Upgrade to Hardy obsoletes 915resolution in favor of -intel, when xorg.conf still configured to use -i810

Bug #206167 reported by Liam McDermott
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Timo Aaltonen

Bug Description

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

Moving from Gutsy to Hardy (beta at present) is not a painless experience for users of Intel graphics chips (Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) in my case). This bug relates to setting the display resolution to 1280x800, and other 'odd' resolutions.

To reproduce:
 1. get a laptop with an Intel graphics chip that is specced to run at a resolution like 1280x800 (or some other odd resolution X won't be expecting);
 2. load Ubuntu Gutsy on it, realise it's not possible to set the resolution higher than 1024x768;
 3. use the 915resolution package as a workaround;
 4. set the resolution to 1280x800 (or similar);
 5. upgrade from Gutsy to Hardy Beta;

What should happen:
 1. 915resolution removed as it is obsoleted by xserver-xorg-video-intel;
 2. xorg.conf regenerated to work with xserver-xorg-video-intel;
 3. the change from 915resolution to xserver-xorg-video-intel is seamless;

What does happen:
 1. 915resolution removed as it is obsoleted by xserver-xorg-video-intel;
 2. old xorg.conf is not regenerated;
 3. Hardy starts up in 1024x768 and cannot be set to a higher resolution using the new screen resolution tool, and reports 'Not using mode "1280x800" (no mode of this name)' in xorg.log;
 4. user has to search Internet until they find this bug report and realise they need to regenerate the xorg.conf file (using: sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg), Upgrading is not seamless;

Others have been asking about this bug on the forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4578017

Revision history for this message
Liam McDermott (liam-intermedia-online) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Liam McDermott (liam-intermedia-online) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Poningru (poningru) wrote :

I shall test this today once I get home, but iirc everything went fine. I will create a new partition and install gutsy and then upgrade to hardy.

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Not sure what is causing 915resolution to be removed; that should be fixed.

Fwiw, we decided not to force regeneration of xorg.conf's in upgrades because the risk of breaking the user's config is too high.

For Intrepid we will be just making -i810 an alias for -intel (which debian and upstream do already), so configs won't need to be regenerated. We've found there are some bugs with -intel that users find go away when reverting to -i810, so (I think) it's not yet time to deprecate it.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
importance: Undecided → High
milestone: none → ubuntu-8.04
status: New → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Timo, could you take a look at this? I think you know better than me how the 915resolution package is hooked in.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
assignee: nobody → tjaalton
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package xserver-xorg-video-intel - 2:2.2.1-1ubuntu6

---------------
xserver-xorg-video-intel (2:2.2.1-1ubuntu6) hardy; urgency=low

  [ Bryce Harrington ]
  * debian/patches/05_intel_exa_force_greedy.patch: Another shot at the
    greedy patch. This time by slightly modifying the working patch by
    moving its logic outside the i965 if loop, so it'll apply to all
    hardware. (LP: #177492)

  [ Timo Aaltonen ]
  * Don't conflict with 915resolution, since it breaks upgrades where
    people are still using i810 with widescreen resolutions.
    (LP: #206167)

 -- Timo Aaltonen <email address hidden> Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:25:42 +0200

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Liam McDermott (liam-intermedia-online) wrote :

Bryce wrote:
 > Fwiw, we decided not to force regeneration of xorg.conf's in upgrades because the risk of breaking the user's config is too high.

Thought it might be something like that, sensible decision. BTW: fast work guys, I'm impressed!

Just to clarify: can users who've moved over to -intel safely continue to use it, or should we move back to 915resolution?

Revision history for this message
Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton) wrote :

intel is preferred, i810 is only provided for debugging purposes.

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