[i945] screen shows temporary garbage then goes blank, falls into low-graphics mode

[Scott Wegner]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

I installed Ubuntu Intrepid on a friend's laptop, but she is getting sporadic X crashes during normal usage. Last time it crashed, she was simply running Firefox, Rhythmbox, and Thunderbird. I don't think any of these applications are to blame, but it's just to show that she wasn't using any complex 3D graphics.

Specifically, after working on the laptop for some period of time, the screen will start to show some garbage artifacts. Then quickly (within a second or two), the screen will go black, with subtle shades of green/blue. After a little bit (~10 seconds), an error message will come up saying "Ubuntu is running in low-graphics mode", and also mentions the following error message (twice):

(EE) intel(0): [drm] failed to remove DRM signal handler

I was able to SSH into the computer and pull some log files, etc. Looking up the error messages turns up many other xorg bug reports, but they don't seem to be quite the same. It's hard to debug this because I'm not sure how to trigger the bug. I can't easily obtain a backtrace because it isn't my laptop, and she generally doesn't keep it running when not in use.

So, in hopes that somebody else may know more about this crash, (or at least find the output useful), I'm posting some log files and the output of lspci -vvvnn. In particular:

Xorg.0.log, after the crash. The relevant error appears to be:
Error in I830WaitLpRing(), timeout for 2 seconds
pgetbl_ctl: 0x3ffc0001 getbl_err: 0x00000000
ipeir: 0x00000000 iphdr: 0x66014140
LP ring tail: 0x000001c0 head: 0x0001a95c len: 0x0001f001 start 0x00000000
eir: 0x0000 esr: 0x0001 emr: 0xffff
instdone: 0xfa41 instpm: 0x0000
memmode: 0x00000306 instps: 0x800f04c4
hwstam: 0xfffe ier: 0x0002 imr: 0x0000 iir: 0x0070
Ring at virtual 0xa7841000 head 0x1a95c tail 0x1c0 count 5657
...
Ring end
space: 108436 wanted 131064
(II) intel(0): [drm] removed 1 reserved context for kernel
(II) intel(0): [drm] unmapping 8192 bytes of SAREA 0xf8a29000 at 0xb7ff4000
(II) intel(0): [drm] Closed DRM master.

Fatal server error:
lockup

Also, gdm/:0.log. The relevant error appears to be:
error setting MTRR (base = 0xd0000000, size = 0x007b0000, type = 1) Invalid argument (22)
7648 5119

This is on a Toshiba Satellite A105-S4254, running Ubuntu Intrepid x86, fully-updated as of 12/10/08. Please let me know if there's anything else I can provide.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
 Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff10]

[eugenez (eugene-zvyagintsev)]

After exiting from the screensaver (clock) appears a black blank screen with mouse cursor. Switching between applications is not possible, applications in the background (Amarok) are work.

In Xorg.0.l.log:

(II) intel(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 0
(II) intel(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 1
(II) intel(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 2
(II) intel(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 3
(II) intel(0): xf86UnbindGARTMemory: unbind key 4
(II) intel(0): [drm] removed 1 reserved context for kernel
(II) intel(0): [drm] unmapping 8192 bytes of SAREA 0xf8e4f000 at 0xb7ad0000
(II) intel(0): [drm] Closed DRM master.

KDE 4.2 beta 1, video Intel Express G31.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notice.]

We'd like to forward your bug upstream, however upstream requires
that you first test it against their newer driver code.

To save you the effort of building the driver from source, we've built
packages for the driver and its new dependencies.

So you have a couple options:

 1. Download and test .debs for intrepid, from:
     https://edge.launchpad.net/~intel-gfx-testing/+archive

 -or-

 2. Download and test the Jaunty alpha-2 (or newer) Live CD,
     (which includes a beta of the new xserver 1.6 as well).
     See http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.04/ for ISOs

Thanks ahead of time! You can simply reply to this email to report your
findings.

P.S., if you wish to forward your bug upstream yourself, please follow
these directions to do so:
  http://intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html

[erica hollis (erica-rowancott)]

Hi, I am getting similar problems after installing Intrepid on my Lenovo 3000 C100 laptop - sometimes it doesn't even start up properly - going to a black screen rather than login prompt but more often doing exactly as Scott says above after variable amounts of time.

I don't use any high res graphics stuff - gaming limited to Solitaire type games but mostly used for work purposes.

I have installed the latest intrepid debs as per 1 above posted by Bryce. Will let you know whether that solves the problem.

erica

[erica hollis (erica-rowancott)]

all worked well for one day then next day couldn't even start up - after showing the Ubuntu logo a little cursor appeared top left then screen went blank black - this happened 3x in row so I started up in safe mode instead but no Xorg.0.log for bad sessions as obviously not loaded X11 at that point.

Twice since then the laptop has hung after doing some simple graphics - not going black this time and no error appearing - mouse moves Ok but no response to any mouse clicks or key presses - had to switch off power in the end. Have saved the logs for these two sessions (attached).

Meantime I'm working with Driver "vesa" to see if that helps as I am finding it difficult to get any work done with this carry on.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thanks for testing; this should go upstream. Setting to Triaged for now.

@Scott, can you confirm erica's findings?

[Scott Wegner (swegner)]

As it's actually a friend I'm reporting this for, I don't have immediate access to the laptop in question. However, I haven't heard any complaints lately, and I haven't encountered an situation that sounds like erica's problem. In particular, the problem seems transient, and doing a full reboot after the error message always seems to bring things back to normal. We may be experiencing separate problems here.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Okay thanks for the feedback. erica, can you please file your issue as a separate bug report?

Scott, we'll leave it open for a while, please let us know if it occurs again in Jaunty or in Intrepid with the updated driver.

[Michael Luthardt (michalu)]

This same bug happened to me, too. I can't tell why, all of a sudden. There was no immediate update nor any other system change. My system: laptop with i815 graphics, intrepid with proposed repositories, screen 1280x800.
If someone is interested, I can send kern.log and syslog data. Main message is a segmentation fault.
Fortunately, the link given here (https://edge.launchpad.net/~intel-gfx-testing/+archive) resolved the problem.
The automatic help, i. e. the messages in the low graphics mode GUI, didn't anything useful here.

[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.

@Michael, why don't you file a new bug report, and we'll follow up on your issue separately?