Xorg Cannot Determine Monitor Resolution on Bootup in Jaunty

[Doc Kinne]

Binary package hint: xorg

Release of Ubuntu: 9.04

I performed a clean install of Ubuntu 9.04 of an HP Vectra VL, PIII, 550MHz, 0.5GB RAM, integrated Matrox video controller machine. The install seemed to go on with no problems. Upon first reboot the Ubuntu splash screen came up and the progress bar went to about 95%. The screen would then blank out as it prepared to go into X. However, the server could never find a usable monitor resolution. After trying several a dialog box came up saying that Ubuntu was in low resolution mode and it gave several options to try to fix this.

I performed the following to try to fix the issue:

• Reinstall gdm.
• Reinstall xorg.
• Determine driver of video card - mga - and edit xorg.conf to include that.
• Tried vesa driver.
• Edited xorg.conf (several times) to try to give it specific modes to try. Xorg.conf, originally, simply had empty "placeholder" sections for all things.
• Took splash screen out of boot process.

Nothing would change the behavior of gdm. However, if I stopped gdm and invoked startx from the command line X would come up with no problem at an 800x600 resolution.

I then tried to do a clean install of Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS to see if that would work. It did. Smooth as silk, on first reboot, right out of the (alt) CD. The box is currently running 8.04.2

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge [8086:7190] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Cirrus Logic Device [1013:4280]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200 AGP [102b:0521] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Matrox Graphics, Inc. Device [102b:ff00]

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

Please boot the jaunty live cd and after X failed to start, run:
apport-collect 373281
on that machine. Attaching the failsafe xorg tarball is also useful. Thanks.

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

Martin, thanks. I was hoping I could help with the debugging without putting the machine back into a half-usable state. The LiveCD is the perfect solution and I'll do that and report when I get home tonight.

Where would the failsafe xorg tarball be?

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

Martin, upon getting home I did get and boot the machine with the Jaunty Live CD. It displayed the same lack of functionality with regard to xorg that the actual install did (so at least we have some sort of consistancy!).

Unfortunately...

>Please boot the jaunty live cd and after X failed to start, run:
>apport-collect 373281
>on that machine.

Executing this command resulted in:

"Please install the package 'python-launchpadlib'"

I don't this this is what you were looking for. :-(

Obviously I can't install the package via the LiveCD environment (although I did try!).

I am going to move forward with the upgrade path to 9.04. If the upgrade path gives me the same result (and I think it will), I'll post the data at that point.

Also, where is the failsafe xorg tarball?

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

Interestingly enough the bug shows up in Ubuntu 8.10!

Having 8.04LTS working, and not being able to get the data you wanted from the 9.04 LiveCD, I decided to walk the upgrade up to 9,04. I made sure 8.04 was up to date and then did the upgrade via the Net. Things seemed to go fine, but on reboot the machine exhibited the same behavior in 8.10 as I saw when I did the clean install of 9.04.

I tried to execute the "apport-collect 373281" command, but this came back with:

"bash: apport-collect: command not found."

I tried to "apt-get" it, but the repository couldn't find the command.

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

After semi-successfully reinstalling 9.04 (for whatever reason my ALT CD started flaking out on me, and the Desktop CD suffered the same video problems as the installation), I got to a command prompt and executed

"apport-collect 373281"

It came back

"Please install the package 'python-launchpadlib'"

I responded

apt-get install python-launchpadlib

it returned

"Package python-launchpadlib is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source.
E: Package python-launchpadlib has no installation candidate."

I'm leaving the system in this state in the hopes that we'll be able to figure out how to get you the information you need since I now have evidence it seemingly affects 8.10 as well.

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-mga 1:1.4.9.dfsg-3
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersion: Linux version 2.6.28-11-generic (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.3.3 (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu4) ) #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686
UserGroups:

XorgConf:

Xrandr:

glxinfo:

setxkbmap:

xdpyinfo:

xkbcomp:

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

Martin, as you can see, after another full re-install to another disk partition, I got apport-collect working.

Ummmm. That was cool! What determines the number parameter to the program?

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

The parameter is the bug report number to which all the data should be attached.

Can you also run "xrandr --verbose" and attach the output of that please?

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

>The parameter is the bug report number to which all the data should be attached.

Yea. Figured that out about 15 seconds after I hit the SAVE CHANGES button. :-\

>Can you also run "xrandr --verbose" and attach the output of that please?

"Can't open display."

This error message has been entirely consistent as I've tried it over the last three days, Martin.

[Martin Olsson (mnemo)]

What kind of monitor is it? CRT or LCD? If LCD, what is its native resolution?
Is it a widescreen monitor or a regular 4:3 sized one? Is this machine a laptop?
Do you have just a single monitor connected? Do you have a TV-out cable connected?

Also, can you attach the xorg.conf and xorg.log that you use in ubuntu 8.04.2 (the ones that work). Also, can you see if it works to run "xrandr --verbose" under Ubuntu 8.04.2 and see if that prints something useful. Thanks.

[Doc Kinne (kinnerc)]

Martin, sorry for the delay. Busy weekend.

The monitor is a Envision EN-710e, a CRT 4:3 monitor. The computer is an HP Vectra VL, 533MHz Pentium III with 1GB RAM. Single monitor connected. No TV-out cable.

I have the system working now via a video card instead of the in-board MGA video circutry on the motherboard.

The xorg.conf that works under Ubuntu 8.04 is below:

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Video Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Display"
        Identifier "Configured Display"
EndSection

There really is nothing there. Running Ubuntu 9.04 with the video card the xorg.conf file is completely empty.

I'll see if I can get you a "xandr --verbose" reading when I get home.

[topaz2 (topaz2-3333-gmail)]

Hi, same problem here.

I was using ubuntu 8.04 desktop with HP Proliant Ml115 which uses Matrox G200 for vga, and 1280x1024 LCD monitor.
Everything worked perfectly on 8.04 but after upgrading to 8.10 with "update-manager -d" and reboot, display resolution droped to 1024x768. Then I dived in "Display Preferences" to fix resolution, but "1280x1024" was missing.

After upgrading 8.04 to 8.10 I tried upgrading 8.10 to 9.04, but the resolution was still wrong.
Clean install of 9.04 didn't helped me either.

[Antti Kaihola (akaihola)]

Same problem with a HP Brio which has a Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G200 AGP rev 3. Xubuntu 9.04 graphical installation fails. Used the alternate CD to install a base system, then apt-get gdm and xinit, but always goes into failsafe vesa mode after screen flashes a few times.

[Antti Kaihola (akaihola)]

The error I get when Xorg enters failsafe mode is:

(EE) MGA(0): Static buffer allocation failed, not initializing the DRI
(EE) MGA(0): Neet at least 15360 kB video memory at this resolution, bit depth

The computer used to work well with Ubuntu 5.04. I tried to copy the old xorg.conf from there, but got the same error (with additional errors for the freetype and type1 modules).

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

This bug reminds me of bug 319363, where the problem is that the driver is so slow that gdm times out. Please try adjusting the gdm timeout.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Hi Doc,

This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
test if it still occurs on Lucid?

Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
normal support channels, please see:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:

  apport-collect 373281

If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
bug 373281 in your report if you think it may be related):

  ubuntu-bug xorg

If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/373281

[Alvin (alvind)]

I am not the original reporter, but I can confirm that the mga driver (Matrox G450) does not find the correct resolution either in Lucid. I used the alternate installer, because the desktop CD has the same problem. (The monitor displays 'cannot display this video mode')
This machine has never before run Ubuntu, so I don't know about older versions. What test can I perform in order to know if I experience the same bug?

[Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab)]

Alvin, all, do you even see the graphical splash screen (Ubuntu logo) when booting in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS ? I have a similar issue, will check if the final resolution is fine.

[Alvin (alvind)]

Fabian, I'm sorry, but I can't remember and can no longer test. I replaced all Matrox cards by nVidia because the mga driver in Ubuntu has become close to worthless.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xserver-xorg-video-mga (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[JohnWashington (ubuntu-johnwash)]

I still have an HP Brio with Matrox G200 card, and am willing to do further tests on it (see also bug #393129).

[bugbot (bugbot)]

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.