screen flashing to black every several seconds

[Claude Jones]

Claude Jones wrote:

> Jim Cornette wrote:
>
>> The procedure worked for several that tried this to downgrade 
>> xorg-x11 packages when a major failure hit us on testing FC3 to be.
>>
>> It is safer than removing x packages via rpm -e and does not remove 
>> your desktop managers like yum erase xorg-x11 would do.
>>
> Jim: Just to let you know that this worked perfectly! It would seem 
> that there is a concatenated series of actions that led to this mess. 
> The first was the installation of the Radeon driver from ATI. This was 
> followed by the application of xorg-x11-6.8.2. I've now rolled back 
> the process by first removing the Radeon/ATI driver, and then by 
> rolling back xorg. During the removal of the ATI driver, I got a 
> message about a conflict between that driver and something on my 
> system which I unfortunately didn't write down. So, my question is, do 
> you think I should try reinstalling the xorg update now that the 
> system is working again?
>
I reply to my own query: I decided that since I had the 
go-back-to-X11-6.8.1 option, I should go ahead and experiment with 
reapplying the X11-6.8.2 rpms. It broke my machine again - as soon as I 
came back up, I was flashing to black screen about every 5 seconds - by 
the way, the syndrome comes on with a ramp; when you just have the 
desktop open after a reboot, it remains stable for longer periods; as 
soon as you start working, opening windows, the flashing to black 
starts, growing worse as you open more and more windows.

I used your method to reapply the X11-6.8.1 and now I'm back to normal.

Someone had suggested I file a bugzilla: here's my problem - given my 
less than advanced understanding of Linux, I can't say for certain that 
this is an X bug; what if the action of installing the ATI/Radeon driver 
from ATI broke the system? I have another machine,  configured almost 
exactly the same as this one, at work, to which I did NOT apply the ATI 
driver, but DID apply the X 6.8.2 update - it's working just fine as far 
as this issue is concerned. Perhaps my removal of the ATI/Radeon driver 
didn't get rid of everything it installed, and it's THAT residue that is 
causing the problem on my system?

Any thoughts on this?

-- 
Claude Jones
Bluemont, VA, USA