[r128] screen only updates every several minutes

[Gregory Oschwald]

After upgrading our iMac DV from hoary to breezy, X behaves badly, only updating
the screen every couple of minutes. GDM's log reports this error:

(EE) R128(0): R128CCEWaitForIdle: (DEBUG) CCE idle took i = 1025
(EE) R128(0): Idle timed out, resetting engine...

The machine worked fine with hoary.

lspci give the following information for th card:

0000:00:10.0 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TR
        Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TR
        Flags: bus master, stepping, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 255, IRQ 48
        Memory at 94000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        I/O ports at 802400 [size=256]
        Memory at 90000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Expansion ROM at f1000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] AGP version 2.0
        Capabilities: [5c] Power Management version 2

dmesg has the following information relating to the card:

[ 32.144484] aty128fb: Invalid ROM signature 8181 should be 0xaa55
[ 32.144523] aty128fb: BIOS not located, guessing timings.
[ 32.144541] aty128fb: Rage128 TR Ultra AGP [chip rev 0x4] 16M 128-bit SDR
SGRAM (1:1)
[ 32.178488] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
[ 32.178517] fb0: ATY Rage128 frame buffer device on Rage128 TR Ultra AGP
...
[ 110.431662] [drm] Initialized r128 2.5.0 20030725 on minor 0: ATI
Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TR
[ 110.435910] agpgart: Couldn't find an AGP VGA controller.
[ 110.435957] agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:00:0b.0 into 0x mode
[ 110.435972] agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:00:10.0 into 0x mode

Please feel free to email me for more information.

Greg

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

Using:

Option "NoAccel" "true"

Makes it work again, although slowly.

Greg

[Dennis Kaarsemaker (dennis)]

Thank you for your report. Can you please attach /etc/X11/xorg.conf and
/var/log/Xorg.0.log

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

Created an attachment (id=4471)
GDM Log File

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

Created an attachment (id=4472)
xorg.conf file that demonstrates this problem

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

Created an attachment (id=4474)
Xorg.0.log file for the above xorg.conf

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

I am reassigning this to the kernel, as it appears to be due to the agp module.

Greg

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

If possible, please upgrade to Dapper's 2.6.15-7 kernel. If you do not want to
upgrade to Dapper, then you can also wait for the Dapper Flight 2 CD's, which
are due out within the next few days.

Let me know if this bug still exists with this kernel.

[Andrew Jorgensen (ajorg)]

I have very similar issues on my Dell C600 running dapper (2.6.15-8), except
that it only happens to me after resuming from suspend-to-ram. The NoAccel
option also fixes it for me, or just using the vesa driver instead of ati.

http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=17342

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

Unfortunately I cannot upgrade this machine to Dapper, as the home directories
of our users are shared via NFS. Upgrading apps like Firefox and Thunderbird to
new major versions would likely leave users who use this machine with config
files that are incompatible with the Breezy counterparts to these apps.

I looked into compiling the new kernel on Breezy, but it doesn't appear feasible
due to dependencies. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

(In reply to comment #9)
> Unfortunately I cannot upgrade this machine to Dapper, as the home directories
> of our users are shared via NFS. Upgrading apps like Firefox and Thunderbird to
> new major versions would likely leave users who use this machine with config
> files that are incompatible with the Breezy counterparts to these apps.
>
> I looked into compiling the new kernel on Breezy, but it doesn't appear feasible
> due to dependencies. Any recommendations?

The only thing I can suggest is trying one of the daily liveCD's.

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

I just tested this out with the new Dapper beta, and the problem still exists.

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

The Xorg.0.log file for a system experiencing this problem on Dapper.

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

.

[Gregory Oschwald (osch0001)]

This is for the machine that is experiencing this problem.

[Conn O Griofa (psyke83)]

This is not a duplicate bug, but I posted a fix that *may* help with this issue, see https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/mesa/+bug/24810
and try applying that patch. Additionally, in 'Section "Device"' or xorg.conf, add:

Option "SWCursor" "true"

I read somewhere that using a software cursor stops some of the cce idle timeouts when you force pci mode. Try a patched driver with *and* without this line in your xorg.conf (same place as before):

Option "ForcePCIMode" "true"

[Philippe Joyez (ubuntu-5-pjoyez)]

Isn't this issue the same problem as #22667?

Andrew Jorgensen ( see reply above) and I have a similar very slow response on intel laptops, but only after resuming. See #56273. Sorry if that's irrelevant.

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

I had this problem too, and fixed it by disabling the use of fbdev in /etc/X11/xorg.conf (FBDev option for card, and fbdev module in module list).

Folks may want to try that as well.

[Andrew Jorgensen (ajorg)]

I looked for the fbdev options and didn't see any. According to the man page fbdev is disabled by default on x86.

[Timothy Smith (tas50)]

Can someone test this under a Feisty build so we can see if this bug still exists?

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/feisty/herd-5/

[Denis Frère (denis-carolo)]

I don't think the problem comes from the kernel or from X config. I'm also experiencing the same behaviour under gutsy (kernel 2.6.22-14-generic).
When I open another tty and start X with startx -- :1 everything is alright. It only happens when using gdm.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this linux-source-2.6.15 kernel bug to the new "linux" package. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Also, if you would be interested in testing the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release, it is available at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Please let us know your results. Thanks!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Amit Kucheria (amitk)]

This bug report is being closed because we received no response to the previous inquiry for information. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release, Jaunty Jackalope 9.04. To reopen the bug, click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the status back to "New". Thanks.