[R580] severe display corruption with EXA, also issues with XAA

[l3iggs]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

I have a R580 with 2 displays connected, each via DVI. When
I run with "ati" as my driver in xorg.conf, I get a severly
corrupted displays at login (see attached pic) and
(presumeably) can't do anything. The machine is not locked,
I can move a corrupted pointer around the login screen with
my mouse. Switching to the radeonhd driver in shadowfb
mode solves the corruption issue, as does using mesa.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.11.0+git20090310.945ccbbd-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersion: Linux version 2.6.28-9-generic (buildd@crested) (gcc version 4.3.3 (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu2) ) #31-Ubuntu SMP Wed Mar 11 15:43:49 UTC 2009
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-9-generic x86_64

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: nVidia Corporation C55 Host Bridge [10de:03a1] (rev a2)
     Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:c55e]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc R580 [Radeon X1900] [1002:724b]
     Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:0b12]

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Can you please try with
 Option "DRI" "off"
in the Device section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf?

[l3iggs (l3iggs)]

Option "DRI" "off" solves the corruption issue. Now the first thing i notice at the login screen is that the user name text entry box has a black background instead of white. I type in my user name and hit enter and the text above the box does not change to "Password." I type my password and hit enter and i know I am logged in (because I hear the login sound) but the screen doe not redraw.

[l3iggs (l3iggs)]

I can add Option "NoAccel" "true" to make my device section look like this:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "ati"
 Option "NoAccel" "true"
 Option "DRI" "off"
EndSection

The screen redraw issue is gone, everything seems to be rendered correctly. However, watching the tearing as my window content refreshes at ~1Hz as I drag or scroll around makes me want to shoot myself.

[l3iggs (l3iggs)]

I can add Option "AccelMethod" "XAA" to make my device section look like this:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "ati"
 Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
 Option "DRI" "off"
EndSection

Now at the login screen, the text entry box looks normal (white background), the "Password" text above the entry box gets updated after I enter my user name. The first Issue I see on login is that as the top and bottom panels pan in, their animation is "messed up." Dragging windows around has varying results, always bad. Generally, window content either disappears when I drag or scroll in a window. I can normally get the content to be redrawn by clicking once on the top of the window frame. See attached picture of an example of me dragging a window around the desktop (desktop panel issues are also shown here).

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

A new version of the -ati driver is now available in Karmic.

This is a significant update to -ati which brings in kernel mode-setting
(currently disabled) and scores of fixes for DRI2, EXA, etc.

I've posted the new version of this driver to the following PPA,
would you mind testing it and seeing if it resolves the bug you
reported?

  https://edge.launchpad.net/~bryceharrington/+archive/ppa/+sourcepub/709908/+listing-archive-extra

If you're not running this release of Ubuntu, you can try booting the Karmic
LiveCD and loading the PPA onto it, and then log out/in to restart X.
ISOs are available at http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/releases/

After testing Karmic, report back here whether it's still an issue or not,
and if it is please post a fresh Xorg.0.log and 'dmesg' output.

Note there could be new bugs... please file these as new reports using
the command 'ubuntu-bug xorg'.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.