Screen corruption when X starts

[Anders Sjölander]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

Often when I start X, I end up on a screen with a corrupted mouse pointer (looks like a square with static and some strange characters). TTY is spammed with error messages that also end up in syslog (see below). Tried restarting gdm, same result. This has happened several times and there has been a couple of updates in between.

Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD3200
Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick x64
Package version: 1:6.13.1

Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.169278] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(8).
Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.169281] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !
Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.200828] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(9).
Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.200834] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !
Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.204044] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(10).
Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.204050] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !
Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.206756] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(11).
Aug 17 19:23:02 entropia kernel: [ 318.206762] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 318.980174] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(12).
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 318.985337] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 319.030580] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(13).
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 319.035976] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 319.087232] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(14).
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 319.092755] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 319.147018] [drm:radeon_ib_schedule] *ERROR* radeon: couldn't schedule IB(15).
Aug 17 19:23:03 entropia kernel: [ 319.152903] [drm:radeon_cs_ioctl] *ERROR* Faild to schedule IB !

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.1-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-14.20-generic 2.6.35
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-14-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
DRM.card0.DisplayPort.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.HDMI_Type_A.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1366x768 1280x720 1152x768 1024x768 800x600 848x480 720x480 640x480
 edid-base64: AP///////wAw5AHYAAAAAAASAQOAIhN4Ct4Fo1pRkiYaUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBPhxWoFAAFjAwIDUAWMIQAAAZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA/gBMRyBEaXNwbGF5CiAgAAAA/gBMUDE1NldIMS1UTEMxAE8=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Tue Aug 17 19:34:27 2010
DkmsStatus:

InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha amd64 (20100803.1)
MachineType: TOSHIBA Satellite L450D
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-14-generic root=UUID=7e6df306-df19-4817-87bc-5f3dc3a2ecf4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=sv_SE.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
dmi.bios.date: 11/17/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: V1.20
dmi.board.name: NBWAE
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: 1.00
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: *
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrV1.20:bd11/17/2009:svnTOSHIBA:pnSatelliteL450D:pvrPSLY5E-022013N5:rvnTOSHIBA:rnNBWAE:rvr1.00:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Satellite L450D
dmi.product.version: PSLY5E-022013N5
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.35-14-generic

[Thomas Antepoth (ta-ubuntu-antepoth)]

I worked around the mousepointer corruption on my system by

1.) Stopping X service and logging into the text console

2.) creating an xorg.conf via "x -configure" and copying this freshly created xorg.conf.new to /etc/X11

3.) entering this option:

Option "EXANoDownloadFromScreen" "true"

into the section which reads like this:

        Identifier "Card0"
        Driver "ati"
        VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
        BoardName "RV610 video device [Radeon HD 2400 PRO]"
        BusID "PCI:1:0:0"

YMMV as a Lucid is working here.

[Andrea De Pasquale (depasquale-andrea)]

May be a duplicate of bug #588940. Changing from

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to that

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

in file /etc/default/grub and issuing the command

update-grub

solved the problem for me. Give it a try.

[rpr nospam (rpr-nospam)]

I also encountered the same problem on newly installed Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) x64 on a PC that has Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2 PCI-E.

uname says:
Linux 2.6.35-24-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 2 02:41:37 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
dpkg says:
ii xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.1-1ubuntu5

The problem usually starts very shortly after the system boots and I'm not even able to log in. Soon the system becomes unresponsive. If I boot in recovery mode, I'm able to log in.

Putting nomodeset option in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT solved the problem.

Another solution I found is explained on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting . The command for turning off KMS for radeon driver:
# echo options radeon modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

[renbag (renbag)]

Confirmed here with an ATI Radeon HD 4350 in oneiric beta-1 (live-cd).
Screen corruption start shortly after boot and makes impossible to login or to switch to a text console.
Using the nomodeset option solves the problem.

[rpr nospam (rpr-nospam)]

Renzo, I'm surprised with your report as in Natty the bug was fixed for me and I didn't have to use the nomodeset option.
In Natty I have the following packages:

$ dpkg -l | grep -i xserver-xorg-video-ati
ii xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4.1 X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper
$ dpkg -l | grep -i xserver-xorg-core
ii xserver-xorg-core 2:1.10.1-1ubuntu1.2 Xorg X server - core server

Which versions do you have in Oneiric Beta 1?

[renbag (renbag)]

I was able to login normally with the ATI Radeon HD 4350 card in maverick, but in natty and oneric I have to use to nomodeset option to avoid screen corruption.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

thezood, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p xserver-xorg-video-ati REPLACE-WITH-BUG-NUMBER

Please note, given that the information from the prior release is already available, doing this on a release prior to the development one would not be helpful.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xserver-xorg-video-ati (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]