Intel Graphics and the Input-all bug

My machine is not built for Linux. As such, I was researching ways of smoothing out some rough edges. One tip I found suggested to terminal this command:
WARNING! Do NOT enter this command into terminal!

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

After I rebooted, I found that the mouse and keyboard both stopped working at the login screen. I could not enter my password or complete the login. I had a moment of fear that yet another wipe and reload was forthcoming. I strongly suspected that the above install was the culprit. I held left shift at boot up to enter recovery, went to root shell and entered

Code:

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

That didn't work.
Using my phone, I found the following:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/908918/ ... ter-gettin

The problem seems to be, that during update process they forget to install/update the package xserver-xorg-input-all!

Holy...
I followed the instructions on that page which are:

1. Press a Shift key during boot to get the GRUB menu.
2. In GRUB, select Advanced Options, then the first kernel with the recovery mode.
3. Select "Network" to get network access (needed for package installation)
4. Select "Drop to root shell"
5. Press Enter to confirm.
6. On my system not needed because, the filesystem was mounted rw, but if needed then mount -o rw,remount /.
7. Install the needed package: apt install xserver-xorg-input-all (and the message that they need to uninstall 16.04 packages!)
8. Press Ctrl+D to leave the root shell.
9. Select resume boot from the menu.
10. Now I could only log into console.
11. sudo reboot

That worked and keyboard was restored.

But I had also hit remove xserver-xorg-video-intel, just before that. Should I have not done so; are there consequences to that? I would prefer to ask before I leap, this time.

Hi, I would await someone on here who uses intel graphics - I don't want to advise wrongly.

What I was having initially was window flickering. Any window would do it and it was intermittent and uncommon. Just once in a while. Seemed to happen more often upon opening a window.
I found the following, yesterday:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/pkppa

Code:

sudo apt-get update

That was one of many "fixes" - I tried this one yesterday, now I must wait a while - enough time to observe if the intermittent problem recurs.

Aravisian wrote:I found the following, yesterday:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/pkppa

Code:

sudo apt-get update

That was one of many "fixes" - I tried this one yesterday, now I must wait a while - enough time to observe if the intermittent problem recurs.

This 'fix' did not work for me. Undoubtedly, I have a different cause.
Sometimes, when I open something, whether a new Waterfox window or Nemo3 files or a program GUI, it flickers and flashes but that ceases immediately if I move the mouse cursor to the edge and either move Or resize the window.

Does this article help or hinder?:

https://www.zim24news.com/2018/11/19/tu ... ntu-18-04/ - there is a reference to 16.04 in the article but couldn't readily find the guide the guy mentions he wrote for 16.04 on which Zorin 12 is based on.

Swarfendor437 wrote:Does this article help or hinder?:

https://www.zim24news.com/2018/11/19/tu ... ntu-18-04/ - there is a reference to 16.04 in the article but couldn't readily find the guide the guy mentions he wrote for 16.04 on which Zorin 12 is based on.

The original is:
https://www.zim24news.com/2018/11/19/tu ... ntu-18-04/
As well as:
https://www.techzim.co.zw/2017/01/heres ... ntu-16-04/

The trouble is; He says that "To use the drivers you have to secure boot mode." and gives the following:

Code:

sudo update-secureboot-policy

or

Code:

sudo update-secureboot-policy –enable

Both of which result in "command not found."

In the other article, he says to

Code:

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

The sheet was blank... When I tried adding the entirety of what he says should be there:

Code:

(gedit:5037): Gtk-WARNING **: Calling Inhibit failed: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files

** (gedit:5037): WARNING **: Set document metadata failed: Setting attribute metadata::gedit-spell-enabled not supported

** (gedit:5037): WARNING **: Set document metadata failed: Setting attribute metadata::gedit-encoding not supported

** (gedit:5037): WARNING **: Set document metadata failed: Setting attribute metadata::gedit-spell-enabled not supported

** (gedit:5037): WARNING **: Set document metadata failed: Setting attribute metadata::gedit-encoding not supported


Using the pro-offered Intel Update Tool for linux immediately led to:

Code:

Checking if Intel graphics card available...
  • checking for i915 module in /sys/module
  • i915 module found
Checking if Intel graphics card available... OK
Retrieving information from 01.org...
  • fetching https://download.01.org/gfx/ilg-config.cfg
  • saving to /home/ross/.ilg-config
  • fetched 1549 bytes
  • fetched 9741 bytes
  • fetched 12301 bytes
  • looking up [Zorin xenial] configuration
Retrieving information from 01.org... OK
Checking distribution... Failed

Distribution not supported error.

This has jogged my memory (with acknowledgement to madvinegar who posted the rename solution but I can no longer find it - it could have been in a thread that got deleted.

Open a terminal and enter:

Code:

cat /etc/lsb-release

and you should get the following or similar:

DISTRIB_ID=Zorin
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.4
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Zorin OS 12.4"

Edit the cat /etc/lsb-release file but ONLY edit the DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION, nothing else. Amend the description to:
"Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS" - You'll need to have ultimate root privileges to edit this file with gedit ---

And be sure to read this thread before attempting and remember to put things back exactly as they were:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=250358

You do so at your own risk! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I did not do the above (Change distro name instructions in the immediate previous post). Not that I don't appreciate the help--
Last night, I shut down, went to bed. Today when I booted up, I was greeted with window flicker Cured; and a new and much worse problem. A case where the cure was worse than the symptom, maybe.
Yesterday, opening a window caused the window to pop up in open state. Today, the windows fade into existence and fade out of existence when you open and close them. No flicker... But they do this fading very, very, VERY Slowly. Everything is bogged down and slow and the CPU usage hovers between 80% and 100% consistently.
This is true if I log in to Gnome Shell; Default Zorin or if I log in using gnome Flashback (Compiz) Or Gnome Flashback (Metacity.)
It did not used to do that. Idling the CPU sat around 12% and in use around 20%or a bit higher.
I Suspect the intel driver fix the most, but researching how to fix or undo what I did is tedious given that the Intel "fix" was not completed (Distro Failure reported as posted above) and I am very uncertain as to what exactly changed.

I went back to the beginning of this thread on this one.
I opened a terminal and entered:

Code:

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

I then entered:

Code:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg

Followed this with:

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

And... Having painfully learned my lesson the First Time, I made sure to enter:

Code:

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-all

ensuring that my keyboard would be functioning at login screen.

So, the above problem is now fixed, my O.P. is answered, (installed what I was not sure if I should reinstall or not) along with the caveat of always be sure to

Code:

[code]sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-all[/code]

-- Very Important.

Is that slight intermittent flicker gone? I don't know and I don't care! I can put up with the flicker... The excruciatingly slow window operation was intolerable. But if it too appears to be gone in the next few days, will drop an update.

Thanks for the update.

Aravisian wrote:Is that slight intermittent flicker gone?

Yes it is.