[i845G] X crash: (WW) intel(0): Existing errors found in hardware state.

[Piraja]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

1) Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10
2) xserver-xorg-video-intel: Installed: 2:2.4.1-1ubuntu10
3) Normal X session behaviour.
4) Screen blackens out for a while, tries to "wake up" but reverts to low graphics mode then; this has happened several times in various situations, with no identical pattern of application use, etc..

I have had previous problems with the intel driver and the i845 chipset in this desktop machine, running Ubuntu 8.10 from an external USB HDD: see bugs 259385 & 221119. However, now I've been trying out another HDD, detached from a broken laptop and inserted in an external USB HDD case, on the same Compaq Evo D51S, and this present crash behaviour is somewhat different. Adding *Driver "intel"* to xorg.conf may have helped a little (no longer log-in / GDM blanks), but the X session crashing still continues.

PFA my Xorg.0.log

[Piraja (piraja-deactivatedaccount)]

I reproduced the error, and wrote down the error message this time — here's the essential part:

(EE)intel(0): [dri] I830CheckDRIAvailable failed because of a version mismatch.

After this, if I choose to continue in low graphics mode (one of the options offered), Ubuntu nevertheless fails to restart the session in due time: all I get is a blank (black) screen, and I even cannot use Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or any F... key, for that matter) or Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, even Ctrl+Alt+Del did not seem to work, even though the keyboard's not dead (NumLock lights up and Ctrl+Alt+Del produces a beep) and I had to hard-reset.

[Piraja (piraja-deactivatedaccount)]

I tested the HDD on a much more recent PC, Dell Optiplex 755 with Intel 82Q35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller, and could still reproduce the problem.

The error message contained the following addition to the earlier line:

(EE)Intel(0): Unable to write to SDVOCTRL_E for SDVOB Slave 0x70.

I suppose there must be an easy fix, but I do not know my way around it. I'm not sure if this is really a bug or if it should rather be converted to a question.

[Piraja (piraja-deactivatedaccount)]

By the way, I added the line *Driver "intel"* to xorg.conf again, during the failsafe session. I thought such a change would be persistent (see above), but I seem to have been mistaken (I'm a non-technical user and a near novice). At the moment I'm writing this on the same setup, but in a Fluxbox session. I'll knock on wood...

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

Hi piraja,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn` too.

[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

[Piraja (piraja-deactivatedaccount)]

PFA the lspci -vvnn output on the old Compaq Evo D510 SFF.

I won't be able to test on the newer machine (Dell Optiplex 755 w/ Intel 82Q35) for a few days, I'm afraid, but will return with that PC's output later.

[Piraja (piraja-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks for the suggestion to test the new driver. I am using it at the moment with the mentioned hardware setup (Intrepid on USB HDD plugged onto Compaq Evo D 510 SFF with "Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device [8086:2562] (rev 01)").

So far so good.

Now I suppose it would be a good idea to test Compiz dt. effects, but as you know, Compiz is disabled by default with this hardware in Intrepid. If you wish, I could "un-blacklist" or enable Compiz or e.g. revert to an earlier version — if you just tell me how — in order to test whether I can enable Compiz without freezing X.

Oh, I suppose I could also try the LiveCD option. Does it have also a different Compiz version?

In any case, with the present hw setup, Intrepid seems to work allright with the *Driver "intel"* line added to xorg.conf's Devices section.

[Piraja (piraja-deactivatedaccount)]

Sorry about the latter part of the previous message — I got badly confused. I see that Compiz remains disabled with the new Intel driver version. Of course, this has nothing to do with the Compiz package.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Well, good to hear that the original problem of X crashing is resolved with this new driver.

Regarding the compiz issue, I don't believe compiz is supported on old 845 cards. However, I believe you can bypass the blacklist by defining SKIP_CHECKS. E.g.:

export SKIP_CHECKS=yes
/usr/bin/compiz

Alternately, just edit /usr/bin/compiz and disable the blacklisting line:

T=""
#BLACKLIST_PCIIDS="$T"
unset T

In any case, this compiz problem is a separate issue and should be filed as a separate bug if you'd like it investigated. (There may already be a bug report on it.)