XServer acceleration (NVIDIA 173) turns text console into unusable mess

[Martin Konôpka]

affected machine: Pentium 4 with GPU NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600
NVIDIA driver version: 173.14.16
VBIOS Version: 04.31.20.40.00
Bus Type: AGP 8X

Ubuntu version: 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

After initial installation of the ubuntu everything was OK (except that there no advanced XServer features are available). Afterwards I activated the proprietary accelerated NVIDIA Xserver (marked as "recommended") . It started to work without any complaints. However the text console became an unusable mixture of colors and text:

Most of the screen area covered by a colour rectangle hiding most of eventual text. The login/password prompt shown twice: in the upper left corner and in the lower right corner. Practically unusable. Each of the 6 text consoles (accessible by Ctrl-Alt-F<n>) equally affected.

The problem is the same after every boot of the machine.

In graphical sessions everything looks fine (GoogleEarth works, for example).

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 655 Host [1039:0655] (rev 50)
     Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:80aa]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation NV31 [GeForce FX 5600] [10de:0312] (rev a1)
     Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device [1462:9123]

[arky (arky)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I have classified this bug as a bug in PKGNAME.

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport, either via the appropriate application's "Help -> Report a Problem" menu or using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi martin.konopka,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn` and `dmesg`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (and maybe Xorg.0.log.old) file from after reproducing this issue. If you're using a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Martin Konôpka (martin.konopka)]

Greetings,
Sorry for my delayed answer; I can only occasionally sit at the affected machine. I am attaching the requested files including the xorg.conf (although it is a file not modified by hand).

[bugbot (bugbot)]

This bug report was filed against an old version of Ubuntu.
Can you confirm whether this is still an issue in natty?

If you don't mind, it would be very helpful if you could update the bug
report in launchpad to 'Fix Released' if it is no longer an issue for
you, or if it is still occurring under natty, please tag the bug 'natty'
so it's easier for us to track.

[Martin Konôpka (martin.konopka)]

If I remember well the problem does not exist already in 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) which is installed on the machine currently. However I will check it as soon as I get to the machine which should be in the following or next after following weekend. Then I will submit a proper update of the bug.

(However I am not sure if I am going to upgrade the machine to Natty.)

[Martin Konôpka (martin.konopka)]

Oops, I was too optimistic. The bug survives in 10.04.02 LTS. As for Natty, for now I can not provide related information because it is not installed on the machine. If I decide to install it some day then I will update this report.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for nvidia-graphics-drivers-173 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]