I upgraded from Lucid to Precise and experienced display corruption. Text and widgets were displaying inconsistently on the screen, and tended to disappear or re-appear as I moved the mouse over them, making it nearly impossible to login with either ligthdm or gdm. More importantly, the desktop environment was unusable. In Lucid I was using the Ubuntu-packaged proprietary Nvidia drivers. I'm using an HP EliteBook 8540p with the Nvidia NVS 5100M chip and was using nvidia-common 1:0.2.44 and nvidia-current 295.40-0ubuntu1. I tried nvidia-current-updates and nvidia-current from ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates with no success.
I disabled X and uninstalled nvidia-common/nvidia-current and began hand-installing previous versions from the NVIDIA site. The most recent version that worked is 290.10. The 295.xx versions showed the same artifacts (295.20 and 295.49).
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: nvidia-common 1:0.2.44 [modified: usr/bin/hybrid-detect usr/share/nvidia-common/last_gfx_boot]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.38-generic-pae 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: 7451bb2c84d577f3248044893e3259ad
CheckboxSystem: b845c366ea09c60efa3a45c1b5b21525
Date: Thu May 24 00:08:32 2012
ProcEnviron:
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
SourcePackage: nvidia-common
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-20 (3 days ago)
---
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 290.10 Wed Nov 16 19:27:25 PST 2011
GCC version: gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5)
.tmp.unity.support.test.1:
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: 7451bb2c84d577f3248044893e3259ad
CheckboxSystem: b845c366ea09c60efa3a45c1b5b21525
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
DistUpgraded: 2012-05-20 14:04:35,574 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: precise
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [NVS 5100M] [10de:0a2c] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:1521]
JockeyStatus:
xorg:nvidia_current - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
xorg:nvidia_current_updates - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP EliteBook 8540w
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: nvidia-graphics-drivers (not installed)
PccardctlStatus:
Socket 0:
3.3V
16-bit
PC Card
Subdevice 0 (function 0) bound to driver "pata_pcmcia"
ProcEnviron:
TERM=xterm
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic-pae root=UUID=e8ac33c7-d8fc-4eef-9a9b-863ff47b7bcd ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.38-generic-pae 3.2.16
Tags: precise possible-manual-nvidia-install ubuntu regression-update needs-reassignment
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae i686
UnitySupportTest: Error: command ['/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test', '-p', '-f'] failed with exit code 1: Error: no composite extension
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-20 (3 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip floppy lpadmin netdev plugdev powerdev sambashare scanner video
dmi.bios.date: 08/23/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 68CVD Ver. F.0B
dmi.board.name: 1521
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 32.32
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr68CVDVer.F.0B:bd08/23/2010:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPEliteBook8540w:pvr:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1521:rvrKBCVersion32.32:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP EliteBook 8540w
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.8-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.32-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.2-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.2-0ubuntu3
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu10.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.19.0-0ubuntu1~xup1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2
apport information