Hardy - severe graphical issues with i945GM graphics

[mykrob]

Using Kubuntu Hardy Alpha 6, KDE4 edition. (same thing can be duplicated with the Ubuntu Hardy Alpha 6), on a Compaq V5204NR laptop. This machine has Intel 945GM graphics.
Attempting to boot in safe graphics mode boots into text mode only. Attempting to run "startx" does not work, complaining that there are not usable screens for the display. Booting regularly does boot into X, however, the text is WAY oversized to the point that I cannot use any menu whatsoever. The numbers in the pager in the taskbar are at least 10 times too large, they do not show fully in the pager. The tips box that starts up is so large that it fills the entire screen, with only a few letters visible, as they are also too large.

The only way i was able to get a usable screen was to boot into regular mode then drop to a virtual terminal. I mounted the laptop hard drive to a temporary folder, then copied my existing xorg.conf to the right directory of the live cd. I then pressed ctrl+alt+F7 to go back into X, and restarted the xorg server. I was then able to perform an install of the OS, followed by an install of 915resolution.

While i know that 915resolution is needed for widescreen, older versions (pre 7.10) would at least give me a proper 1024x768 with readable text.

I consider this a show stopper, in that many laptops use the Intel graphics chipset. I cant be the only one with this issue. If i load a disk and i cant read ANYTHING on the screen, or even see the menus to attempt to troubleshoot, I am very unlikely to use the product. I dare say many would not think to keep a copy of a good xorg.conf file laying around... Seems that something just isnt right in the autodetection and setup of xorg.

thanks for your time,
-myk

[Andrew Ash (ash211)]

Thanks for the bug report!

For these sorts of issues with X, there are a lot of things that will be necessary to look into before being able to pinpoint the issue somewhere to where it can be fixed. For starters, could you please attach these files? A working and non/working xorg.conf would be especially handy, as well as the files described at this wiki page under "X crash, lockup, freeze, exit, or doesn't start/shutdown":

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Debugging#head-8bbc35c4256d8d9bedc4c4c1609a6343310c5d15

Thanks!

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

I can confirm this issue. Switching to the xserver-xorg-video-i810 driver seems to help.

Video card:
Intel(r) 82945GM Chipset Family Graphics Chip

[mykrob (myk-robinson)]

I performed a clean install today using the alternate installation. same issue occurs. I have attached a copy of the xorg.conf file it made. Notice everything is blank excpeet the headings. For whatever reason, it does not even attempt to build an xorg file with any device information. So, iam forced to use the backup of a good one i have on my thumb drive.

[mykrob (myk-robinson)]

Here is a copy of one i have saves, for your comparison

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

No, the issue is not an xorg configuration issue. The xserver in Hardy is actually able to automatically detect all the device stuff, so it is no longer necessary to manually configure them. The issue you're having is that your monitor is (probably) mis-reporting its physical dimensions, so the DPI calculations are wrong, and the font gets displayed incorrectly.

What we do to fix these issues is to put in a quirk for your exact monitor model. Please attach your Xorg.0.log and tell me the exact monitor manufacturer and model (or laptop manufacturer and model if it's a laptop).

Note that X configurations using i810 are no longer supported, and that driver will be deprecated entirely as of Intrepid.

[mykrob (myk-robinson)]

Hey-

What is the location of the log file you need?

The model of the laptop is a Compaq V5204NR with a 15.4" widescreen capable of
1280x800.

Can you elaborate a bit more? I am not too technical with this stuff, but why
did the current release not put in anything at all for the xorg file? Is this
something that should be resolved by final?

Thanks,
-myk robinson

On Tuesday 25 March 2008 06:10:29 pm Bryce Harrington wrote:
> No, the issue is not an xorg configuration issue. The xserver in Hardy
> is actually able to automatically detect all the device stuff, so it is
> no longer necessary to manually configure them. The issue you're having
> is that your monitor is (probably) mis-reporting its physical
> dimensions, so the DPI calculations are wrong, and the font gets
> displayed incorrectly.
>
> What we do to fix these issues is to put in a quirk for your exact
> monitor model. Please attach your Xorg.0.log and tell me the exact
> monitor manufacturer and model (or laptop manufacturer and model if it's
> a laptop).
>
> Note that X configurations using i810 are no longer supported, and that
> driver will be deprecated entirely as of Intrepid.
>
>
> ** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium

[Andrew Ash (ash211)]

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

I'm pretty sure the location is in that wiki page as well. Thanks!

[mykrob (myk-robinson)]

Here is a copy of the xorg.0.log.old.

thanks,
-myk

[mykrob (myk-robinson)]

..and here is Xorg.0.log

hope this helps,
-myk

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

It really is a bug in the "intel" driver!

I could only install Hardy Beta with the Alternate CD because of this bug. When I booted the laptop after the installation, a seemingly normal login screen appeared. However: when I typed in my login name, the letters were absurdly huge and didn't fit in the login screen input field. After filling out my password and pressing Enter, X wouldn't show: the screen became black and stayed black.

So I had to reboot into recovery mode and run "apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel"
This way I uninstalled the "intel" driver, leaving only the "i810". Then I rebooted the laptop. Now Hardy boots correctly into X.

This happens only with the Intel 945 chip: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller. On another laptop with the Intel 915, there was no problem at all. Also there is no problem on a desktop computer with the Intel 946.

I have attached the output of lshw.

I hope you can fix this bad bug in the "intel" driver, before Hardy ships in its final version. It's almost impossible now, to run Hardy on a laptop with the Intel 945.

Greetz, Pjotr.

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

I should add that this issue was also present in Gutsy. A little bit less bad though, because in spite of the absurdly huge letters when I typed in my name in the login screen input field, in the end it was possible to boot into a normal X.

Already in Gutsy, I applied the same solution of removing the "intel" driver, with good result. It appears therefore, that this bug is still unfixed in the "intel" driver in Hardy. Luckily we still have the "i810" to fall back upon, but I hope the "intel" will be fixed in time.

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

How can I contact the upstream makers of the xserver-xorg-video-intel driver?

It's a cross-distro problem. Even PC-BSD 1.4.1 has the same issue.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I'm forwarding this bug from a Ubuntu reporter.

Bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/204065

The user is seeing font dpi's that are too large. The monitor is being detected as one requiring a quirk for horizontal size in cm's, and is indicating that it has set the DPI to (96, 96), which *should* be fine. However, it later reports that it's using a 289 x 21 physical screen size, so I wonder if it needs an additional quirk?

Xorg.0.log: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/12888925/Xorg.0.log

[Original report]
"Using Kubuntu Hardy Alpha 6, KDE4 edition. (same thing can be duplicated with the Ubuntu Hardy Alpha 6), on a Compaq V5204NR laptop. This machine has Intel 945GM graphics.

Attempting to boot in safe graphics mode boots into text mode only. Attempting to run "startx" does not work, complaining that there are not usable screens for the display. Booting regularly does boot into X, however, the text is WAY oversized to the point that I cannot use any menu whatsoever. The numbers in the pager in the taskbar are at least 10 times too large, they do not show fully in the pager. The tips box that starts up is so large that it fills the entire screen, with only a few letters visible, as they are also too large.

The only way i was able to get a usable screen was to boot into regular mode then drop to a virtual terminal. I mounted the laptop hard drive to a temporary folder, then copied my existing xorg.conf to the right directory of the live cd. I then pressed ctrl+alt+F7 to go back into X, and restarted the xorg server. I was then able to perform an install of the OS, followed by an install of 915resolution.

While i know that 915resolution is needed for widescreen, older versions (pre 7.10) would at least give me a proper 1024x768 with readable text.

I consider this a show stopper, in that many laptops use the Intel graphics chipset. I cant be the only one with this issue. If i load a disk and i cant read ANYTHING on the screen, or even see the menus to attempt to troubleshoot, I am very unlikely to use the product. I dare say many would not think to keep a copy of a good xorg.conf file laying around... Seems that something just isnt right in the autodetection and setup of xorg.

thanks for your time,
-myk"

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

@pjotr, you can report issues directly to Xorg via: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi

@mykrob, I'll forward your issue upstream directly.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

mykrob, I've forwarded your bug upstream to Xorg for their assistance with this issue. Would you mind please subscribing to the upstream bug report in case they have questions or need you to test something? Then you can provide the info directly without me slowing down the process.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15512

Also, upstream may request that you test against a newer version of the -intel driver. Here is a Ubuntu deb of the driver from git built about a month ago you could test:

http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/bisect/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.2.0+git20080318.ac763634-1_i386.deb
http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/bisect/xserver-xorg-video-intel-dbg_2.2.0+git20080318.ac763634-1_i386.deb

It would also be useful to look at the output of `xdpyinfo | grep resolution`. I expect it will say 96x96, but please try it and report what it says.

[Pliniusminor (pliniusminor)]

Created an attachment (id=15924)
list of the hardware (output of lshw in the terminal))

[Pliniusminor (pliniusminor)]

Hi,

I was referred here by Bryce Harrington, from Launchpad.

There is a bug in the "intel" driver, only when running on a machine with the
Intel 945 chip (Intel(r) 82945GM Chipset Family Graphics Chip).

I could only install Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Beta with the Alternate CD because of this bug. When I booted the laptop after the installation, a seemingly normal login screen appeared. However: when I typed in my login name, the letters were absurdly huge and didn't fit in the login screen input field. After filling out my password and pressing Enter, X wouldn't show: the screen became black and stayed black.

I applied this workaround: a switch to the "i810" driver, which doesn't have this problem. So I had to reboot into recovery mode and run "apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel"
This way I uninstalled the "intel" driver, leaving only the "i810". Then I rebooted the laptop. Now Ubuntu 8.04 boots correctly into X.

This happens only with the Intel 945 chip. On another laptop with the Intel 915, there was no problem at all. Also there is no problem on a desktop computer with the Intel 946.

I have attached the output of lshw.

I hope you can fix this bad bug in the "intel" driver, before Ubuntu 8.04 ships in its final version. It's almost impossible now, to run Ubuntu 8.04 on a laptop with the Intel 945. I should add, that I encountered the same problem in PC-BSD 1.4.1, so it's not a distro-specific problem.

Greetz, Pjotr.

[Julien Cristau (jcristau)]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 19:28:50 -0700, <email address hidden> wrote:

> Xorg.0.log: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/12888925/Xorg.0.log

(II) Module i810: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
        compiled for 1.4.0, module version = 1.7.4

This is the old i810 driver.

Cheers,
Julien

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

@Bryce Harrington:
I've contacted upstream in the thread that you suggested to mykrob.

[Gordon Jin (gordon-jin)]

Please double check the driver version.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Here is the Xorg.0.log from the -intel driver:
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/12888919/Xorg.0.log.old

[Julien Cristau (jcristau)]

status = RESOLVED
resolution = FIXED

> --- Comment #5 from Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> 2008-04-16 10:02:01 PST ---
> Here is the Xorg.0.log from the -intel driver:
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/12888919/Xorg.0.log.old
>
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "LPL", prod id 10752

fixed in xserver a while ago, commit c747030a49dd289e873e2b686cd129d840e55468
(LPL prod id 0x2a00 added to quirk_detailed_use_maximum_size)

Cheers,
Julien

[Julien Cristau (jcristau)]

marking as fixed for real now, hopefully.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Pjotr, please always remember to attach your Xorg.0.log when reporting bugs in X.

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

Bryce,

I hope I can get my hands on it.... The laptop with the Intel 945 chip is not mine. It belongs to an acquaintance who lives some 50 kilometres from where I live. However, I will do my best.

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

@Bruce Harrington:
My acquaintance, the owner of the laptop, has installed your deb file:
http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/bisect/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.2.0+git20080318.ac763634-1_i386.deb
(thus undoing the previous removal of the xserver-xorg-video-intel driver).

He reports no problems. I will probably get my hands on his laptop tomorrow, so I can do some further testing and retrieve some log files.

[Pliniusminor (pliniusminor)]

The poblem is still there, in the "intel" driver that is in the Release Candidate of Ubuntu 8.04, that was released yesterday (April 18th).

I have attached Xorg.0.log from the LiveCD-session.

Greetz, Pjotr.

[Pliniusminor (pliniusminor)]

Created an attachment (id=16040)
error in Intel driver for Intel 945 chipset

[Pliniusminor (pliniusminor)]

(From update of attachment 16040)
error in Intel driver for Intel 945 chipset

[Julien Cristau (jcristau)]

> --- Comment #8 from Pjotr <email address hidden> 2008-04-19 05:28:49 PST ---
> The poblem is still there, in the "intel" driver that is in the Release
> Candidate of Ubuntu 8.04, that was released yesterday (April 18th).
>
You need to take that up with ubuntu then, not here.

Cheers,
Julien

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

@Bryce Harrington: The problem is still there in the intel driver that is in the Release Candidate of Ubuntu 8.04. I have informed upstream about it and I have sent them a copy of Xorg.0.log (from the LiveCD-session).

Probably unnecessary, but I have attached a copy of Xorg.0.log to this message also.

Unfortunately a hard drive installation is impossible (the Alternate CD won't install), so I can't test your .deb file. The Xorg.0.log is therefore from the LiveCD-session.

Greetz, Pjotr.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Apparently this was a bug in xorg-server, and fixed by this commit:

http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=xorg/xserver.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=c747030a49dd289e873e2b686cd129d840e55468

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

@ Timo Aaltonen:
But it definitely is a bug in the intel driver (xserver-xorg-video-intel). It's even confirmed by upstream:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15512

It would be great if the final release of Ubuntu 8.04 would contain the fixed Intel driver.

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

I forgot to add: upstream has already fixed the intel driver for this particular bug. So all you have to do is use the new driver.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

No, that bug was filed against the intel-driver, but pointed out that the fix was committed to the server..

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Upstream patch applied to git.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

(In reply to comment #11)
> > --- Comment #8 from Pjotr <email address hidden> 2008-04-19 05:28:49 PST ---
> > The poblem is still there, in the "intel" driver that is in the Release
> > Candidate of Ubuntu 8.04, that was released yesterday (April 18th).
> >
> You need to take that up with ubuntu then, not here.
>
> Cheers,
> Julien
>

The fix has been applied to Ubuntu's xserver git tree but is not yet released, since we are currently in pre-release freeze.

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

Great! It would be very nice if this patch would be available in the final version of 8.04. There is still time.... :-)

[Andres (andres1905)]

I have a Toshiba Satellite A105 S4094 with the Intel 945 Express Video Chipset. I tried to install the final release of Kubuntu 8.04 and i got the problem of the very big text.

I used the command "apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel" posted above which fixed the problem.

Thanks a lot.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package xorg-server - 2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ubuntu10

---------------
xorg-server (2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ubuntu10) intrepid; urgency=low

  [Timo Aaltonen]
  * 166_fix_lpl_monitors.diff:
    - fix LPL monitors properly (LP: #204065)

  [Martin-Eric Racine]
  * 167_xf86AutoConfig_geode_addition.diff:
    - Autodetect geode video devices (LP: #219630)

  [Bryce Harrington]
  * 166_fix_lpl_monitors.diff:
    - Modified to apply to Ubuntu
  * 168_closedir.patch:
    - Fix crash on PS3 due to closing a dir that wasn't successfully opened
      (LP: #217647)

 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Tue, 13 May 2008 00:03:40 -0700

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Please test, and if this is found to work and cause no ill issues on Intrepid, the patch should be a good candidate for backporting to Hardy.

[mykrob (myk-robinson)]

Bryce-

I have already sold my old laptop and bought a new one with an nvidia graphics
chipset. However, I am curious, will this fix be slipstreamed into the iso
image? How will potential new users know how to get a viewable screen?

Thanks,
-myk

On Tuesday 13 May 2008 03:34:37 am Bryce Harrington wrote:
> Please test, and if this is found to work and cause no ill issues on
> Intrepid, the patch should be a good candidate for backporting to Hardy.
>
> ** Changed in: xorg-server (Ubuntu Hardy)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Bryce Harrington (bryceharrington)
> Target: None => ubuntu-8.04.1

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

mykrob, there will be point releases for hardy (8.04.1, etc.) If these fixes are verified and backported to hardy-updates, users could pick it up either by installing 8.04 and then updating, or waiting for the 8.04.1 cd's.

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

Bryce Harrington:
But one needs a viewable screen to begin with.... To do anything at all....

How can I download and install a possible fix for testing purposes, when I have no viewable screen to start with?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Perhaps use the alternate CD? It has a text-mode installer which is not subject to Xorg issues.

[ferd (fschinagl)]

Have the same problem on my Toshiba Satellite Pro A110 (has Intel 945 GM or something).

Here's what I did:

From CD boot the desktop (as if you wanted to try the OS first) not the installer. You may get a working desktop without font scaling problems from which you can launch the installer and perhaps successfully install the OS onto your harddisk(s). Reboot your machine. You may still get a login manager with improperly scaled fonts. Try to log in even if you can't see/read your login data. You may again get a proper looking desktop. Some apps may not work properly - my mythfrontend is squashed horizontally. Installing the git fix (found elsewhere) fixes the login manager on my machine but breaks mythfrontend.

Good Luck!

[Pjotr12345 (computertip)]

Unfortunately I can't get my hands on the laptop with the Intel 945 graphics chip until the end of next month. The owner is abroad.

I hope the fix will be in 8.04.1, though....

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Since no one has been able to verify the correctness of this fix, it will not be included in the 8.04.1 point release.

This appears to still be an appropriate change to include in the 8.04.2 point release in six months' time.

[schiemanski (schiemanski)]

Steve Langasek, what does it mean that totally above I see : Status "Fix Released"?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

petervs,

That status field refers to the status of this fix in intrepid, the current development release; however, no one has confirmed that the fix in intrepid solves this bug, so we can't reasonably push this as a stable release update at present.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Could someone please test and confirm that the issue no longer exists on Intrepid? Once that is done, we can proceed with SRUing the fix for 8.04.2

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Unfortunately this fix has still not been confirmed for intrepid, and 8.04.2 is now out. Pushing back to 8.04.3 for now - but the inclusion of this fix in the 8.04.3 point release is still very much dependent on someone with the affected hardware testing the intrepid fix.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Still no feedback regarding the intrepid fix, and 8.04.3 is happening shortly, so dropping the hardy milestone entirely.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Hardy has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the Hardy task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".