[Gutsy Tribe 2] Widescreen (19") and ATI Radeon w/ ati driver causes horizontal lines in bottom left corner

[Rich Johnson]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

See attached image below (next post)....

When using the LiveCD, or even after an install with the alternate CD image (Gutsy <=Tribe 2), the bottom left hand corner of the screen has horizontal lines that actually fluctuate/pulsate.

Monitor:
19" Widescreen Starlogic (if you find info on this LCD anywhere, let me know, it is a cheapy but works great)

Video Card:
Radeon 9700

Out of the box the refresh rate isn't correct, 1024x768, when the native widescreen resolution with this setup is 1440x900. In order for me to get this to work and the lines to go away I have to install the FGLRX driver.

Not life threatening, but it does exist.

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

My laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600 w/ Mobility Radeon 9600) suffers a similar bug. However, the horizontal lines (seemingly due to wrong Hsync) appear in the middle of the screen (1280x800). I can attach a picture if needed. The screen is also misconfigured at 1024*768. It might be interesting to note that the regression on the horizontal lines happened with one of the latests feisty upgrades (it worked OK by mid february), which has forced me to use fglrx in my laptop. Would installing previous versions of xserver-xorg-video-ati (feisty) help?

On a side note, fresh-booting the Tribe 2 Install CD will give me no DRI, but that's another bug.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Miguel, a picture certainly wouldn't hurt. Might be useful if we take this bug upstream.

Richard and Miguel, can you please attach your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.0.log files, and the output from lspci -vv?

Regarding the resolution mis-detection, that is likely to be an unrelated issue. I've had the same problem, and it's very thoroughly reported elsewhere, so for this bug report let's focus on the main issue of the horizontal lines. I've found the tool 'displayconfig-gtk' to be good at getting things configured correctly, although the tool itself has some crash bugs in it. You can also hand-edit your xorg.conf, but hopefully we can get away from doing that so much with Gutsy.

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

Hi again Bryce,

I've attached a small picture of my laptop running the Tribe 2l ive CD. I think the point is clear, although I have a bigger image if needed. The requested files can be seen in bug #123712 on comments 3, 4 and 5. Thanks for your comments,

Miguel

[Rich Johnson (nixternal)]

Hey Bryce, I will get you the necessary info here in the next day or so when I go to install Kubuntu back on the system with the issue.

[Rich Johnson (nixternal)]

Here is a copy of Xorg.conf from the latest Gutsy Daily Live. This is on both Kubuntu and Ubuntu by the way.

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

Hi again,

Browing the gutsy forum, I found another user had some issues with vertical lines on a Dell Inspiron 8600. He pointed me to bug #109297. Are these related? At least this could help triaging, or marking duplicates. Good evening,

Miguel

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Richard, we've upgraded to the latest -ati driver in Gutsy, and should be available if you update your Gutsy install. It will also be included in Tribe5 if you'd prefer to wait for that. Miguel reports that it fixes this bug for him - I'd like to hear if it fixes it for you too, and then we can close this bug.

[gpothier (gpothier)]

I am not sure it is related, but my Dell D810 laptop (ATI Mobility X600 w/ open source drivers) worked well until +/- last Friday (Aug. 17). Now I do have some garbage on my main display, while the external display obviously misses some drawing. It seems the drawing that doesn't go to the external display does go to the internal display but in a garbled form. I can see it very clearly when I move windows on the external screen.
Note that this is a dual-head configuration.

[gpothier (gpothier)]

I downgraded to xserver-xorg-video-ati 6.6.3 from 6.6.193 and my problem went away. Shall I file a separate bug for this issue?

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

Yeah, it certainly is related. It's actually the reverse behaviour I've seen on my system. It seems to be a regression of 6.6.193 in the Mobility X600 chip. How I wish all that onscreen garbage disappeared once and forever. That would make looking for regressions and improvements for everyone so much easier and comfortable.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Has the situation improved by current gutsy? The driver has seen numerous updates since Tribe2.

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

In my case, the horizontal lines disappeared as soon as you uploaded the 6.8 branch drivers to the repositories. I don't know if X600 owners are better now with 6.7.195.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Well, no-one else has replied so assuming this is fixed.

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

Hi Timo,

All the horizontal lines issues disappeared on my system as soon as bryce
uploaded the radeon 6.8 branch to gutsy. In hardy, radeon 6.7.197 is alright.