Enabling SLI on NVIDIA "tested" drivers causes 14.04 artifacts and freeze of desktop environment forcing manual system reset.

[Tyson]

If SLI is enabled, there are many flickering artifacts and double images (especially tooltips). Eventually, the desktop environment locks up completely and the computer needs a forced manual reset. I needed to disable SLI as soon as possible and restart in order to get out of the constant freezing and artifacts.

This issue was not present in 12.04 but became immediately present the first time using 14.04 on the same computer. I know my hardware is not the problem because my video cards work perfectly fine in Windows 8. Bug report and logs below are taken from when SLI is disabled.

WORKAROUND: Disable SLI.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-35.62-generic 3.13.11.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-35-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.1: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/1'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 331.38 Wed Jan 8 19:32:30 PST 2014
 GCC version: gcc version 4.8.2 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)
.proc.driver.nvidia.warnings.fbdev:
 Your system is not currently configured to drive a VGA console
 on the primary VGA device. The NVIDIA Linux graphics driver
 requires the use of a text-mode VGA console. Use of other console
 drivers including, but not limited to, vesafb, may result in
 corruption and stability problems, and is not supported.
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.3
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Sep 3 13:28:21 2014
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 bbswitch, 0.7, 3.13.0-35-generic, x86_64: installed
 nvidia-331, 331.38, 3.13.0-35-generic, x86_64: installed
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation GF110 [GeForce GTX 580] [10de:1080] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device [3842:1582]
 NVIDIA Corporation GF110 [GeForce GTX 580] [10de:1080] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device [3842:1582]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-09-03 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
MachineType: MSI MS-7681
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no username)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-35-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 02/14/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: V1.8
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P67A-GD55 (MS-7681)
dmi.board.vendor: MSI
dmi.board.version: 1.0/2.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: MSI
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0/2.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrV1.8:bd02/14/2011:svnMSI:pnMS-7681:pvr1.0/2.0:rvnMSI:rnP67A-GD55(MS-7681):rvr1.0/2.0:cvnMSI:ct3:cvr1.0/2.0:
dmi.product.name: MS-7681
dmi.product.version: 1.0/2.0
dmi.sys.vendor: MSI
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11.2+14.04.20140714-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Wed Sep 3 11:18:54 2014
xserver.configfile: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:

xserver.version: 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2

[Tyson (ty-ger07)]

Bug does not show up in screenshot which means ... ?

Bug is easy to reproduce. Use recommended NVIDIA driver with any two NVIDIA cards in SLI and see bug right away.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Dmitry-a-durnev (dmitry-a-durnev)]

I also confirm this on ubuntu 14.10/unity and latest nvidia 346.35 drivers(2x GTX 970). I experience massive artifacts when option SLI is "on" or "afr"/"sfr".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Tyson, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. As per http://www.msi.com/support/mb/P67AGD55.html#down-bios an update to your computer's buggy and outdated BIOS is available (4.3). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate does it change anything?

If it doesn't, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful. As well, you don't have to create a new bug report.

Once the BIOS is updated, and the information above is provided, then please mark this report Status New.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]