[i945] Screen doesn't update until TTY switch (945GM)

[Kieran Hogg]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

After updating yesterday I am seeing a few strange behaviours on my 2nd gen macbook, I'm not sure which is the cause and which is the symptom.

The one that this bug report is for is the screen not updating until TTY switch. Every few minutes of so, the screen will "freeze" (although apps appear to still receive input) this can be fixed by switching TTY from and back to 7 and all is normal again.

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7270]

[Kieran Hogg (xerosis)]

I forgot to mention, this seems to occur with KDE4 and GNOME however it seems to be less frequent with GNOME.

[Kieran Hogg (xerosis)]

I can't reproduce this any more so I'm not how much use the bug report is in the current state?

[Brian Rogers (brian-rogers)]

If this is the bug I think it is, then I am experiencing it too and it is a problem with framebuffer compression that can be solved with
Option "FramebufferCompression" "off"
in the Device section in xorg.conf.

Kieran, can you get parts of the screen to begin updating again by dragging a selection box on the desktop next to a frozen window, or anything like that?

[Kieran Hogg (xerosis)]

I can't reproduce it any more but I couldn't get anything to update again by dragging etc, the windows still accepted input just nothing was updated.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Please do reopen if you can reproduce the issue further; please also include the output of `lspci -vvnn`.

[Kieran Hogg (xerosis)]

After upgrading to jaunty, I got hit by the intel freezing bug. After adding NoAccel, I can get to desktop but I'm getting the behaviour in this bug. Will attach lspci outout.

[Kieran Hogg (xerosis)]

To confirm, it seems Brian's suggestion of FramebufferCompression has worked so far...

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

A new major version of the -intel driver is now available in Karmic.

This version includes a major reworking of the acceleration
architecture, which resolves a huge number of issues. We do not know
whether it resolves the issue you reported.

Would you mind testing Karmic Alpha-2 and seeing if it is still a
problem? CD ISO images are available here:

  http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic/

If the issue can still be reproduced on karmic, please report here with
your findings, and attach a fresh Xorg.0.log from your test, and we will
be able to forward the bug upstream.

Otherwise, if the bug no longer exists in Karmic, let us know that as
well.

In the off chance you encounter different bugs while attempting to test
Karmic, please report those as new bug reports.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

It seems likely to me this bug is gone; the -intel driver has improved immensely in Karmic and a lot of bugs are being reported as no longer present. So hopefully that's the case here too.