[Karmic] Screen blanks, and "(EE) intel(0): underrun on pipe B!" in log

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄]

Binary package hint: xorg

Recently upgraded to Karmic and have enabled kms with "options i915 modeset=1" in /etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf .

Logged into desktop connected to net, running apps when the screen went blank. I could switch to tty and back to xorg, but the screen remained blank. Applications were still running ( I was still connected to net and audio was still playing from audacity ). I could control the applications by (for example) pressing ALT+F4 to close something.

(EE) intel(0): underrun on pipe B!

Above line repeated many times in /var/log/Xorg.0.log which I have attached in case ubuntu-bug didn't get it.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Jun 23 08:19:36 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: TOSHIBA Portable PC
Package: xorg 1:7.4~5ubuntu21
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-9-generic root=UUID=0534c5bb-a9db-4db7-972d-43fb11be0f54 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.30-9.10-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4~5ubuntu21
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.4.1-1ubuntu2
 libdrm2 2.4.11-0ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel N/A
 xserver-xorg-video-ati N/A
SourcePackage: xorg
Uname: Linux 2.6.30-9-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 05/22/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: Version 3.80
dmi.board.name: Portable PC
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: Version A0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: Version 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrVersion3.80:bd05/22/2008:svnTOSHIBA:pnPortablePC:pvrVersion1.0:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPortablePC:rvrVersionA0:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrVersion1.0:
dmi.product.name: Portable PC
dmi.product.version: Version 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.30-9-generic

[Robert Hooker (sarvatt)]

Something went seriously wrong with your upgrade.

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//intel_drv.so
(II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
 compiled for 1.6.0, module version = 2.4.1

I'm guessing you used one of the "retro" drivers with a higher epoch than ubuntu's in the past so it was not upgraded. Remove that repository if you still have it around and do a sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel/karmic and let it "downgrade" to the newer driver to fix things :)

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi Alan, did Robert's advice sort the issue out for you?

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey)]

Yes, it seemed I had a mixed / messed up environment.