[i915gm] Xorg freeze on startup with modeset on intel

[Christian Göbel]

Binary package hint: xorg

Ubuntu Lucid with the latest updates, installed via a daily build. Since I suffer from the "X freeze when hitting Enter"-bug I only uninstalled the plymouth package. This bug seems to be unrelated to plymouth.

The only way to boot the computer is by editing the boot-parameters e.g. manually in grub.
Some seconds after the grub menu the screen goes black. I did not find a way to recover from the black screen. No way to go to the text console.

The bug also happens in failsave.
The bug also happens when "splash" is deleted from the boot options.
The bug also happens when "text" is added to the boot options.

Only way to boot is to add the "nomodeset" boot option. Then the computer boots - but with heavy flickering during the boot process.

Same computer worked fine with Ubuntu 9.10.

To me the freeze seems to happen at the moment X tries to start. Feel free to assign this bug to other packages (e.g. intel or i915) if this is more accurate.

Please let me know if you need further information.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Feb 17 00:56:41 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100213)
Lsusb:
 Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Samsung Electronics SX20S
Package: xorg 1:7.5+1ubuntu2
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-13-generic root=UUID=96c2365d-66ca-48e2-8dbb-7560a3da2a64 ro quiet splash nomodeset
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-13.18-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.5+1ubuntu2
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.7-0ubuntu8
 libdrm2 2.4.17-0ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.1-1ubuntu4
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-13-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 07/14/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: 12ZE
dmi.board.name: SX20S
dmi.board.vendor: Samsung Electronics
dmi.board.version: Revision PR
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Samsung Electronics
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvr12ZE:bd07/14/2006:svnSamsungElectronics:pnSX20S:pvrRevisionPR:rvnSamsungElectronics:rnSX20S:rvrRevisionPR:cvnSamsungElectronics:ct1:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: SX20S
dmi.product.version: Revision PR
dmi.sys.vendor: Samsung Electronics
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.32-13-generic

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

This is probably because xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.9.1-1ubuntu4 does not support userland modesetting (UMS). In other word, it doesn't work with the nomodeset option. I think this has been done because 2.10.0 which is planned for Lucid does not support UMS.

As such, we could close this bug, but I will leave it open for now in case somebody is monitoring what problems disabling UMS lead to.

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

The original summary-description of the bug report was correct:
Xorg freezes with modeset (default)
Xorg does NOT freeze wit the option "nomodeset".

Se also the text in the detailed bug-description.

Currently the only way to boot is to set the option "nomodeset" in grub.

Alternative summary would read: "Xorg requires "nomodeset" to avoid freeze"

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

Same problem (but with a different intel-chipset):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/515732
The bug description of this bug sounds familiar (Xorg freeze after grub with video-intel), however the chipset
is different. Therefore, I am not sure if this is a duplicate or not.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

Sorry, I misread the description.

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

Just a small update:
From time to time I can boot without the "nomodeset" option. I still could not figure out why in most of the cases the system goes to a black screen (freeze) without the "nomodeset" option - while sometimes, out of a sudden, I can boot without the option.
I hope this observation helps to find out what is going wrong.
Could this be due to a race condition during the boot process? (X-configuration? plymouth? kernel?)
My computer is a four year old laptop with a Centrino (1.6Ghz) platform - in principle there should be many computers out there with similar hardware.

[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.

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

My problems seem to be fixed for a couple of days, now.
I updated my computer about one week ago (1st or 2nd March) and I do not suffer from the "freeze" (boot to black screen) anymore - even if I do not set the "nomodeset"-option in Grub.
The visible mark for me was that I boot now with the linux (2.6.32-15)-kernel - but the change could be due to other updates which came in, at the same time.

My Lucid the boot experience was rather shaky during the last weeks. (Sometimes, unpredictably boot went fine without "nomodeset", but most of the times I had to use the "nomodeset"-option.)
Therefore, I propose to keep this bug open for another couple of days - I will close the bug in a few days, if the issue does not come back.

Should I test the DRM-PPA anyway?

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

Now I installed the linux-package from the drm-ppa:
uname --all
Linux goebbe-laptop 2.6.32-15-386 #21~drm33v1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 26 22:31:03 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

All I did is installing the linux kernel above and reboot with it. Is this everything I have todo in order to test the new drm-package?
Anyway - right now everything seems to work o.k. with the new kernel.

If I should test anything in particular, please let me know.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

No, that should be fine. The newest kernel 2.6.32-16 now has the 2.6.33 drm, so the PPA is not needed anymore. And yes, using the system is normally enough to test the kernel.

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

Thanks a lot to the developers for fixing this issue!

Just for the record:
The fact that the problem has been fixed for me seems to be unrelated to the 2.6.33 drm module since the problem already disappeared with the latest 2.6.32-15 kernel (which, if I understood correctly, did not include the 2.6.33 drm)

[Julien Olivier (julo)]

I still have the problem with current lucid and an Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02).

[Mikkel Erup (mikkel-erup)]

Freezes for me too on an X40 notepad with the 82852/855GM chipset. I've tried modeset and nomodeset to no avail. Tried the suggested 2.6.34 rc kernel as well. That one freezes too when Xorg starts up.
I'm using the Vesa driver for now to be able to boot into Xorg.

[Julien Olivier (julo)]

I re-installed linux-image-2.6.31-20-generic from karmic-updates, and the bug is gone. So, I guess the bug is a bad combination between the kernel v2.6.32 and xorg's intel driver.

[Stenten (stenten)]

This bug is for i915gm cards. The bug report for i855gm is at Bug #541511. Re-marking as Fix Released.