 (bright) to max (dark).  X.org sets the display brightness
> > to what it thinks is max on the log in screen to compensate for the
> > possibility that was turned all the way down by a previous user.
> >
> > What I found as a "workaround" was that I could log in as normal and
> > then by using the brightness control function keys I could increase the
> > display brightness after logging in.
> >
> > I am not sure if the problem is that X.org needs to be told which
> > hardware inverts the meaning of the brightness control value, but I
> > suspect that is root cause.
> >
> > I apologize that I don't have any links, but it has been several years
> > since I dealt with this problem.  Perhaps this is enough to get you
> > pointed in the right direction.
> 
> 
> Based on both of your posts, I took a quick peek at "apt-listbugs list
> -s all xorg"..
> 
> #778573 xorg: Xorg shows blank black screen at startup instead of a
> Display Manager.
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=778573
> 
> That references....
> 
> #775012 nvidia-driver: startx initializes nvidia driver but kdm does not
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=775012
> 
> May not be exact same thing, especially since they're speaking of boot
> and this thread sounds like it snaps off mid successful usage.

In the case of a laptop that has symptoms that were similar but
are now worse, I suspect a firmware problem, the reason being
that it now usually blanks even before the POST has finished.
But the screen is not black, just very dark. In X, white backgrounds
can just be detected.

> But
> maybe you all have come up with something no one thought of or
> possibly even knew was possible.... or not. You never know. :)
> 
> Me? Never would have thought about manufacturers reversing how things
> work. That's a very not user friendly twist on proprietary....... :)

Well try this for size. Our washing machine that we inherited in 2014
had its hot/cold hoses connected backwards, but worked fine like that.
When we moved, I replumbed it, and wrote H and C on the back by
the hose attachments (contradicting the manufacturer's engravings).

Yesterday, all was normal with the sheets. Today, I noticed the
machine was filling cold water onto the towels. After checking
that we had hot water in the sink, I discovered that the machine's
Cold/Cool/Warm/Hot switch was working, but now in the reverse
direction. So I washed the towels in hot water by setting it on Cold.
When it got to the rinses, I _had_ to pull it out and swap the hoses
round because, of course, it was going to do all the rinsing with
hot water.

I have no idea how it decided to spontaneously switch the hot and
cold feeds after three years. With the hoses as per the original
markings, it's now working perfectly again. But can I trust it?

Cheers,
David.

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#187807

On Tue, 2017-10-10 at 14:17 -0500, Nicholas Geovanis wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 7:48 AM, Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@debian.org>
> wrote:
> 
> > I had this exact same problem with Jessie on an HP ProBook 650.  The bug
> > was in X.org and was fixed when I upgraded to Stretch.  The problem, as
> > I recall, was that certain display hardware inverts the sense of the
> > intensity, so that instead of it going from 0 (dark) to max (bright) it
> > goes from 0 (bright) to max (dark).  X.org sets the display brightness
> > to what it thinks is max on the log in screen to compensate for the
> > possibility that was turned all the way down by a previous user.
> >
> > What I found as a "workaround" was that I could log in as normal and
> > then by using the brightness control function keys I could increase the
> > display brightness after logging in.
> >
> 
> Just confirming that apparently I had this same issue with jessie 8.4 on
> Dell hardware.
> The problem only occurred if a second monitor was connected prior to boot.
> Only the
> second monitor's brightness was dialed-up at boot, the primary (laptop)
> screen would
> be dialed down to 0 brightness. Unfortunately the login prompt was on the
> laptop screen.
> Simply dialing-up the brightness was the fix, but it took me a while to
> realize it.

I experience this bug in jessie as well. However, that bug got fixed in
stretch. The bug I'm now facing is random (short) periods of a
black/blank screen. Just as anxiousmac nicely summarized said before:

On Sun, 2017-10-08 at 04:42 -0700, anxiousmac@gmail.com wrote:
> I have exactly the same problem with the same model of laptop ( HP EliteBook 840)
> 
> > From time to time the screen goes blank for 2-6 or so seconds. Pressing random keys may accelerate return, it's hard to say. Certainly those key presses appear to be acted upon in whatever window has the input focus. My BIOS is the most up to date one from the HP website.
> 
> It's irritating but not a show stopper. Would be nice to know how to investigate.


On Sun, 2017-10-08 at 04:05 -0700, Jimmy Johnson wrote:
> Can you see the position of the screens?  Maybe install package "aranr", 
> it's a small GUI to setup the screens.

I will try this, although I'm not exactly sure how this would help as
90% of the time the screen display works fine.

By now I also have a bit more experience with switching to a virtual
console when this occurs, but alas, this doesn't seem to influence the
blank screen in any way.

Cheers,
Tim

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#187823

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 7:48 AM, Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@debian.org>
wrote:

> I had this exact same problem with Jessie on an HP ProBook 650.  The bug
> was in X.org and was fixed when I upgraded to Stretch.  The problem, as
> I recall, was that certain display hardware inverts the sense of the
> intensity, so that instead of it going from 0 (dark) to max (bright) it
> goes from 0 (bright) to max (dark).  X.org sets the display brightness
> to what it thinks is max on the log in screen to compensate for the
> possibility that was turned all the way down by a previous user.
>
> What I found as a "workaround" was that I could log in as normal and
> then by using the brightness control function keys I could increase the
> display brightness after logging in.
>

Just confirming that apparently I had this same issue with jessie 8.4 on
Dell hardware.
The problem only occurred if a second monitor was connected prior to boot.
Only the
second monitor's brightness was dialed-up at boot, the primary (laptop)
screen would
be dialed down to 0 brightness. Unfortunately the login prompt was on the
laptop screen.
Simply dialing-up the brightness was the fix, but it took me a while to
realize it.

-Roberto
>
> --
> Roberto C. Sánchez
>
>

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#187139

On Sat 23 Sep 2017 at 12:01:31 (+0200), Tim wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not sure
> which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I haven't found
> a way to debug the issue either.
> 
> I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook 840
> notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns blank, i.e.,
> as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely enough, whenever I
> attach another display, the other display doesn't go blank: It's only
> the internal display of the laptop itself that turns completely black.

Does the screen turn blank after a random time, or at the time of
an event (like starting X, or starting an application, or some
heavy processing etc). After a minute or half an hour?
Is the screen really black or just very dark?
What happens if you select a VC, or exit X? … … …

> I've tried to debug the issue by looking a various log files (e.g.,
> ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log, /var/log/kern.log, running
> `journalctl`), but nothing would show up in these logs whenever it
> occurs. I also tried to install `firmware-linux-nonfree` but that
> didn't help either. Before, I was using jessy without the bug.
> 
> I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or how
> to proceed from here.

Cheers,
David.

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#187722

First of all, sorry for my late reply: It took me a while before I
realized this is a mailing list. (I also hope Evolution is smart enough
to figure out to send the right In-Reply-To header.)

On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 20:28:59 -0500, David Wright wrote:
> Does the screen turn blank after a random time, or at the time of
> an event (like starting X, or starting an application, or some
> heavy processing etc). After a minute or half an hour?

I want to clarify it happens at random times, not at a certain interval
after boot or during any event. I now also realize that I have been
unclear that it's actually happening temporarily: after a random number
of seconds, the screen shows the display again. I haven't found any
pattern causing the screen to show nothing, nor any pattern making the
desktop (and the running applications) show again. Sometimes this on-
off switch happens multiple times during the day. Usually the screen
goes only blank for a couple of seconds (1‒5 seconds), but I also once
had that I had to wait for about 45 seconds before it came back up.

> Is the screen really black or just very dark?

Like the screen outputs pure black. I can still adjust the brightness
and this shows a ‘brighter’ or ‘less brighter’ black. It seems no bug
in the brightness settings as in the dual monitor setup I see that the
brightness remained the same after the laptop's screen goes dark.

> What happens if you select a VC, or exit X? … … …

Good suggestion to try the virtual console! I've only been able to try
this once: The screen went blank, I switched to tty3 and the screen
showed the tty, I returned to tty2 (running GDM) and everything was
showing there as well. So either the screen was blank for just a second
or so, or switching to a different tty makes the screen come back
again.

I will keep you posted once I've been able to try this more often.

Thanks for everybody's help so far!

Best,
Tim

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#187724

On 10/08/2017 03:00 AM, Tim wrote:
> First of all, sorry for my late reply: It took me a while before I
> realized this is a mailing list. (I also hope Evolution is smart enough
> to figure out to send the right In-Reply-To header.)
> 
> On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 20:28:59 -0500, David Wright wrote:
>> Does the screen turn blank after a random time, or at the time of
>> an event (like starting X, or starting an application, or some
>> heavy processing etc). After a minute or half an hour?
> 
> I want to clarify it happens at random times, not at a certain interval
> after boot or during any event. I now also realize that I have been
> unclear that it's actually happening temporarily: after a random number
> of seconds, the screen shows the display again. I haven't found any
> pattern causing the screen to show nothing, nor any pattern making the
> desktop (and the running applications) show again. Sometimes this on-
> off switch happens multiple times during the day. Usually the screen
> goes only blank for a couple of seconds (1‒5 seconds), but I also once
> had that I had to wait for about 45 seconds before it came back up.

Debian is set to blank at 5 seconds of no activity and if you are using 
HDMI it will take a few seconds before you will see the desktop.

>> Is the screen really black or just very dark?
> 
> Like the screen outputs pure black. I can still adjust the brightness
> and this shows a ‘brighter’ or ‘less brighter’ black. It seems no bug
> in the brightness settings as in the dual monitor setup I see that the
> brightness remained the same after the laptop's screen goes dark.
> 
>> What happens if you select a VC, or exit X? … … …
> 
> Good suggestion to try the virtual console! I've only been able to try
> this once: The screen went blank, I switched to tty3 and the screen
> showed the tty, I returned to tty2 (running GDM) and everything was
> showing there as well. So either the screen was blank for just a second
> or so, or switching to a different tty makes the screen come back
> again.
> 
> I will keep you posted once I've been able to try this more often.
> 
> Thanks for everybody's help so far!


Can you see the position of the screens?  Maybe install package "aranr", 
it's a small GUI to setup the screens.

Hope that helps.
-- 
Jimmy Johnson

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS - KDE Plasma 5.8.7 - AMD A8-7600 - EXT4 at sda5
Registered Linux User #380263

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#187725

On Sunday, 8 October 2017 11:10:04 UTC+1, Tim  wrote:
> First of all, sorry for my late reply: It took me a while before I
> realized this is a mailing list. 

[snip]

I have exactly the same problem with the same model of laptop ( HP EliteBook 840)

>From time to time the screen goes blank for 2-6 or so seconds. Pressing random keys may accelerate return, it's hard to say. Certainly those key presses appear to be acted upon in whatever window has the input focus. My BIOS is the most up to date one from the HP website.

It's irritating but not a show stopper. Would be nice to know how to investigate.

anxiousmac

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#187791

On Tue 10 Oct 2017 at 21:45:29 (+0200), Tim wrote:

> I experience this bug in jessie as well. However, that bug got fixed in
> stretch. The bug I'm now facing is random (short) periods of a
> black/blank screen. Just as anxiousmac nicely summarized said before:

[…]

> I will try this, although I'm not exactly sure how this would help as
> 90% of the time the screen display works fine.
> 
> By now I also have a bit more experience with switching to a virtual
> console when this occurs, but alas, this doesn't seem to influence the
> blank screen in any way.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

This old Dell has a semi-permanent problem resembling this. The screen
works normally for about one second on the POST, and again whenever
you press a key after the screen had blanked. So it's only usable with
a VGA monitor connected. However, the monitor doesn't display the CMOS
screen which limits options.

The rest of the time, the display is trying to work, odd flickers can
be seen as it switches modes, and once X is running it's just possible
to make out a glimmer from windows that have white backgrounds.

I can only think that it's a firmware/hardware bug. A blown capacitor
is the first thing that spring to mind.

Cheers,
David.

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#187146

On 09/23/2017 03:01 AM, Tim wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to report a bug for Debian stretch, however, I'm not sure
> which package I should file the bug against. Moreover, I haven't found
> a way to debug the issue either.
> 
> I've recently done a fresh installed of stretch on an HP EliteBook 840
> notebook. Since then, the laptop's screen sometimes turns blank, i.e.,
> as if there is no input to the screen. Strangely enough, whenever I
> attach another display, the other display doesn't go blank: It's only
> the internal display of the laptop itself that turns completely black.
> 
> I've tried to debug the issue by looking a various log files (e.g.,
> ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log, /var/log/kern.log, running
> `journalctl`), but nothing would show up in these logs whenever it
> occurs. I also tried to install `firmware-linux-nonfree` but that
> didn't help either. Before, I was using jessy without the bug.
> 
> I hope you can tell me which package I should file the bug to, or how
> to proceed from here.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Tim

Just a guess, but maybe you're seeing a desktop with no panel, 
background, just a blank desktop. Maybe just try and add a background?
-- 
Jimmy Johnson

Debian Stretch - KDE Plasma 5.8.6 - AMD A8-7600 - EXT4 at sda6
Registered Linux User #380263

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