thinkpad x1 carbon display flickering after update to 5.12. good on 5.11.x (i915)

From: Thomas Stein
Date: Fri May 14 2021 - 04:40:16 EST


Hello Devs.

After upgrading to linux 5.12 the display on my X1 Carbon Gen 2 starts to flicker. Well actually it seems to turn off and on again and again. Here a link to a video a person posted who has the same issue as me obviousely. https://linuxove.com/thinkpad-x1-carbon-gen-3-display-flickering-on-linux-kernel-5-12/

This happens without having Xorg running too. So it can't be related to Xorg. The kernel boots and after a few seconds, the kernel messages scoll through, the flickering starts. Nothing special in dmesg.

dmesg:

himbeere@rather ~ $ dmesg | grep i915
[ 0.713595] i915 0000:00:02.0: vgaarb: deactivate vga console
[ 0.720280] i915 0000:00:02.0: vgaarb: changed VGA decodes: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=io+mem:owns=io+mem
[ 0.741494] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] Panel advertises DPCD backlight support, but VBT disagrees. If your backlight controls don't work try booting with i915.enable_dpcd_backlight=1. If your machine needs this, please file a _new_ bug report on drm/i915, see https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/-/wikis/How-to-file-i915-bugs for details.
[ 1.864837] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20201103 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[ 1.875907] fbcon: i915drmfb (fb0) is primary device
[ 3.158255] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] fb0: i915drmfb frame buffer device
himbeere@rather ~ $

Downgrading to 5.11 solves the issue for me. Any ideas?

cheers, t.