[i845] screen goes blank seemingly at random times

[JOHN RICE]

Binary package hint: xorg

I'm having a problem with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. The screen goes blank seemingly at random times. It appears to be locking the screen. Sometimes I get the virtual terminal and sometimes it's just garbage. I un-installed the screen-saver and thought I had the problem fixed but yesterday I experienced the same problem twice right in the middle of what I was doing.

I'm running an HP Pavilion desktop with a Intel 82845G/GL video chip set. Celeron cpu 3.06Ghz, 1 Gig ram, with Ubuntu 10.04 lucid, kernel 2.6.32-24-generic, gnome 2.30.2

It's most annoying because I usually have to power cycle the machine.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.43-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Sep 18 10:41:38 2010
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100816.1)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=11e6ffa7-6b7d-4444-97cb-a8939a8878b0 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 05/09/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: 3.08
dmi.board.name: Guppy
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTek Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.03
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: 1111
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvr3.08:bd05/09/2005:svnASUSTeKComputerINC.:pn:pvr:rvnASUSTekComputerINC.:rnGuppy:rvr1.03:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct3:cvr1111:
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.32-24-generic

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device [8086:2562] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:2a00]

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi, sorry you had trouble getting Ubuntu working on your 8xx chip. I'd like to have you re-test against natty and if it's still not working right, please file a bug upstream at bugs.freedesktop.org against Xorg / Intel.

The intel driver seems to not get tested well against the 8xx chips and we've seen lots of regressions and mis-features. Unfortunately the driver code seems to be rather fragile as well, so we've found we cannot effectively patch and maintain the driver at the distro level, and thus are no longer providing development support, nor will be backporting fixes to older Ubuntu releases. You may still be able to get some technical support from places like http://askubuntu.com and similar to work around problems.

[JOHN RICE (jerice)]

Bryce

There was apparently a problem in the kernel causing X to crash. I'm not sure but I think the driver was either creating graphic errors or it could not properly handle real hardware graphic errors occurring on my system. Installing meerkat fixed the problem and it would stay up without crashing right in the middle of what I was doing. What a headache though because I was trying to get away from using windows and I almost gave up on Linux altogether because of all the problems.

Anyway I eventually defected and switched to Linux Mint 10. I like it better than ubuntu as it seems to be more user friendly. But I will at some future date download natty and give it a try just out of curiosity to see what the new gnome 3 looks like.

John

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Bryce Harrington <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 642227] Re: [i845] screen goes blank seemingly at random times
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:11:32 -0000

Hi, sorry you had trouble getting Ubuntu working on your 8xx chip. I'd
like to have you re-test against natty and if it's still not working
right, please file a bug upstream at bugs.freedesktop.org against Xorg /
Intel.

The intel driver seems to not get tested well against the 8xx chips and
we've seen lots of regressions and mis-features. Unfortunately the
driver code seems to be rather fragile as well, so we've found we cannot
effectively patch and maintain the driver at the distro level, and thus
are no longer providing development support, nor will be backporting
fixes to older Ubuntu releases. You may still be able to get some
technical support from places like http://askubuntu.com and similar to
work around problems.

** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Invalid

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You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/642227

Title:
  [i845] screen goes blank seemingly at random times

Status in “xserver-xorg-video-intel” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: xorg

  I'm having a problem with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. The screen goes blank
  seemingly at random times. It appears to be locking the screen.
  Sometimes I get the virtual terminal and sometimes it's just garbage.
  I un-installed the screen-saver and thought I had the problem fixed
  but yesterday I experienced the same problem twice right in the middle
  of what I was doing.

  I'm running an HP Pavilion desktop with a Intel 82845G/GL video chip
  set. Celeron cpu 3.06Ghz, 1 Gig ram, with Ubuntu 10.04 lucid, kernel
  2.6.32-24-generic, gnome 2.30.2

  It's most annoying because I usually have to power cycle the machine.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
  Package: xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.43-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
  Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Sat Sep 18 10:41:38 2010
  DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100816.1)
  ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=11e6ffa7-6b7d-4444-97cb-a893...