XPS 13 9350 black screen with kernel versions > 4.15.0-20-generic

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Do the backlight keys help at all?

I'm wondering if it's just the backlight being turned off.

Hi Daniel. The backlight keys do not help.

Prior to the kernel version in question, Ubuntu 17.x and 18.x on this machine had occasional backlight problems on waking from suspend that I could resolve by closing the lid, waiting a few seconds and reopening the lid.

As far as I can tell, this doesn't respond to function keys or the switch in the hinge.

Does switching VTs (Ctrl+Alt+F4) turn it on?

Also if you SSH into the machine while it's still on the login screen, does writing to:

  /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness

like

  cp /sys/class/backlight/*/max_brightness /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness

then make the login screen visible?

I am experiencing the same problem. When I boot with any other kernel than 4.15.0-20-generic the internal display goes black after GRUB.

IMPORTANT: External display through USB-C works fine.

* Dell XPS 13 9350 Developer Edition.
* Ubuntu 18.04 (fresh install).
* Any other kernel than 4.15.0-20-generic.
* Internal display goes black, external display works fine.
* Switching VT does not turn the screen on.
* Adjusting backlight does nothing.
* Changing resolution does nothing.

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.18 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.18-rc6

Almost, maybe related to bug 1782739

@jsalisbury: Thanks!

Tested with 4.18.0-041800rc6 & no change. Issue tags and status updated.

Update: I wanted to make sure of the problem still existing in the 4.18.0 kernel, so I started from scratch again with the following steps:

1. Reinstall Ubuntu minimal install (without downloading updates which is what updates the kernel to the problem version),
2. Update kernel to 4.18.0,
3. Install updates.

It now works. I'm not sure what happened the last time with the new kernel version. Presumably I borked it somehow.

Removing "kernel-bug-exists-upstream", but retaining "Confirmed" status (I hope that's correct).

Thanks.

I think the next step is to find out exactly where the fix first appeared. Please try more kernel versions and find the two versions closest together where one works and the other does not...

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=N;O=D

Thanks Daniel. I've spent all morning testing kernels, and here're my results. Spoiler nothing after 4.15 works reliably, and mostly doesn't work at all.

In detail:

- 4.15.0-12-generic: Works
  This is what I get after a minimal install where I don't allow the installer to download updates.
- 4.16.0-generic: Fails
- 4.17.0-generic: Fails
- 4.18.0-rc6: Fails
- 4.18.0-rc6: Fails

With both of 4.18.0 rc6 and rc7, I can get to the desktop by restarting in recovery mode only. It loses my displays settings (this machine has the hdpi screen), but appears to work otherwise. I'm still not sure how one time out of three, I seem to have gotten a working install on the rc6 kernel.

Also with both rcs, at boot time here's what I see:

- Black screen (normal)
- Turns grey (normal, I expect to see the decrypt screen next)
- Flash of terminal text (not normal)
- Screen goes dark (not normal)

I don't know how to recover the text that flashes up, but if you know where it might be logged etc, I can dig it up.

Does this still happen to latest mainline kernel or latest Ubuntu 18.04 kernel?

It was still happening on 4.19-rc1. I'll test on later 4.19 rcs over the weekend.

I did not see it mentioned above, so I figured it was worth noting.

This black screen problem is also experienced by many Dell XPS 13 windows users.
https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9350-Black-Screen/td-p/5912336

No one has yet found a real fix, but there is some speculative talk about it relating to microcode on the Intel HD 520 Embedded Graphics. It is pretty much agreed in that community that this first started taking place after the 2-13-2018 release of the Intel HD 520 Graphics Driver(15.65.4.4944). It did on my own Dell XPS 13 (9350).

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/88355/Intel-HD-Graphics-520

The only widely accepted fix was reverting back to the default Windows Graphics Driver. I personally reinstalled Windows multiple times and tried to install every past HD 520 driver to no avail. After that, I switched to Ubuntu and it worked for a while until this bug.

Would it be possible for you to do a kernel bisection?

First, find the last good -rc kernel and the first bad -rc kernel from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

Then,
$ sudo apt build-dep linux
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
$ cd linux
$ git bisect start
$ git bisect good $(the good version you found)
$ git bisect bad $(the bad version found)
$ make localmodconfig
$ make -j`nproc` deb-pkg
Install the newly built kernel, then reboot with it.
If the issue still happens,
$ git bisect bad
Otherwise,
$ git bisect good
Repeat to "make -j`nproc` deb-pkg" until you find the commit that causes the regression.

I'll try to to the bisection this coming weekend.