[i945] [i945GME,nomodeset] mouse cursor invisible

[Beni Cherniavsky]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

It's a weird bug. I have quite specific situations and can easily reproduce it.
I don't know how to proceed to nail it down further, but would be happy to follow instructions.

Steps to reproduce:
1. After boot (or login, or startx), mouse cursor is invisible. Moving the mouse works - I see highlighting of things under the mouse and can click them, but don't see the cursor.
2. After launching gnome-terminal, and pressing any key in it, moving the mouse over the gnome-terminal window restores the cursor! This also works in emacs-snapshot-gtk, but not in most other windows - not in xterm, nor in firefox.
3. The mouse cursor also frequently becomes invisible after resolution switching using Display Preferences. It happens approximately half the times, but I haven't found a simple pattern. This does not happen when using xrandr to switch resolutions on the command-line.

When the cursor is invisible, and 2 displays are active (LVDS - internal panel, and VGA external display), it will only be invisble on one display, on the other it can be seen. Sometimes it will be on the internal only, sometimes external only.
When only one display is enabled (internal or external), it will be invisible on that display.
Doing "xrandr --auto" to activate the second output (both overlapping starting at (0,0)) will leave the cursor invisible on the original display and show it on the other one.
[This resembles Bug #145186, but the symptoms here are more complicated.]

This started happening since ~beta6 of karmic, still happens on up-to-date stable karmic.
It happened with only one out of 2 users on this system! I don't know the reason for the difference.
I now created a fresh new user, and the bug does happen for the new user.

I'm not sure the problem is in the "intel" driver (user dependency seems weird), but it doesn't occur with "vesa" driver.
I tried adding:
  Option "HWCursor" "False"
to xorg.conf, but the intel driver says it doesn't support it.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Nov 5 22:27:08 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD U-100
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=e504864a-886a-4364-9c22-df8ce1944e03 ro nomodeset quiet splash nomodeset
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/usr/bin/fish
 LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 07/16/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 4.6.3
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: U-100
dmi.board.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
dmi.board.version: Ver.001
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
dmi.chassis.version: Ver.001
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr4.6.3:bd07/16/2008:svnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:pnU-100:pvrVer.001:rvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:rnU-100:rvrVer.001:cvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:ct3:cvrVer.001:
dmi.product.name: U-100
dmi.product.version: Ver.001
dmi.sys.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-14-generic

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device [1462:0110]

[Beni Cherniavsky (cben)]

I discovered why one of the users was unaffacted upon login:
She had no ~/.config/monitors.xml file (where gnome-display-properties saves
it settings).
Once she manually used gnome-display-properties, the cursor started
disappeared,
and on her next login it was invisible.
After removing ~/.config/monitors.xml, her new logins have a cursor.

So a workaround to this bug is to never use gnome-display-properties, only
xrandr.
And rm ~/.config/monitors.xml if you have used it before.

I'm not sure if this bug should be marked as affecting
gnome-display-properties -
whatever resolution it requests, the video driver should still be
responsible for showing a cursor.

[LeAlex (lennart-eck)]

This sounds quite similiar to what happens on my ThinkPad R61 with Intel GMA X3100. I use KDE 4.3.2 under Debian Testing AMD64.
When I boot with an external TFT at VGA and switch from 1024x768 to 1280x1024 (native resolution of the external display) the cursor becomes invisible on the external screen. When I switch back it reappears.
After some time it becomes visible again when I leave the resolution at 1280x1024. I'm not sure why exactly ... when I looked on the TFT it was suddenly there. In all these instances I was working in a terminal window (yakuake), but I have to verify if that's the reason.
I had no problems with Kubuntu 9.04 and the external display.

[Beni Cherniavsky (cben)]

Also happens with Dell Latitude D520 (up-to-date ubuntu karmic amd64).
lspci:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

[Tom Kiesel (tom-nonotyet)]

I can confirm Beni's experience.

Deleting ~/.config/monitors.xml fixes this issue on all user accounts on my machine with an Intel 82845G/GL onboard graphics chip, 32-bit Karmic.

So gnome-display-properties is triggering this bug, even if it's not directly responsible for the expression of the bug.

[Tom Kiesel (tom-nonotyet)]

Upgraded the affected machine to Lucid overnight. The problem remains.

Opening gnome-display-properties and changing screen refresh rate brings on this bug. Mouse cursor disappears until user locks screen or otherwise triggers mode change..

Deleting ~/.config/monitors.xml prevents the issue... until the user next uses System->Preferences->Monitors.

Yikes!

[Tom Kiesel (tom-nonotyet)]

Attached is current monitors.xml

Removing this file from ~/.config/ prevents expression of the bug.