Dapper on Acer Aspire 1692WLMi: LCD display is black after booting

[Konstantinos Togias]

I installing Dapper from 11-Apr-2006 Daily Build Install CD on an Acer 1692WLMi Laptop.
After booting in the new system when X server with gdm is started the LCD display goes totally black (Even backlight turns off, it is like the monitor is turrned off).
I can see all the booting messages. The display goes black when X start. I am able to switch to console with CTRL+ALT+F1. Then the display turns on and is ok in console mode. When pressing CTRL+ALT+F7 screen goes black again.
The machine has an ATI Mobility Radeon X700 pci express graphics card with 256MB of VRAM and an 1280x800 native resolution LCD display.

I had encountered the same bug when installing form Flight 6 Installation CD 1 week ago.

I attach below the output of ddcprobe, dmesg, lshw, lspci and ps aux and /var/log/messages, /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

Generated by ddcprobe > ddcprobe.txt

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

generated by dmesg > dmesg.txt

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

Generated by lshw > lshw.txt

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

Generated by lspci -vv > lspci.txt

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

/var/log/messages logfile

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

Generated by ps aux > psaux.txt

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

It is the xorg.conf found on the system just after installation. This xorg.conf produces the bug.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

The Xorg.0.log logfile. It is generated by the X server just after the first boot.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

I just made the following modification at /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

I added

Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,TMDS"

into the Section "Device" for ATI card.

Then I run /etc/init.d/gdm restart

The display switched on, but the gdm screen is totally scrambled.

I can see 2 columns of repeating small gdm login screens. Each of them has a mouse pointer on it that can be moved by the mouse.

I attach a photo of the new problem and the modified xorg.conf that produces it.

Should I create a new bug for this new situation??

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

You can see that the display is separated into two columns of gdm screens. It seems as the display is not correctly syncronized or something.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

This xorg.conf produces the scrabbled display shown at previous attachment.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

This is the log produced by the X server displaying the scrabbled gdm screen.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

Even commenting out HorizSync and VertRefresh options at section "Monitor" of /etc/X11/xorg.conf gives the same scrabbled image.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

I have also reproduced the bug with 11-Apr-2006 Daily Build Live CD. The cd boots, but when starting gdm the screen goes black, making live cd unusable in graphical mode on this machine.

[Mikael Turøy (terrasque)]

I can confirm this on Dapper Beta too.

the fglrx driver works, so if you change to console, install xorg-driver-fglrx (iirc) and change xorg.conf to use "fglrx" instead of "ati", and then restart X, it will work (but with 1024x768 (native lcd is 1280x800), which is a seperate bug.)

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

Yes, the fglrx driver works pretty good and with DRI support. I even managed to setup and run xgl on it.

I made fglrx driver to work at 1280x800 by running 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg' and selecting 1280x800 when asked for the resolution.

Also vesa driver works at 1204x768 and without direct rendering. I just replaced 'ati' with 'vesa' in xorg.conf and the display worked at 1024x768. I did not try to run dpkg-reconfigure and select 1280x800 as resolution to see if it works.

[VesaNieminen (die-spammers)]

This is a problem with ATI Mobility Radeon x700 support, I just posted a duplicate bug report here ;)

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/40457

Hardware is different though, Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M1437G laptop instead of Acer. fglrx drivers fix this problem and with those I can run the screen in native 1280x800 resolution without problems, by changing the driver from "ati" to "fglrx".

All other settings in xorg.conf are correct for me, screen resolution and refresh rates, display adapter memory size and the identification string, only drivers are busted.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

The bug still exists in Dapper 04-May-2006 Daily Build Live CD. The screen goes blank when X are started.

I attach /etc/X11/xorg.cong and /var/log/Xorg.0.log from the booted Live CD.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

/etc/X11/xorg.conf of the Dapper 04-May-2006 Daily Build Live CD booted on Acer Aspire 1692WLMi . The screen goes blank when X start with this configuration.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

/var/log/xorg.0.log from Dapper 04-May-2006 Daily Build Live CD booted on acer Aspire 1692WLMi Laptop. Screen goes black when X start.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

Also bug #42816 (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-driver-ati/+bug/42816) seems similar to this one. It is the same behaviour but different hardware.

[gian (nossa-giampietro)]

I have a aspire 5020 with ati mobility radeon x700 pci express 128 vram and the problem is the same

[[MEGA] (jesus-lema)]

I have a ACER 1692 with the ATI X700 64Mb PCIE with the same bug.

X started with Ubuntu Dapper flight 5 and xorg-driver-fglrx, with "ati" or "vesa" NO (at least no at 1280x800) but since I updated to Fligth 6 I see a very "beautiful" black screen. :(

Without the Option "MonitoyLayout" "LVDS, TMDS" I saw 6 equal screens like you.

[João Manuel Rodrigues (jmr)]

The bug is still there in Dapper 6.06 final. I managed to get the "ati" driver working by inserting
    Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS"
in Section "Device". Driver "fglrx" works fine without this option.

[[MEGA] (jesus-lema)]

Propietary ATI driver works fine with 2D, 3D is disabled because is not compatible with Xorg 7.0.0

[shiechka (werchowyna)]

Hi

I confirm.

On FSC Amilo 1437G with ATI X700, PCIE, 128MB I have the same problem with Dapper (I also had it with Breezy).

At first system boot GDM fails to start, because it cannot load the driver. I have to:

1. modify the driver name from "ati" to "radeon"

the driver now loads, but I have a black screen, so I add

2. Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,AUTO" in driver section

Now all works, I have the 3D acceleration without having to install fglrx driver.

[Konstantinos Togias (ktogias)]

I just tested Acer Aspire 1692WLMi with Edgy Eft Knot 1. The bug still exists. the screen goes off when X server starts.
I solved the problem by adding

Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,AUTO"

in driver section as shiechka suggests. There is no need to change ati to radeon.

[Susan Cragin (susancragin)]

Confirm for Acer Ferrari 4005 AMD64. Want tests? let me know. Log attached.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

The "black screen" problem is 22985. Please file new bugs if there still are screen corruptions or crashes.