Nvidia 340+NVidia Prime + external monitor = system unusable, continuous xorg crashes, external monitor never works

[teo1978]

SUMMARY

- laptop with NVidia card and Optimus technology
- xorg configured ages ago to automatically switch between built-in and external monitor when plugging/unplugging
- "clean" Ubuntu 15.04 after upgrading from 14.10 from 14.04
- no nvidia-* nor bumblebee-* was installed (that's what I mean by "clean")
- everything was working perfectly fine while only using integrated intel GPU
- I installed NVidia-340 and nvidia-prime (and whatever) via Software & Updates -> Additional Driver

Result:
* Boot with external monitor connected => keeps crashing forever at the login screen
* Boot without external monitor connected => seems to work with built-in screen (at least for the few minutes I tested)
* Connect external monitor after boot at login screen => xorg crashes once or twice, then both screens go black
* Connect external monitor after logging in => both screens go black
* Disconnect external monitor => built-in screen remains black, never turns on again, unless Xorg crashes

Basically, the laptop is completely unusable. NVidia-prime and nvidia-340 screw everything up beyond imagination.
I was lucky tojust be able to recover from that, uninstall all nvidia-stuff, and get my working system back.

MORE DETAIL

Until recently I had Ubuntu 14.04.
I had nvidia-331 installed but unused since ages ago. I had disabled them (if I remember correctly) by going to
  Software & Updates -> Additional drivers
(the same I had used to install them)
and choosing to use Nouveau instead (back), because I had experiencing a lot of glitches with NVidia-331.
This was even before I upgraded to 14.04.

Because my laptop has Optimus technology, I was only using the integrated Intel GPU.

At some point I had also installed bumblebee, but I had never figured out how to actually make any use of it.

I had Xorg configured so that, when plugging an external monitor, only the external monitor would be used and the built-in one would turn off; and when unplugging the external monitor, the built-in monitor would automatically turn on. So I only use one monitor at a time. I guess I configured this via the System Settings -> Displays

All this was working fine.

When the fix for #1431753 was released, nvidia-340 got installed and, against my will and without notice, they were somehow enabled, so I started experiencing #1220426 and #1483388 (but nothing comparable to what I'm describing in this report).

So, I apt-get removed nvidia-* and bumblebee.

After that (and across several reboots) all was working perfectly fine again. Again, I was only using the shitty integrated Intel GPU (without even the hardware acceleration that it supports, btw, but that's another story), but I had no issues.

Then today I upgraded to 14.10 and immediately after, to 15.04.

Everything kept working smoothly, including automatic screen switching when plugging/unplugging the external monitor.

Then I thoughy I'd give NVidia-340 another try. I thought maybe a fresh install on 15.04 would work.

I went to Software & updates -> Additional Drivers and I selected "use NVidia-340"

That installed nvidia-340, nvidia-settings, nvidia-prime, and something-nvidia-else.

I rebooted.

At the first reboot, I had the external screen already connected.

After the boot completed, xorg started to crash again and again like crazy. The login screen would appear and disappear from both screen at a few seconds intervals, and I would hear the drum sound every time (and could not finish typing my password and logging in).
THE SYSTEM WAS UNUSABLE, I COULD NOT LOG IN.

So I rebooted without the external monitor connected.
I then connected the external monitor while still at the login screen. Xorg crashed one or a couple of times, then the built-in screen turned off but the external one didn't turn on either.
So I disconnected the screen; after a while Xorg crashed again and only then the built-in screen turned on again
I rebooted again, and fully logged in without the external screen connected.
Then I plugged in the screen
=> again, the built-in screen turned off but the external one didn't turn on.
I disconnected the screen, and the built-in screen never turned on again.

So, I rebooted without the external monitor, uninstalled all the nvidia-related stuff, rebooted, and now again everything is working (without using the NVidia card, of course).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+7ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-25.26-generic 3.19.8-ckt2
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-25-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.2
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: Sat Aug 15 23:25:52 2015
DistUpgraded: 2015-08-15 21:46:56,607 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: vivid
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 bbswitch, 0.7, 3.19.0-25-generic, x86_64: installed
 vboxhost, 4.3.14, 3.13.0-61-generic, x86_64: installed
 vboxhost, 4.3.14, 3.16.0-44-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0647]
 NVIDIA Corporation GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] [10de:1140] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] GeForce 710M [1025:0691]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (673 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
MachineType: Acer Aspire V3-571G
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-25-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=5830b30e-69e8-4bb4-8a2b-bc2b43c7414a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to vivid on 2015-08-15 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/15/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V2.07
dmi.board.asset.tag: Type2 - Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: VA50_HC_CR
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Type2 - Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V2.07
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV2.07:bd10/15/2012:svnAcer:pnAspireV3-571G:pvrV2.07:rvnAcer:rnVA50_HC_CR:rvrType2-BoardVersion:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV2.07:
dmi.product.name: Aspire V3-571G
dmi.product.version: V2.07
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.12.1+15.04.20150410.1-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.60-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.5.2-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.5.2-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.5.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917-1~exp1ubuntu2.2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.11-1ubuntu2build1
xserver.bootTime: Sat Aug 15 23:24:41 2015
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:
 Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
 Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
 NOUVEAU(G0): [XvMC] Failed to initialize extension.
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 8940
 vendor AUO
xserver.version: 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 15.04 (vivid) reached end-of-life on February 4, 2016.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.