Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati
It is tricky to determine if this issue is the same as one reported in the several bugs about freezes / black screens, so I'm making a new one...
I installed a amd64 ubuntu lucid lynx beta1 system on a box with a Foxconn mainboard that features integrated radeon graphics, namely RS690. The system has all current updates as of last saturday.
I notice some things, possible related to the final freeze/crash/whatever:
1. Multiple flickering on startup, sortof in intervals of about a second. This includes the plymouth splash screen and the desktop after it appeared (automatic login) for some time. Annoying but not fatal as such, as it seems to stop, generally (maybe reappears once on certain actions, like starting a video player).
2. There is only a VGA connector and there the monitor is connected. The radeon driver complains about bad EDID data for the DVI port, multiple times. Well, there is no physical DVI port.
3. After some undetermined time of usage, the screen suddenty goes black, and I am unable to reach a console. I need to have a second computer to get debugging, I guess. The machine is not frozen, but the screen is gone.
This persists with a self-built 2.6.33.2-rt13 kernel (since this is supposed to be an audio workstation) in the same manner, with the linux-rt kernel it was a bit different (for example, I needed to fix the resolution in xorg.conf because with that kernel a wrong one is detected), I did not spend enough time with it to trigger that black screen ... or indeed it does not happen there.
I'll try starting with nomodeset ... then examine if there are still options like switching back to XAA (that worked in the past for the buggy intel drivers) ... or resort to VESA. I actually have no time to debug Xorg issues on that box, but well... do I have a choice? With another non-ubuntu system (older Xorg at least, kernel version about the same), this never occured. So it might have to do with the recent enable of KMS, or acceleration architecture updates.
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AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/seq: musiker 1797 F.... qjackctl.bin
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xfe7f8000 irq 16'
Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC883'
Components : 'HDA:10ec0883,105b0c8c,00100002'
Controls : 28
Simple ctrls : 17
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Frequency: I don't know.
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=fe1f2b79-1cb9-4b0a-87c3-cd2aecac0d67
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100318)
IwConfig:
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
ppp0 no wireless extensions.
MachineType: FOXCONN RS690M2MA
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=1ffb8723-173a-4118-9350-13115ffe0b04 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=C
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.36-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Regression: Yes
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34
Reproducible: No
RfKill:
Tags: lucid graphics regression-release needs-upstream-testing
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip floppy lpadmin plugdev sambashare video
dmi.bios.date: 05/26/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 080014
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: A690GM2MA/A690VM2MA
dmi.board.vendor: FOXCONN
dmi.board.version: 0A
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr080014:bd05/26/2008:svnFOXCONN:pnRS690M2MA:pvr0A:rvnFOXCONN:rnA690GM2MA/A690VM2MA:rvr0A:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: RS690M2MA
dmi.product.version: 0A
dmi.sys.vendor: FOXCONN
nomodeset kernel option does nothing (at least on my kernel build), but radeon.modeset=0 does help. Worked an evening on the box with disabled modesetting now and didn't see a freeze/crash.
Only the mode detection is suboptimal... I have seen that in comparison to another Linux system I have on that box.. the image looked more crisp, less smearing on the LCD (that also covers the mode set using kernel modesetting). After manually fixing ip some tuned mode with slightly increased refresh rate (not 59.9 but rather 61 Hz or so) this is improved.
Main message: DIsabling kernel modesetting for RS690 _seems_ to be a good idea so far.