virtual console broken

[AlainKnaff]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-r128

Since 10.04, when I Ctrl-Alt-F1 to a virtual console, the display acts funny:
- without fglrx, X stays displayed
- with fglrx, the screen goes black

in both cases, keyboard input does go to the invisible virtual console (as shown by logging in "blindly" and typing echo ^G)

# lspci | fgrep VGA
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 [Radeon X1200 Series]
---
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-r128 6.8.1-2ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
 LC_PAPER=A4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom cvs dialout dip floppy kqemu kvm lpadmin netdev plugdev powerdev sambashare scanner video

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi AlainKnaff,

Please run the command 'apport-collect BUGNUMBER', which will attach several files we need for debugging.

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

[AlainKnaff (kubuntu-misc)]

apport information

[AlainKnaff (kubuntu-misc)]

It turns out that this is related to kms.

Each of the following 3 actions "fixes" it:

1. Add nomodeset to kernel boot options, or
2. Add radeon.modeset=0 to kernel boot options, or
3. Add "options radeon modeset=0" to a modprobe.d config file

Using workaround #3 allowed me to get debug output of the problem. I stopped X, removed the radeon module, and then inserted it using modprobe radeon modeset=1. This instantly blanked the virtual console that I was typing in, and logged the messages below:

Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.952280] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.958996] [drm] radeon: Initializing kernel modesetting.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.959353] [drm] register mmio base: 0xFDCF0000
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.959358] [drm] register mmio size: 65536
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.960690] ATOM BIOS: ATI
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.960947] [drm] GPU reset succeed (RBBM_STATUS=0x10000140)
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.960976] [drm] radeon: VRAM 128M
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.960980] [drm] radeon: VRAM from 0xD8000000 to 0xDFFFFFFF
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.960984] [drm] radeon: GTT 512M
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.960987] [drm] radeon: GTT from 0x00000000 to 0x1FFFFFFF
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.961097] [drm] radeon: using MSI.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.961143] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.962198] [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=128M, BAR=128M
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.962209] [drm] RAM width 128bits DDR
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.962457] [TTM] Zone kernel: Available graphics memory: 1964360 kiB.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.962504] [drm] radeon: 128M of VRAM memory ready
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.962508] [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.962561] [drm] GART: num cpu pages 131072, num gpu pages 131072
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.970961] [drm] radeon: 1 quad pipes, 1 z pipes initialized.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.973123] [drm] radeon: cp idle (0x10000000)
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.973243] [drm] Loading RS690/RS740 Microcode
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.973423] platform radeon_cp.0: firmware: requesting radeon/RS690_cp.bin
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.978247] [drm] radeon: ring at 0x0000000000000000
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.978278] [drm] ring test succeeded in 1 usecs
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.978666] [drm] radeon: ib pool ready.
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.978848] [drm] ib test succeeded in 0 usecs
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.979089] [drm] Default TV standard: NTSC
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.979333] [drm] Radeon Display Connectors
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.979337] [drm] Connector 0:
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.979340] [drm] VGA
Jul 20 19:27:28 hitchhiker kernel: [ 148.979346] [drm] DDC: 0x7e50 0x7e40 0x7e54 0x7e44 ...

[AlainKnaff (kubuntu-misc)]

Still open in 10.04 as of December 9th, 2010.

[Rafael Jesus Alcantara Perez (rafa-dedaloingenieros)]

It also happens to me using fglrx-updates (2:15.200-0ubuntu4) with an AMD Radeon HD 7790.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

​​​​this driver has been removed from Ubuntu, closing the bugs