[gm45] System Hangs on Connecting External Monitor

[balak]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

My laptop hangs when I just connect an external monitor to it. This is even before I configure any type of mirror screen or extended desktop. The instant VGA connector touches the port, the system is lost. The only way out is by hard reboot. I have tried 'Ctl-Alt-Backspace' (after enabling it), ssh-ing into the laptop but nothing works. This did not happen in jaunty.
I use my laptop to display presentations regularly so this is a very big loss of usage at work.

This is a very bad regression. People can inadvertently loose all unsaved data just in the course of trying to display externally.
Enabling/Disabling Compiz does not seem to make any difference.

I looked at Bug:438000 which seems to be compiz related and happens AFTER somebody tries to configure the screen for external monitor.

Please let me know what other debug information may be needed for this.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jan 25 10:09:54 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: Sony Corporation VGN-SR220J
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2.1
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=8a118175-e282-45ae-8f60-3035572801e4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54~ppa2-generic-tuxonice
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu10
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2.1
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic-tuxonice x86_64
XorgConf: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
dmi.bios.date: 08/14/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: R1110Y1
dmi.board.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.board.name: VAIO
dmi.board.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.board.version: N/A
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrR1110Y1:bd08/14/2008:svnSonyCorporation:pnVGN-SR220J:pvrC601156A:rvnSonyCorporation:rnVAIO:rvrN/A:cvnSonyCorporation:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: VGN-SR220J
dmi.product.version: C601156A
dmi.sys.vendor: Sony Corporation
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: x86_64kernel: 2.6.31-17-generic-tuxonice

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07)
     Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device [104d:9033]

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

Could you check if this is the same as bug 500999? If it freezes instantly, it probably isn't. It is more likely to be something like bug 319717. Sony laptops have a history of doing strange non-standard things. Could you start the computer in recovery mode (so there will be no xorg running) and check if connecting the external monitor still freezes the system.

[balak (balak)]

Thanks Geir for the pointers to the other bugs. The freeze happens instantly.

I tried the following: started in recovery mode without X and the freeze/hang happened even then. So it seemed like a kernel issue and more like bug 319717.

I looked over the other bug and found a possible work-around - adding 'acpi_osi="!Windows 2006" to the kernel boot parameters. This seems to have done the trick - after booting into the kernel with this parameter, I don't see the freeze/hang issue anymore. However 319717 reports that the issue was fixed in v2.6.31-rc1 which is the ubuntu 2.6.31-1.13 kernel. I am currently running 2.6.31-17.

I have attached dmesg and kernel logs while booting with acpi_osi parameter.

[balak (balak)]

What should be the next step..

Should I filed a kernel bug for this similar to Bug 12904 (http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12904) or should I reopen Bug 12904.

Thanks!

[Vikram Dhillon (dhillon-v10)]

This issue was reported against karmic, so can you confirm if this issue exists with the most recent Lucid Lynx 10.04 Alpha release? ISO CD images are available at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/ . Thanks in advance.

[balak (balak)]

Today I checked this issue with the latest lucid alpha live cd and it still exists. System hangs on contact with an external monitor.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thanks for reconfirming it's still an issue for you for lucid. It sounds like this is an issue with the kernel drm code, which is not handing the video output correctly. Since 319717 has been closed, I'm assuming your issue is somewhat different from that one so rather than reopening it, we'll move *this* bug to the kernel team to look into.

One thing you could try as a possible workaround is to turn off KMS (i915.modeset=0 in grub).

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi balak,

If you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

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

[balak (balak)]

This bug still exists in the mainline kernel. Removing the needs-upstream-testing tag.

[balak (balak)]

Sorry for the spam, but I couldn't figure out how to remove the tag. Somebody else please do that.. thanks!

[Lee Jones (lag)]

tags: removed: needs-upstream-testing

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

balak - there have been a number of DRM fixes recently. Can you try the LTS backported kernel in the kernel PPA at http://ppa.launchpad.net/kernel-ppa/ppa/ubuntu ?

[Emil Pavlov (emil-p-pavlov)]

The bug isn´t fixed in Natty.

[balak (balak)]

I have to add that this bug seems fixed for me. I am running lucid with the latest kernel updates. The fix happened sometime in the last few weeks. I have been meaning to update this bug but forgot about it.

Emil, your issue may be different or it may be another regression introduced in natty.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

@balak -- thanks, as the issue is fixes for you, we can assume the issue you specifically reported is fixed. As the symptoms are do general I think we need a new bug filed for anyone who still has the issue.

[balak (balak)]

Ok, this issue has come back with the latest kernel in lucid. I was able to notice the difference because I did try displaying immediately after upgrading kernel to 2.6.32-30. Since I had the previous kernel installed as well, I booted back to 2.6.32-29 and don't see the problem. With the new kernel, the same symptoms are back (i.e. laptop completely hangs as soon as you connect the external display, irrespective of whether the display is on or off). I don't know what are all the changes with the new kernel, but this seems to have gone back..

I also checked if the previous work around (booting with additional kernel parameter acpi_osi =!"Windows 2006") works but unfortunately that didnt work with 2.6.32-30 kernel.

I think this needs to be addressed soon since lucid is a LTS release (I plan to use lucid since I use this laptop extensively everyday).

[Emil Pavlov (emil-p-pavlov)]

This bug persists in 11.04.

[Emil Pavlov (emil-p-pavlov)]

adding acpi_osi=!"Windows 2006" seems to work, my kernel is 2.6.38-9-generic

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.