[gm45] Kubuntu: KDE 4.2 not properly loading with 2:2.6.3-0ubuntu9.2

[Jan Schneider]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

First everything went fine with 2:2.6.3-0ubuntu9.2. But after a recent reboot, most of KDE's desktop keeps black. No background, no bars, no widgets.
I report this to the intel driver because the only hint I could find was in kdm.log:
(EE) intel(0): Cannot position output HDMI-1 relative to output Configured Monitor without modes

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a40] (rev 07)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:024f]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:024f]

[Jan Schneider (yunosh)]

apport-collect doesn't work, do you need anything else from me?

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

> apport-collect doesn't work, do you need anything else from me?

* For identifying your exact hardware, the output of `lspci -vvnn` is necessary.
* Since this may be a modesetting problem, please add the line
  Option "ModeDebug" "true"
to the "Device" section of your xorg.conf and upload the Xorg.0.log you get with that option enabled, since this will give more detailed information about what is going on.
* The output of `xrandr --verbose`. I'm not sure it's required here, but it may give some useful information.

[Jan Schneider (yunosh)]

With ModeDebug enabled.

[Jan Schneider (yunosh)]

Might be related to #366300 which also affects multi-monitor setups and the latest intel driver.

[Jan Schneider (yunosh)]

I mention this because it only seems to happen with more than one monitor. Using a single monitor works fine.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

It seems to me that bug 366300 has quite different symptoms from yours.

The error message comes from hw/xfree86/modes/xf86Crtc.c in the function xf86InitialOutputPositions.
(http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/tree/hw/xfree86/modes/xf86Crtc.c?id=43e3af9cac2e9fd613a61a870bfe00f4782a368d)

I'm wondering if this is a configuration issue. Did you change xorg.conf recently? At least it looks like it identifies "Configured Monitor" and "External Monitor" correctly as LVDS and HDMI-1, respectively.

If you remove the "LeftOf" line in xorg.conf, I guess it will mirror the monitors. Does it do that correctly? Does it then work to make an extended desktop using xrandr commands?

In case this is a user-specific configuration issue: If you create a new user, does it have the same problem? If you log into something which is not kde (gnome, fvwm, xfce, etc., you may have to install them if you don't have it), does it behave the same?

[Jan Schneider (yunosh)]

Interesting, this indeed seems to be user-specific problem. Logging in with a fresh user works fine. I already tried disabling all kind of stuff, like things being loaded through .profile and .bashrc, disabling desktop effects, to no avail.
Any idea how I can further track down which setting or component may cause this during the login?
Not sure if that helps, but during the login, the screen goes completely white for a few seconds.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

There may be a file in the (hidden) .config directory in your home
directory called monitors.xml. This is where the dual-monitor setup is
stored when changed from the Gnome GUI. I'm not sure if that file is
gnome-specific, though. Try renaming that file and see if it works. If
not, maybe there is some other file either in the .config directory or
the .kde directory. .profile, .bashrc and friends deal mostly with
setup for your terminal sessions, so you wouldn't find any monitor
settings there (they equally apply when you SSH from a windows
computer, in which case having monitor setup there wouldn't make
sense).

[Jan Schneider (yunosh)]

WTF? I renamed .kde/ and logged in again, and that indeed fixed the problem. Then I moved the directory back to .kde, logged in again, and now all my kde settings are gone??? F***!
Not only did I loose all my settings, I can't tell you which setting exactly was causing the problems either. Great.
(No personal offense, I'm only frustrated like hell)

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

At least it seems that it was a problem with some KDE settings, and not a problem with the intel driver. Closing this bug.