Choice of DVI outlet affects ability to boot 9.10

[Ted Pritchard]

I have a Dell Precision 390 (Intel Core 2 Duo) and use 8.04 without any problem whatever. I recently also installed 9.10.

From a cold start 9.10 won't boot correctly. The screen goes to "entering power save" mode and remains black. However from the sounds emitted the boot process is progressing to the log in screen.

However if I start 8.04 first and then restart and select 9.10, 9.10 usually starts and runs correctly.
Looking at /boot/grub/grub.cfg and /etc/default/grub I'm wondering if perhaps it's as simple as the time out values are too low.
Any suggestions?

Ted

I also posted this problem on Ubuntu forums here ( http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1305459&page=30 )

Then John Pizzapone (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1305459&page=30 ) discovered that changing the selected DVI outlet fixed his boot problem. I changed mine and it also fixed my boot problem with 9.10.
There must be a difference between 8.04 and 9.10 scripts that confuses the graphics card. If someone expert can look at this it may solve a problem perplexing a large number of otherwise happy Ubuntu users.

Ted

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Sounds like a problem in gdm. Does the boot process show the splash loading screen ok? We need to establish where the boot process fails, it certainly isn't gnome-power-manager.

[Ted Pritchard (pritcharded)]

Teej

After selecting 9.10 in GRUB it gets as far as a black screen with a white "ubuntu" symbol on it - then it shows "entering power save" mode. If I use the other DVI outlet, 9.10 boots and works fine.

Ted

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Certainly sounds like an X or gdm issue. After you hear the login sound, could you try pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 and see if you can get into a terminal, as we'd be able to get some debugging information from you in that case. Failing that, if possible, could you hook up a standard VGA monitor or something, just to see the screen.
You will probably need ethernet connected to do this, as configuring wifi by terminal may be difficult:
Once in the terminal (if possible), run

apport-collect -p xorg 505310

This will help us to find and resolve the problem. Bear in mind that you may need to install the python-launchpadlib package from the universe repository. Additionally, when prompted to give apport-collect permissions for Launchpad you will need to give it at least the ability to "Change Non-Private" data as it will be adding information to your bug report. If you have any problems obtaining this, let me know, or you can ask in #ubuntu-bugs on irc.freenode.net . Thank you.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

It's not likely to be a gdm issue. It is either a Xorg, gnome-settings-daemon or libgnome-desktop issue (or possibly gnome-power-manager too).

Ted - do you have SSH access to the box from another machine? It would be useful so we can work out what Xorg *thinks* your display configuration is when you boot.

[Ted Pritchard (pritcharded)]

Teej/Chris
I'm a user vis-a-vis a techo so you'll have to hold my hand.
Ctrl+Alt+F1 works and I'm into a terminal. What do I need to type in to get you the appropriate debugging information?

Ted

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Hi Ted, that's good to hear. You should be able to run "apport-collect -p xorg 505310" and "apport-collect 505310", which will then grab debugging information automatically for gnome-power-manager and xorg. If you have any problems with this, please let us know :) Thank you.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Does CTRL+ALT+F1 work when you boot with your monitor connected to the DVI port which doesn't normally display the login screen? If so, please run the following from the console, and attach the resulting logfile to this bug report:

sudo DISPLAY=:0.0 xrandr -q 2>&1 | tee ~/xrandr.log

You need sudo because Xorg will block access from clients that don't belong to the root or gdm users.

[Ted Pritchard (pritcharded)]

Chris

CTRL+ALT+F1 does work with the DVI port that doesn't normally display the login screen. Running sudo DISPLAY=:0.0 xrandr -q 2>&1 | tee ~/xrandr.log results in the following (I'll have type it in as I don't know how the save the logfile)

Screen 0: minimum 320x200, current 1920x1200, maximum 1920x 1920
DVI -1 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right X axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
1920x1200 60.0*+
1600x1200 60.0
1680x1050 59.9
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1152x 864 75.0
1024x 768 75.0 60.0
800 x 600 75.0 60.3
640 x 480 75.0 59.9
720 x 400 70.1
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right X axis y axis)

Ted

[Ted Pritchard (pritcharded)]

Teej

With "apport-collect -p xorg 505310" and "apport-collect 505310", both started but then stopped with "unable to find server at edge.launchpad.net. Is the something else I need to be inserting first?

Ted

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Ted, thanks for the information. It would also be useful to see the same output with the display connected to the other DVI port.

[Ted Pritchard (pritcharded)]

Chris

This is the output from the DVI port that causes 9.10 to work correctly

ted@ted-desktop:~$ sudo DISPLAY=:0.0 xrandr -q 2>&1 | tee ~/xrandr.log
[sudo] password for ted:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 1920 x 1920
DVI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-0 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
   1920x1200 60.0*+
   1600x1200 60.0
   1680x1050 59.9
   1280x1024 75.0 60.0
   1152x864 75.0
   1024x768 75.0 60.0
   800x600 75.0 60.3
   640x480 75.0 59.9
   720x400 70.1
ted@ted-desktop:~$

Ted

[Ted Pritchard (pritcharded)]

Teej

After attempting to run 'apport-collect -p xorg 505310' I checked ifconfig and got:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1d:09:0c:75:1f
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:9ff:fe0c:751f/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:492 (492.0 B)
          Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

When I change DVI outlets and 9.10 loads normally, when I run ifconfig, this is what i get:

ted@ted-desktop:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1d:09:0c:75:1f
          inet addr:10.1.1.10 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:9ff:fe0c:751f/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1850 (1.8 KB) TX bytes:5259 (5.2 KB)
          Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

ted@ted-desktop:~$

Somehow changing the DVI outlet affects how the network installs!!

Ted

[xteejx (xteejx)]

Hmm, that could well be the reason why apport-collect comes up with the "cannot find server" error, i.e. no internet connection since this seems to be affecting some network configuration somewhere.

[xteejx (xteejx)]

I might also suggest that if this is the case that changing DVI ports affects the network, I would file another separate bug report for this, but double check this is the case first. :)

[xteejx (xteejx)]

As Chris said, is the problem the same with another DVI port?

[xteejx (xteejx)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!