matrox g200eR2 is unclaimed in 14.04

[Zoltán Maróti]

On a certified Dell PowerEdge T620 server (http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201207-11426/)

The matrox video card is not recognised:
lspci | grep VGA
0a:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. G200eR2

lshw -C display
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G200eR2
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0a:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:d8000000-d8ffffff memory:deffc000-deffffff memory:de000000-de7fffff

Thus xserver is not hardver accelerated.

Also /dev/dri and /dev/dri/card0 is missing.

kernel module mga is not loaded, although if i manually load by modprobe it works fine
modprobe mga
lsmod | grep mga
mga 40811 0
drm 302817 1 mga

[Zoltán Maróti (zmaroti)]

I should mention that it was working flawlessly in 12.04, we had harware acceleration with MGA driver at 1920x1080@60hz resolution.

[Zoltán Maróti (zmaroti)]

Some relevant information from Xorg.0.log

12.04 Xorg.0.log
[ 4.534] (--) PCI:*(0:10:0:0) 102b:0534:1028:04cf rev 0, Mem @ 0xd8000000/16777216, 0xdeffc000/16384, 0xde000000/8388608
[ 4.557] (--) MGA(0): Chipset: "mgag200 ER SH7757"
[ 4.557] (--) MGA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xD8000000
[ 4.557] (--) MGA(0): MMIO registers at 0xDEFFC000
[ 4.557] (--) MGA(0): Pseudo-DMA transfer window at 0xDE000000

14.04 Xorg.0.log
[ 74.002] (--) PCI:*(0:10:0:0) 102b:0534:1028:04cf rev 0, Mem @ 0xd8000000/16777216, 0xdeffc000/16384, 0xde000000/8388608
[ 74.831] (II) MGA: driver for Matrox chipsets: mga2064w, mga1064sg, mga2164w,
 mga2164w AGP, mgag100, mgag100 PCI, mgag200, mgag200 PCI,
 mgag200 SE A PCI, mgag200 SE B PCI, mgag200 EV Maxim,
 mgag200 ER SH7757, mgag200 eW Nuvoton, mgag200eH, mgag400, mgag550
[ 74.831] (--) using VT number 7

[ 75.105] (EE) No devices detected.

[Zoltán Maróti (zmaroti)]

Actually it seems that the cause is the new xserver-xorg-core, it seems that XAA rendering was ripped out from 1.15.1 (no libxaa.so in package).

In old Xorg.0.log rendering was falling back to XAA:
[ 4.696] (II) MGA(0): Using XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA)
[ 4.696] Screen to screen bit blits
[ 4.696] Solid filled rectangles
[ 4.696] Solid filled trapezoids
[ 4.696] 8x8 mono pattern filled rectangles
[ 4.696] 8x8 mono pattern filled trapezoids
[ 4.696] Indirect CPU to Screen color expansion
[ 4.696] Screen to Screen color expansion
[ 4.696] Solid Lines
[ 4.696] Dashed Lines
[ 4.696] Scanline Image Writes
[ 4.697] Setting up tile and stipple cache:
[ 4.697] 32 128x128 slots
[ 4.697] 22 256x256 slots
[ 4.697] (==) MGA(0): Backing store disabled
[ 4.697] (==) MGA(0): Silken mouse enabled
[ 4.698] (==) MGA(0): DPMS enabled
[ 4.698] (WW) MGA(0): Direct rendering disabled
[ 4.698] (==) RandR enabled
[ 4.707] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI2 capable
[ 4.707] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable
[ 4.800] (II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast
[ 4.800] (II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0

In 14.04 there is no XAA acceleration anymore
[ 8233.057] (EE) MGA(0): [drm] Direct rendering only supported with G200/G400/G450/G550.
[ 8233.057] (II) MGA(0): Using 3289 lines for offscreen memory.
[ 8233.057] (==) MGA(0): Backing store enabled
[ 8233.057] (==) MGA(0): Silken mouse enabled
[ 8233.057] (==) MGA(0): DPMS enabled
[ 8233.057] (WW) MGA(0): Direct rendering disabled
[ 8233.057] (==) RandR enabled
[ 8233.062] (II) SELinux: Disabled on system
[ 8233.062] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI2 capable
[ 8233.062] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
[ 8233.074] (II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast
[ 8233.074] (II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0

unfortunately without XAA moving a window is like a slug

[Zoltán Maróti (zmaroti)]

Reading documentation on the mga_drv.so and checking the source files of xserver-xorg-video-mga_1.6.3-1build1_amd64.deb I see that matrox driver has a built in support for EXA in config.h
/* Build support for Exa */
#define USE_EXA 1

/* Build support for XAA */
/* #undef USE_XAA */

/* Version number of package */
#define VERSION "1.6.3"

However it seems that it is not activated or checked at runtime, any clues how this could be activated? It might bring back the lost functionality of XAA acceleration.

[Zoltán Maróti (zmaroti)]

Activating EXA
Section "Device"
        Identifier "mga"
        Driver "mga"
        Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
        Option "EXANoComposite" "True"
        Option "EXANoDownloadFromScreen" "True"
        Option "EXANoUploadToScreen" "True"
Endsection

makes it worse than normal software render.

It results in hanging X without disabling Compsite/DownloadFromScreen. Disabling Composite, DownloadFromScreen results in fully corrupted screen, disabling UploadToScreen helps a little, however screen is still corrupted (moving a window over another leaves traces in the inactive windows behind).

The remaining acceleration
[ 268.727] (**) MGA(0): EXA: Disabling Composite operation (RENDER acceleration)
[ 268.727] (**) MGA(0): EXA: Disabling UploadToScreen
[ 268.727] (**) MGA(0): EXA: Disabling DownloadFromScreen
[ 268.727] (II) EXA(0): Offscreen pixmap area of 8474624 bytes
[ 268.727] (II) EXA(0): Driver registered support for the following operations:
[ 268.727] (II) Solid
[ 268.727] (II) Copy
[ 268.727] (==) MGA(0): Backing store enabled

is just as slow as normal render => EXA + matrox card is not usable

[maddie (supereggx)]

Any update?

Having the same problem on a Dell PowerEdge T420, 2D acceleration is not working on 14.04, whereas on 12.04 it worked just fine.

[Zoltán Maróti (zmaroti)]

Hi,

Actually if you read through my report I finally figured what is the
problem. It is not ubuntu's fault. Xorg upstream simply decided to rip XAA
from Xorg 1.13, and 14.04 has Xorg 1.15 or something like that. So
basically in 12.04 there was no hardware acceleration either unless you
defined 1208x1024 which fits in matrox 200ge's memory for framebuffer. This
option is still ok on 14.04 so if you don't need 1920x1080 then it should
be reasonable quick (in my case I have a big monitor with FHD resolution so
I wanted to use it like in 12.04 where XAA could handle the desktop pretty
fine at this resolution.

Anyway, I did a nasty hack and avoiding the dependency hell (downgrading to
older X would make million otherwise working packages to change as well) so
I simply copied some files from 12.04 precise:

the files were:
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.0*
/usr/bin/Xorg
/usr/bin/cvt
/usr/bin/gtf
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/*

This downgrades Xorg to precise latest with XAA. To avoid breaking the X
system with later X upgrades you have to hold the following packages:
xserver-xorg-core
xserver-xorg-input-evdev
xserver-xorg-input-mouse
xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse
xserver-xorg-video-mga
xserver-xorg-video-vmware

Then just restart X and you are enjoing mga200 with XAA and enough
performance for 1920x1080p

I am attaching the tar.gzipped files from precise I saved for later for you
in case you wanna experiment. If you are going to apply it, backup the
files which will be overwritten for any case.

regards
Zoltan

2014-05-22 4:10 GMT+02:00 maddie <email address hidden>:

> Any update?
>
> Having the same problem on a Dell PowerEdge T420, 2D acceleration is not
> working on 14.04, whereas on 12.04 it worked just fine.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1316035
>
> Title:
> matrox g200eR2 is unclaimed in 14.04
>
> Status in “xorg-server” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> On a certified Dell PowerEdge T620 server
> (http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201207-11426/)
>
> The matrox video card is not recognised:
> lspci | grep VGA
> 0a:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
> G200eR2
>
> lshw -C display
> *-display UNCLAIMED
> description: VGA compatible controller
> product: G200eR2
> vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
> physical id: 0
> bus info: pci@0000:0a:00.0
> version: 00
> width: 32 bits
> clock: 33MHz
> capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
> configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
> resources: memory:d8000000-d8ffffff memory:deffc000-deffffff
> memory:de000000-de7fffff
>
> Thus xserver is not hardver accelerated.
>
> Also /dev/dri and /dev/dri/card0 is missing.
>
> kernel module mga is not loaded, although if i manually load by modprobe
> it works fine
> modprobe mga
> lsmod | grep mga
> mga 40811 0
> drm 302817 1 mga
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source...

[maddie (supereggx)]

Thanks a lot for your reply. I will try it out.. but in the end I might just wait for an official solution.

Thanks again!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[iwbnwif (iwbnwif)]

I am having exactly the same issue as this on two brand new Dell PowerEdge R360 which I am setting up for the first time. This server is also certified for use with 14.04 LTS http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201207-11432/

I tried to apply Zoltan's hack but ended up with a system that won't boot. I guess this is something to do with the fact that Grub is using the framebuffer otherwise I can't see how the changes would stop even a text screen appearing.

In the end I installed 12.04 which works almost flawlessly (resizing windows is still painfully slow). However given these are new servers I would like to start them off with the latest LTS.

Zoltan if you read this please could you give any hint why we are getting different results with the hack?

[Dante Sun (dsun)]

Same problem with DELL PowerEdge R420 with Ubuntu 14.04

[Zoltán Maróti (zmaroti)]

Hi,

Problem could be that you have other packages installed in the xorg-driver
package which were pulled automatically when you installed X. That means
you have probably other modules and dependencies unresolved. What I did was
first of all removing all unecessary xorg driver packages, xorg modules
which has nothing to do with this configuration anyway. Then I copied only
the corresponding package content from 12.04 (that is in my hack tar.gz).

My package list is therfore pretty lean:
dpkg -l | grep xorg
ii xorg
1:7.7+1ubuntu8 amd64 X.Org X Window System
ii xorg-docs-core
1:1.7-1 all Core documentation for
the X.org X Window System
ii xserver-xorg
1:7.7+1ubuntu8 amd64 X.Org X server
ii xserver-xorg-core
2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2 amd64 Xorg X server - core
server
ii xserver-xorg-input-evdev
1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2 amd64 X.Org X server -- evdev
input driver
ii xserver-xorg-input-mouse
1:1.9.0-1build1 amd64 X.Org X server -- mouse
input driver
ii xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse
1:13.0.0-1build1 amd64 X.Org X server --
VMMouse input driver to use with VMWare
ii xserver-xorg-video-mga
1:1.6.3-1build1 amd64 X.Org X server -- MGA
display driver
rc xserver-xorg-video-vmware
1:13.0.2-2ubuntu1 amd64 X.Org X server -- VMware
display driver

hope that helps

Regards,
Zoltan

2014-06-28 11:41 GMT+02:00 iwbnwif <email address hidden>:

> I am having exactly the same issue as this on two brand new Dell
> PowerEdge R360 which I am setting up for the first time. This server is
> also certified for use with 14.04 LTS
> http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201207-11432/
>
> I tried to apply Zoltan's hack but ended up with a system that won't
> boot. I guess this is something to do with the fact that Grub is using
> the framebuffer otherwise I can't see how the changes would stop even a
> text screen appearing.
>
> In the end I installed 12.04 which works almost flawlessly (resizing
> windows is still painfully slow). However given these are new servers I
> would like to start them off with the latest LTS.
>
> Zoltan if you read this please could you give any hint why we are
> getting different results with the hack?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1316035
>
> Title:
> matrox g200eR2 is unclaimed in 14.04
>
> Status in “xorg-server” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> On a certified Dell PowerEdge T620 server
> (http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201207-11426/)
>
> The matrox video card is not recognised:
> lspci | grep VGA
> 0a:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
> G200eR2
>
> lshw -C display
> *-display UNCLAIMED
> description: VGA compatible controller
> product: G200eR2
> vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
> physical id: 0
> bus info: pci@0000:0a:00.0
> version: 00
> ...

[iwbnwif (iwbnwif)]

Hi Zoltan, Thank you for your tips. For the moment the servers are back in their cardboard boxes but I will try this after the weekend and report back here.

[Al Munnings (al-munnings)]

Newly purchased Dell T420, same issue.

[Andromalius (andromalius6)]

Hi, same problem with MGA G200EV

lshw -C display
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200EV
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:96000000-96ffffff memory:97800000-97803fff memory:97000000-977fffff

But it works normal with vesa driver

/etc/X11/xorg.conf :

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200EV"
        Driver "vesa"
        Option "OldDmaInit" "True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "PlugAndPlay"
        Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Device "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200EV"
 Monitor "PlugAndPlay"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
            Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

[Vasu (vasu-pdf)]

Exactly same issue on HP ML310e

ubu324:/$ sudo lshw -c display
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200EH
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0.1
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:bf000000-bfffffff memory:fb6e0000-fb6e3fff memory:fa800000-faffffff

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=13.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=saucy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 13.10"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="13.10, Saucy Salamander"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 13.10"
VERSION_ID="13.10"
HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"

[Ryan Benech (rbenech)]

Same problem with DELL PowerEdge R320 with xUbuntu 14.04

[jisook kim (koyoro)]

Same problem with FUJITSU PRIMERGY RX300S7 with Ubuntu 14.04

$ sudo lshw -C display
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200e [Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1)
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       version: 05
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:de000000-deffffff memory:df800000-df803fff memory:df000000-df7fffff

[Eric Light (rhyven)]

Just confirming, same thing here on an IBM x3500 M3:

  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200EV
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:96000000-96ffffff memory:97800000-97803fff memory:97000000-977fffff

Also:

$ lsmod | grep mg
$ sudo modprobe mga
$ lsmod | grep mg
mga 40811 0
drm 303102 1 mga

Tried a recommended xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
        Identifier "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200 AGP2"
        Driver "mga"
        Option "OldDmaInit" "True"
EndSection

Doesn't help, as expected after Zoltán's comments.

[Daniel Bünzli (daniel-buenzli)]

Same problem with certified DELL PowerEdge T320 (http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201210-12063/)

[Nimalendiran Kailasanathan (nimal)]

Same problem with DELL PowerEdge T610.

[Daniel Bünzli (daniel-buenzli)]

Adapting Andromalius solution with a simple xorg.conf with

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200eR2"
        Driver "vesa"
        Option "OldDmaInit" "True"
EndSection

Brings back a usable system UI-wise on the T320. The graphics card is still unclaimed though:

sudo lshw -C display
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G200eR2
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:d8000000-d8ffffff memory:de7fc000-de7fffff memory:dd800000-ddffffff

[Balint Kozma (balint-kozma)]

Same problem with Dell PowerEdge R610, lubuntu 14.04

[Brijesh Mehta (brijeshbmehta-hotmail)]

Same problem with Dell PowerEdge T420.
I tried the hack provided by Zoltan but its not working for me!!!
I am going to try ubuntu 12.04 instead.

hope that ubuntu will provide some solution in its updates...

[José Esteva (pepeer-q)]

Same problem with DELL PowerEdge R515 with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server 64-bit.

Certified here: http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201106-8086/

[Mattias Vannergård (mattias-vannergard)]

Same proble here with Dell PowerEdge R320.

[Shai Diller (shai-diller)]

Same with a Dell PowerEdge T630.
The workaround works fine but windows control is not smooth as with a standard 2-D video card.

Shai

[[e-mail] (nikitin-alexander)]

The same with Dell PowerEdge T620 and Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS

lshw -C display
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G200eR2
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0a:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:d8000000-d8ffffff memory:deffc000-deffffff memory:de000000-de7fffff

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

uname -a
Linux dell 3.13.0-43-generic #72~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 9 12:14:18 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Blaisorblade (p-giarrusso)]

Same problem with certified [PowerEdge R320](http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201207-11432/) and Ubuntu 14.04.

Personally, I am not necessarily interested in getting 3D acceleration supported for such an old card (and for a server!). *However*, I'd like basic graphic functionality to work decently; right now I got that by installing xubuntu-desktop, but it'd be generally cool if compiz/gnome would disable cool effects automatically, based on available hardware.

[JohnWashington (ubuntu-johnwash)]

Presumably Ubuntu devs will not be interested in this. It needs reporting by everyone to the Xorg developers to get their attention. How does one do that?

Does anyone know WHY they decided to rip out XAA (whatever that is)?

[tweej (tweej)]

Same problem. Manually driving the display at 1280x1024 as suggested by post #7 does not fix the issue in 14.04. 12.04 performance was fine.

[gaoshen (matthewgao)]

Find a way to workaround.

I have a PowerEdge R620 which installed a Ubuntu 12.04 TLS. And I found the screen refreshing became very slow. So I share the same issue with yours.

First,then we have to install vesa driver:
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-vesa

Then, for some of the Ubuntu release don't have a xorg.conf, so I have to generate one with following steps:

1.switch to console mode: Alt+Ctrl+F1
2.kill x server: sudo service lightdm stop
3.generate new xorg.conf file: sudo X -configure -- this will create xorg.conf.new file in your current dir
4.rename and move: sudo mv xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
5.open /etc/X11/xorg.conf, replace the graphic driver of 'mga' with 'vesa'.t
6.return to GUI: sudo start lightdm

[Maximiliano Boscovich (maximiliano-boscovich)]

Same problem with a Dell PowerEdge R720, videocard Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. G200eR2

[Alejandro Azario (alejandroazario)]

Me too, same problem with eight HP ProLiant Gen8 DL380p, video card Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA G200EH.

[John Sopko (sopko)]

Still the same issue on 2 new Dell T630 servers Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

% lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty

% lspci | grep VGA
09:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. G200eR2 (rev 01)

% lshw -C display
PCI (sysfs) NCL
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G200eR2
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:90000000-90ffffff memory:91800000-91803fff memory:91000000-917fffff

% grep '(EE)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[ 2742.630] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 2742.733] (EE) MGA(0): [drm] Direct rendering only supported with G200/G400/G450/G550.
[ 2742.742] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

[John Sopko (sopko)]

I did an online chat with Dell to see if they new anything about this and they could not help. Here was there response:

"Ok. Well, I had them review the article and they see many vendors having the same issue. We don't have any updates / patches for the Matrox graphics card for this kind of issue. Were feeling that this is a desktop OS that is likely a little more graphics intensive than what the server mobo onboard video can do."

They had the linux group review this bug. BTW, window 7 and windows 8.1 work fine with this video card and mobo is a short for motherboard.

We have put in an inexpensive nvida card in our servers if we need to use the gui to get around this issue.

[Samir (samir-naik69)]

This problem is also there on any server built using Intel Server S1200vRP family of boards. I am using S1200v3RPS and it has the MGA G200e VGA controller which shows up in lshw as display UNCLAIMED...

[愛新覺羅闓勳 (northeastwolf)]

Same problem with a Dell PowerEdge R720, video card Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. G200eR2
I try many ways but no one can be work fine with the ubuntu 14.04 ,
when i google the G200eR2's driver, i found a solution with this card, remove the mga driver!

sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-mga

it will remove the xserver-xorg-video-mga and xserver-xorg-video-all
then reboot
now the window not slowly, and screen only has a 800x600 @75hz , but it work fine

i hope this way can help other people

[SM (amruta-ahuja)]

Just wanted to report that Fedora server 21 seems to work completely fine with this particular video card with 3d acceleration enabled out of the box.

[mrvst (maravento)]

The same problem in HP Proliant DL120 G7
Zoltan's solution doesn't work in this server

[Satish (ssn4ssn)]

*-display UNCLAIMED
                         description: VGA compatible controller
                         product: G200eR2
                         vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
                         physical id: 0
                         bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
                         version: 00
                         width: 32 bits
                         clock: 33MHz
                         capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
                         configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
                         resources: memory:d8000000-d8ffffff memory:deffc000-deffffff memory:de000000-de7fffff

We too have the same problemwith ubuntu 14.04 LTS on DELL poweredgeR520 as well as on poweredge R320. The display is very slow with terrible framerates. I have also updated the ubuntu to 14.04.2 LTS but still the problem exists. Please suggest a work around for this issue.

[Celsius (celsius-netbel)]

Same problem here on a certified PowerEdge r820 with Ubuntu server 14.04.2, no GUI installed, only CLI.

The framerate is very slow, using commands like 'ls' or 'less' is almost painful. Adding vesa or mga drivers didn't change a thing. I cannot put a personalized xorg.conf since xorg-server is not even installed.

I found two separate workarounds (not fixes) to this:

1. install openssh server and log into the server from another machine. Everything works fine, fast and responsive.
2. modify /etc/default/grub to reduce the resolution of CLI by editing the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="" into GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash vga=1024x768x24". Then run sudo update-grub and reboot. CLI is now low resolution but fast and responsive.

I didn't try with higher resolution yet. I think I'll settle for using SSH anyway.

[Celsius (celsius-netbel)]

Note that if you apply solution 1 and 2 above, you get the best of both: you can still log with SSH with high resolution (full HD here) *and* have a responsive low-resolution local terminal on site.

[thechivo (chidgear)]

Dell PowerEdge R210 affected by this issue

[gkdeb (adictoalinux-deactivatedaccount)]

Same problem on IBM System x3100 M4, Ubuntu 14.04.3.

[Jaime (jaime-listas)]

Same problem on IBM System x3400 M2, Ubuntu 14.04.3. Zoltán Maróti solution indeed improved the graphical interface. The problem here is that the text terminals (ctrl-alt-Fx) or booting in text mode without loading lightdm renders an unreadable screen with green squares or blue lines . I wonder if it is a consequence of the same bug or not. If anyone observed the same problem please let us know.

[Adrian (adrianf0)]

I have informed Xorg developers.
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91933

[MarcoB (marcobnn)]

hi, some problem on Dell PowerEdgte T320 with Matrox G200eR2.

me too remove the xserver-xorg-video-mga driver and then reboot and the system is ok!

[Gene Kazimiarovich (ykazimiarovich)]

Same problem on Cisco UCS C240 M4, confirmed on four hosts of the same type.
Matrox Electronics System Ltd. MGA G200e [Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1) (rev 02)

[Gregory Sudderth (online-r)]

Also affects me on IBM M3 X3650 2U server, which has the same chip.

[hoecake (redcpu)]

Same problem on Intel S5520 motherboard that built in VGA card -- Matrox Electronics System Ltd. MGA G200eW WPCM450.
Lubuntu Desktop 14.04 LTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200eW WPCM450
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 3
       bus info: pci@0000:08:03.0
       version: 0a
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=32 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: memory:fa800000-faffffff memory:fb800000-fb803fff memory:fb000000-fb7fffff

--------------------------------------------------------------
Has it solution to fix that ?

[Andres Hidalgo (andres-hidalgo)]

Hi! This worked for me on a Dell PowerEdge R440

 service lightdm stop
 X --configure
 mv xorg.conf.new /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-video.conf
 service lightdm start

HTH

Andres Hidalgo

[panadol007 (panadol007)]

Tried, not working Andres...

[panadol007 (panadol007)]

Same problem on my Dell R410, this page could speed up the graphic processing faster:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/673968/regarding-graphical-issues-and-performance-in-ubuntu-14-04-lts-server-with-gui/674656#674656

[Celsius (celsius-netbel)]

Still the same on a brand new Dell PowerEdge R430. No GUI, CLI only.

[Giraffe (dodger-forum)]

Dell PowerEdge T130 using a Matrox Systems G200eR2 is also affected

[Alex Barris (awlsomealex)]

HP ProLiant DL160 G6 using Matrox Systems G200eR2 is also affected in a later version of Ubuntu (16.10) so this doesn't look as it was fixed yet....

sudo lshw -C display:
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200e [Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1)
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       version: 02
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f8000000-f8ffffff memory:fbafc000-fbafffff memory:fb000000-fb7fffff memory:c0000-dffff

lsb_release -a:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.10
Release: 16.10
Codename: yakkety

uname -a:
Linux ************ 4.8.0-22-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 8 09:15:00 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Joan Fisbein (joan-fisbein)]

Hp Microserver Gen8 with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Same problem.

sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for user:
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200EH
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0.1
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f9000000-f9ffffff memory:fbee0000-fbee3fff memory:fb000000-fb7fffff

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Release: 16.04
Codename: xenial

uname -a
Linux jenkins04 4.4.0-59-generic #80-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 6 17:47:47 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Ivo Straka (ivo-straka)]

Short version: kernel module driver "mgag200" did the trick for me. In kernel config, it is represented by CONFIG_DRM_MGAG200.
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/DRM_MGAG200.html

I found a bug that is relevant to this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1642470 It says that the kernel module "mgag200" was blacklisted from kernels due to this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1042903 I tried manually compiling the driver as a module, adding it to a kernel and it worked.

I had problems with MGA G200e [Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1) card. I tried Zoltán's X.org regression hack, I also tried using a recompiled up-to-date mga_drv.so, the library in xserver-xorg-video-mga, where the maintainers claim to support G200e chip (https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-mga/, commits from July 2016). Nothing worked. I am, however, just an intermediate user, so I might have made a mistake somewhere. I also do not know the difference between a kernel driver, X.org driver, and how they interact together and how they are used. Therefore I will trust someone more knowledgeable to put this all together, and I am just going to describe what I did to make it work :-)

As a reference, I did a fresh install of Linux Mint 18.1 MATE, where the GPU was unclaimed:

$ uname -a
Linux rack3test 4.4.0-66-generic #87-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 3 15:29:05 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ sudo lshw -c display
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: MGA G200e [Pilot] ServerEngines (SEP1)
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       version: 05
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:c2000000-c2ffffff memory:c1010000-c1013fff memory:c0800000-c0ffffff memory:c1000000-c100ffff

Then I tried two approaches, both worked.

1. the easier way is to compile and install just the module mgag200. I downloaded the sources and headers for the current kernel, compiled and installed the module, and then added it in the initramfs image. Then, after reboot, it worked. Here are the resources I used:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/168279/how-do-i-build-a-single-in-tree-kernel-module
http://askubuntu.com/questions/676707/how-to-load-a-module-in-initrd

In the first one, do not forget to use your kernel version and the path to the module (drivers/gpu/drm/mgag200). Also it is probably more convenient to use "$ make menuconfig" instead of editing the .config file with vi (you need the ncurses package though). In the menu, find Graphics Drivers --> Graphics Support --> Kernel modesetting driver for MGA G200 server engines, and enable it as a module. When updating initramfs, it might be necessary to specify the kernel version, for example $ update-initramfs -u -k 4.4.0-66-generic. If you have multiple kernels, the command will tell you which initramfs it updated.

The result after a reboot:
$ uname -a
Linux rack3test 4.4.0-66-generic #87-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 3 15:29:05 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linu...

[Giorgio Signorini (giorgio-signorini)]

Had the same problem on a Dell PowerEdge T430 with Ubuntu 16.10.
Installing module mgag200 as suggested by Ivo Straka's (approach n. 1) worked for me. I followed the recipe in

 http://askubuntu.com/questions/168279/how-do-i-build-a-single-in-tree-kernel-module

just changing the kernel number, etc.

# lshw -c display
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G200eR2
       vendor: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=mgag200 latency=64 maxlatency=32 mingnt=16
       resources: irq:17 memory:90000000-90ffffff memory:91800000-91803fff memory:91000000-917fffff memory:c0000-dffff

# uname -a
Linux dell16 4.8.0-59-generic #64-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 29 19:38:34 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Giorgio Signorini (giorgio-signorini)]

Note that after installing the mgag200 module, I also had to change Xorg configuration, as described in comment #32, replacing "mga" with "mgag200"

[yoyo1976 (yoyito-25)]

it is resolved at fedora 26 with xfce, I dont know with previous versions.

[Ivo Straka (ivo-straka)]

For reference, a couple of users have been experiencing the same issue on HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8, which use Matrox MGA G200EH, the original culprit that caused the module mgag200 to be excluded from the kernel years ago.

https://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-Netservers/HP-ProLiant-Gen8-with-Ubuntu-16-and-no-monitor-using-iLO-remote/m-p/6972709

In the linked topic, I put together a step-by-step walkthrough through installing the mgag200 module for Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distros like Mint. Some users might find it helpful.

Unfortunately, only one novice user tried this on HP Gen8 and apparently it did not work. I am not sure whether the mgag200 module just does not work with G200EH yet or whether there was some mistake made in the approach either by me or the user. It would be very helpful for someone to test this with this specific chip and report in more detail.

[Walter Ma (walter-ma)]

Had the same problem on a Dell PowerEdge R730 with Ubuntu 16.04LTS.
Installing module mgag200 as suggested by Ivo Straka's (approach n. 1) worked for me.

But as Giorgio Signorini comment #61, after installed mgag200 module and set xorg driver to mgag200 and restart X.
In /var/log/xorg.0.log, there will have somes errors like "Could not load driver maga200", and finally fall back to xserver-xorg-video-mga if installed.

Actually, in xf86-video-mga 1.6.5(https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-mga/) has added support for g200e, while in ubuntu 16.04 only with 1.6.4 version(https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-mga), and 1.6.5 only for Zesty(https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-mga/+publishinghistory).

This is because of dependency problem, or not？ Since I'm new to linux, maybe who could build xf86-video-mga 1.6.5 in ubuntu 16.04 or give some ideas about how to build?

[lixiaoquan (radioheads)]

I have a Dell R430 server which suffers this issue.

My problem is that in a xrdp session, "xrandr -v" reports: "server report RandR version 1.1."

After following steps, it still report RandR version is 1.1

0. load mag.ko
1. build and load maga200.ko
2. build mag_drv.so 1.6.5 (downloaded from (https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-mga/+publishinghistory).

3. restart x by
   sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart

I check the /var/log/Xorg.0.log and it shows "RandR 1.2 Enabled" and mge_drv version is 1.6.5
and lchw -c display shows maga200.ko is loaded correctly.

I really don't know what else should be done to solve this.

[Alecz20 (alexguzu)]

I had the same problem with Ubuntu 16.04 on a Dell PowerEdge T610.

I managed to resolve it by upgrading to 4.15 hwe Kernel:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack#Ubuntu_16.04_LTS_-_Xenial_Xerus