[i945gme] Screen seems to be trying to change resolution for no known reason

[teh603]

Binary package hint: xorg

Basically, the screen seems to do the thing it does when changing resolution at random times, without any visible reason for needing to do so.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Jan 4 21:17:19 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20091209)
MachineType: Acer AOA110
Package: xorg 1:7.5~3ubuntu2
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/hostname.seed boot=casper apparmor=0 initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-7.10-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.5~3ubuntu2
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.1~rc2-1ubuntu1
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.1-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu2
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-7-generic i686
XorgConf: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
dmi.bios.date: 05/09/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: v0.3305
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Base Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacturer
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrv0.3305:bd05/09/2008:svnAcer:pnAOA110:pvr1:rvnAcer:rn:rvrBaseBoardVersion:cvnChassisManufacturer:ct1:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: AOA110
dmi.product.version: 1
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
fglrx: Not loaded
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.32-7-generic

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:015b]

[Nigel Babu (nigelbabu)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately, we can't fix it because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem. We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures.
At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[teh603 (darth-giles)]

That's the thing- I didn't do anything special, or at least I didn't think I was doing anything special, and it would sometimes just flicker like it was changing resolutions and then go back to the normal one. The expected behavior was obviously not flickering like that. I was trying to just configure it for normal use, and it would just sometimes do it after I'd closed a control panel window or something. It did it once when the mouse pointer dipped down toward the panel at the bottom of the screen, but that's the only one I can remember exactly what I was doing when it happened.

Ironically, my USB stick got disconnected while I was halfway through writing the bug report the first time around and caused the whole system to go down. This is the second report, and it didn't flicker at all while I was making this report.

I've not been able to find any trigger that was making it do that, and sometimes it doesn't seem to do it at all. I'll see about finding out what might cause it next time I boot to Alpha 1.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

Could you monitor your /var /log/Xorg.0.log (with `tail -f /var/log/Xorg.0.log`, Ctrl-C to stop) and see if the times the lines
[ 1788.212910] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "CMO", prod id 521
[ 1788.213086] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
[ 1788.213168] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 45.00 1024 1072 1104 1200 600 603 609 625 -hsync -vsync (37.5 kHz)
are added to the file corresponds to when the flickering occurs? If it does, it is due to something probing the monitor, and the next step is to find out what that is.

It would also be nice if you could try with a more recent LiveCD. Alpha-2 should be out now, but you can at any time also try a recent daily image.

[teh603 (darth-giles)]

I tried installing Alpha 2 and it doesn't seem to have this issue. Then again, it seemed fairly random to begin with so I might just have not done whatever was triggering it.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Thanks for reporting this bug to help making the Intel graphics driver
better. We hear from upstream that a number of bugs (possibly including
this one) have been fixed in the newer DRM code from the 2.6.33 kernel.
I don't know if your bug is one of the ones fixed in this release,
though, but we've prepared a PPA with this DRM update. Would you mind
installing this, rebooting, and testing if the original issue can be
reproduced with it or not?

The DRM PPA is here:

    https://edge.launchpad.net/~apw/+archive/red

Note there could be new bugs... please file these as new reports using
the command 'ubuntu-bug linux' (for kernel or DRM or KMS bugs) or
'ubuntu-bug xorg' if you suspect them to be X.org issues.

[teh603 (darth-giles)]

Not using that laptop anymore, sorry.

=/

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

Thank you for letting us know. Closing this bug report so that we don't keep revisiting it.