Ubuntu hangs; Intel G33 low resolution

[Ace Suares]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

On an ASRock motherboard with built-in Intel G33:
- Booted Intrepid LiveCD. Worked fine.
- Installed Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 from the LiveCD.
- After mandatory reboot, a black screen with a dialog saying that Ubuntu is running in low graphics mode.
- Mouse and keyboard don't react. Have to reset (cold boot) the computer.

- Rebooted in Recovery mode. Tried XFIX, didn't work.
- Did apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. Rebooted. Same problem.

- Rebooted, but now with older kernel. The LiveCD installed 2.6.27-11 and 2.6.27-7.
- Normal boot (not recovery boot) with 2.6.27-7 worked perfectly!
- Updates where available in update-manager. These installed new 2.6.27-11 kernel stuff.

- Reboot (with new kernel 2.6.27-11) worked perefectly!

Related bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/305138

[Ace Suares (acesuares)]

Relevant part of Xorg.0.log (also attached).
See also https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/313300

(EE) GARTInit: Unable to open /dev/agpgart (No such file or directory)
(WW) intel(0): /dev/agpgart is either not available, or no memory is available
for allocation. Using pre-allocated memory only.
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
[drm] failed to load kernel module "i915"
(EE) [drm] drmOpen failed.
(EE) intel(0): [dri] DRIScreenInit failed. Disabling DRI.
(**) intel(0): Framebuffer compression disabled
(**) intel(0): Tiling enabled
(==) intel(0): VideoRam: 7164 KB
(II) intel(0): Attempting memory allocation with tiled buffers.
(WW) intel(0): Failed to allocate EXA offscreen memory.
(II) intel(0): Tiled allocation failed.
(II) intel(0): Attempting memory allocation with untiled buffers.
(WW) intel(0): Failed to allocate EXA offscreen memory.
(II) intel(0): Untiled allocation failed.
(EE) intel(0): Couldn't allocate video memory

Fatal server error:
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0

[Ace Suares (acesuares)]

lspci -vvnn

I also noticed that with the 27-11 kernel, a message scrolled the screen that there was something wrong with binfmt_misc but I can not find that in syslog or dmesg...
That message was not in the 27-7 kernel messages.

[Ace Suares (acesuares)]

So, to solve this problem (Ubuntu hangs on Intel G33 after intalling Intrepid from LiveCD) you could do this:

1. Reboot, pressing ESC to get the GRUB menu, and start with kernel 2.6.27-7 (not recovery mode).
2. use update manager to upgrade your system
3. reboot normally

or

1. Reboot, pressing ESC to get the GRUB menu and start a kernel in recovery mode
2. Make sure you have internet connection (ifconfig, route add default gw)
3. apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

Thank you for reporting this bug.

Since the updated packages fix this problem, there is not really much more we can do to fix this. There is not going to be another release of Intrepid. Errors like this need to be caught before the initial release, so now is a good time to test that Jaunty installs nicely. You can help doing this by testing the alpha-versions of Juanty which is due in april http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.04/

I think the only thing we can do about this is to mark it as "Fix Released", but I'm leaving it for now.

[Ace Suares (acesuares)]

Geir Ove Myhr wrote:
> Thank you for reporting this bug.
>
> Since the updated packages fix this problem, there is not really much
> more we can do to fix this. There is not going to be another release of
> Intrepid. Errors like this need to be caught before the initial release,
> so now is a good time to test that Jaunty installs nicely. You can help
> doing this by testing the alpha-versions of Juanty which is due in april
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.04/
>
> I think the only thing we can do about this is to mark it as "Fix
> Released", but I'm leaving it for now.
>

Thank you Geir for your response! It is important to users that submit
bugs to have the feeling that someone is reading them and acting upon them.

Could this be put in the release notes? It's a problem with every
Intrepid LiveCD combined with at least the Intel G33, so that's a lot of
them. And since it's simple to solve (boot in older installed kernel, do
updates, reboot) it may save people time.

On another note, couldn't the release notes be the opening page for the
LiveCD? That way a lot more people would see the release notes?

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

I don't know how the policy works with the release notes, but I've added this bug to the release notes, so they may add it if it's appropriate.

As for making the release notes the opening page of the LiveCD, this may be a good idea. Of course there may also be many reasons that it shouldn't be. I suggest you go check if it's already on http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ . If it's there feel free to comment on it, if not, add it there so others can comment on why they think this is a good or bad idea.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

I don't see that there's anything here that needs to be documented in the release notes. The installer should automatically install all of the updates available at the time you're installing; it sounds like you ran into a bug that has already been fixed in later updates.

[Ace Suares (acesuares)]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> I don't see that there's anything here that needs to be documented in
> the release notes. The installer should automatically install all of
> the updates available at the time you're installing; it sounds like you
> ran into a bug that has already been fixed in later updates.
>
> ** Changed in: ubuntu-release-notes
> Status: New => Invalid
>
You install the Ubuntu 8.10 from the live cd and then you end up with a
frozen machine. Isn't that clear enough? The installer does not fix it,
otherwise I would never have experienced the problem.

Only by starting with an older kernel will enable you to do the updates.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 12:50:08PM -0000, Ace Suares wrote:
> You install the Ubuntu 8.10 from the live cd and then you end up with a
> frozen machine. Isn't that clear enough?

No, it isn't, because you said the problem was fixed by booting the older
kernel and then installing newer updates. That indicates that it's a
problem with a previous update that has been superseded.

The 2.6.27-11 kernel is not on the install media; if you had that kernel
after your first reboot, it's because updates were applied from the network
as part of the install. One of those updates must have had a problem, but
your description doesn't give enough information to tell which.

--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
<email address hidden> <email address hidden>

[Ace Suares (acesuares)]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 12:50:08PM -0000, Ace Suares wrote:
>> You install the Ubuntu 8.10 from the live cd and then you end up with a
>> frozen machine. Isn't that clear enough?
>
> No, it isn't, because you said the problem was fixed by booting the older
> kernel and then installing newer updates. That indicates that it's a
> problem with a previous update that has been superseded.
>
> The 2.6.27-11 kernel is not on the install media; if you had that kernel
> after your first reboot, it's because updates were applied from the network
> as part of the install. One of those updates must have had a problem, but
> your description doesn't give enough information to tell which.
>

If the -11 kernel came from an update from the network, then I shall try
and reinstall from the live cd and see if the problem is gone.