Is this a problem with my graphics drivers, my monitor, or a lack of knowledge?
Bazzite is the first Linux distro I've used, so I apologize in advance if this is a little bit of a basic issue - I'm not very familiar with the environment but I am working to learn as much as I can. I'm including my neofetch for system hardware info, and I have 2 monitors connected to my graphics card - an Asus VZ249QG1R, which is connected via HDMI as a secondary display and has no issues, and a Dell Alienware AW2518HF connected via DisplayPort as my primary display. Both are, obviously, connected through the ports on my GPU. The problem is with the Alienware display, and I don't know if it's because the monitor is a bit on the older side or if it's an issue with my graphics drivers, but when I have my system running for a few hours the display will flicker to fully black every once in a while for a few seconds at a time for seemingly no reason. As mentioned, since I am new to Linux as a whole, I'm not sure on how to diagnose this issue and was under the impression that distros packaged driver updates in more often than not, though I am realizing that was probably me misunderstanding information I found when researching what distro to use before building this PC. Do I need to track down some proprietary AMD software for a driver update? Do I need an open-source tool to update the drivers to make sure my graphics card is working correctly? Is it just an issue with my specific monitor that is only showing after I swapped from using HDMI for it on my old system to using DisplayPort on this one? I genuinely don't know, and the documentation for Bazzite focuses on system software updates (which I have done a couple of times to no avail on this issue) over any form of driver updates; on top of that, all other resources I find online are either focused on more well-known & widely used distros, assuming a base level of familiarity with how Linux works that I have not yet developed which leaves me confused and not knowing wtf to actually do, or a mixture of both. Does anyone have any advice?
4 Replies
GPU drivers are shipped as part of the OS images for Bazzite-- there was a choice between AMD vs Nvidia you made when picking which ISO to install from.
As long as you're keeping the OS up to date (which I think is automated by default, but feel free to run
ujust update) then you have the newest GPU drivers the Bazzite crew is aware of.
You don't (and probably should not) need to update those separately.
Given that, it's more likely to be a hardware problem, though frankly I'm not confident on how to troubleshoot that further beyond trying different combinations of cables, ports, machines if you have 'em.I actually managed to accidentally figure this out at about 5AM this morning, and forgot to update it here after getting some sleep from an accidental all-nighter. Turns out, the automatic timer for the OS turning the screen off to save power didn't consider "being in a game but using a controller instead of mouse & keyboard" to be interaction to keep the screen on. If I moved the mouse every now and then, it didn't happen. It also happened less when I extended the timer on the screen sleeping manually, though I didn't realize it had done that at first. For now, I've just turned off the sleep timer in the OS settings completely until hopefully something is changed to make it see controller inputs as using the device, and thus keeping the screen on, instead of only M&K inputs.
IDK about the controller thing, but most full-screen/video apps should keep the screen awake regardless, though I think there was another recent help thread about that not working for someone else...
otherwise, FYI, if you'd rather only disable the screen sleeping temporarily (on KDE), there is a thing in the system tray > power management for that.
Also shows if an app is stopping it which might help troubleshoot that.
Though if you're just using a controller in place of m/k for general use, don't have a good answer for that.
The controller is only for particular games. Mainly platformers, fighters, and some third-person shooters I play when I don't want to use my brain lmao
But yeah it's probably that same fullscreen issue. It was happening in Warframe, one of the aforementioned games I do play on controller, while full screen - but didn't happen if I was using my mouse and/or keyboard every now and then for stuff like changing the main program on display to send a quick message on Discord or changing my music playlist.
Honestly with how I use my PC, I'm giving it regular down time anyway and it's in my room, so the automatic screen locking isn't very necessary. If I run into a situation where I need to lock my screen instead of shutting my PC down for the day or something like that, I can live with doing it manually.