Black screen after "prime-select nvidia" and restart of lightdm/reboot

[Rene Greuel]

Being able to use prime-select to switch between graphics cards stopped working when I installed Ubuntu 15.04 with newer drivers.

This worked in Trusty when I used:
- nvidia-346
- nvidia-346-updates
- nvidia-352 (ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+7ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-14.16-generic 4.2.2
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-14-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 355.11 Wed Aug 26 16:35:41 PDT 2015
 GCC version: gcc version 5.2.1 20151003 (Ubuntu 5.2.1-21ubuntu2)
ApportVersion: 2.19-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Oct 8 18:18:55 2015
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: wily
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 bbswitch, 0.7, 4.2.0-10-generic, x86_64: installed
 bbswitch, 0.7, 4.2.0-14-generic, x86_64: installed
 nvidia-355, 355.11, 4.2.0-14-generic, x86_64: installed
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21fc]
 NVIDIA Corporation GF108M [GeForce GT 620M] [10de:0de8] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21fc]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-09-12 (26 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Alpha amd64 (20150911)
MachineType: LENOVO 33643EG
ProcEnviron:
 LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.2.0-14-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=55cf0b06-9493-479a-a524-07e52d5be60a ro noprompt persistent quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev'
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/09/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: GAETA0WW (2.60 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 33643EG
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrGAETA0WW(2.60):bd04/09/2015:svnLENOVO:pn33643EG:pvrThinkPadS430:rvnLENOVO:rn33643EG:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 33643EG
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad S430
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.12.2+15.10.20151002-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.64-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 11.0.0-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 11.0.0-1ubuntu1
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers-* N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.17.2-1ubuntu9
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.9.2-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.5.0+git20150819-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20150808-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.11-1ubuntu3
xserver.bootTime: Thu Oct 8 18:15:17 2015
xserver.configfile: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.17.2-1ubuntu9

[Rene Greuel (renegreuel)]

Hi Christopher,
as you mentioned in
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1449560
I subscribed you to this bug.

The report was created on tty1 after failed restart of lightdm on nvidia. If you need other informations please let me know it.
Thanks,
René

[Rene Greuel (renegreuel)]

Hello Christopher,

I updated to the bios version 2.61:

root@grueneerle:~# dmidecode -s bios-version && dmidecode -s bios-release-date
GAETA1WW (2.61 )
09/14/2015

The fix in version 2.61 was simply a security update:
Version 2.61
UEFI: 2.61 / ECP: 2.61
[Important] Fixed security vulnerability (LEN-2015-002 and other fixes). (Note) If the UEFI BIOS has been updated to version 2.61 or higher, it is no longer able to roll back to the version before 2.61 for security improvement.
- http://support.lenovo.com/de/de/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-edge-laptops/thinkpad-edge-s430/downloads/DS029727

This problem still remains, so I will mark this as confirmed.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Rene Greuel:
>"The fix in version 2.61 was simply a security update: Version 2.61 UEFI: 2.61 / ECP: 2.61 [Important] Fixed security vulnerability (LEN-2015-002 and other fixes)."

I'm not sure why you think it's only a security update, when it didn't specify what the "other fixes" were. As was previously advised to you in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate , not all BIOS fixes are documented in the change log, tested to your specific problem under the same operating system, or tested under your operating system at all. Unfortunately in this case, it didn't improve the situation.

Despite this, could you please advise which nvidia driver package precisely you were using when this worked in Trusty?

[Rene Greuel (renegreuel)]

In Trusty I used:

- nvidia-346
-- http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/nvidia-346
- nvidia-346-updates
-- http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/nvidia-346-updates
- nvidia-352 (ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa)
-- https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+sourcepub/5333523/+listing-archive-extra
--- A release in the middle of august

In Wily I used:

- nvidia-352
-- http://packages.ubuntu.com/wily/nvidia-352
- nvidia-352-updates
-- http://packages.ubuntu.com/wily/nvidia-352-updates
- nvidia-355 (ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa)
-- https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+sourcepub/5337022/+listing-archive-extra
--- This is my actual setup

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Rene Greuel, to confirm this is a nvidia driver regression, could you please test an older version of the nvidia drivers in Wily as outlined in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia and advise to the results?

[Rene Greuel (renegreuel)]

Sorry being late, I had not much time the last days.
I tried following previous versions with NO SUCCESS:
- nvidia-340.93
There's only one last official version in official repos I didnt't try:
- nvidia-304.128
But this is not worth trying because it has no prime support.
Thank you for helping.

[Rene Greuel (renegreuel)]

Yesterday I installed nvidia driver 355.11 update from the "ubuntu fresh graphics"-PPA and the problem seems to be fixed. I can switch via "prime select" and login via light-dm works fine on nvidia.
There's only one flaw beloging to screen postioning but this is a new issue and should not be mixed with this problem.
For me this issue could be marked as fixed and closed.

Source for nvidia-355.11:
https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+sourcepub/5646652/+listing-archive-extra