[RV280] Guest session screen corruption

[Jacopo Lorenzetti]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

When I click on Guest session three things can happen:

1. The Guest session is started and everything works correctly. This happened only when I tried booting ubuntu with very few Startup Applications enabled and I started the Guest session without other applications running.

2. This is the most common situation. The Guest session is started and works correctly, but the screen on VT8 only shows frozen garbage (i.e. corrupted fragments of what was present on the screen in VT7, see attached images 01 and 02). I can't see anything in the Guest session but everything works: I can switch back to VT7 and I can even close the Guest session using blindly my mouse and keyboard.
I noticed that when I press CTRL-ALT-F7, after leaving the corrupted VT8 screen and just before entering VT7, I can see for a moment an image of the Guest session screen updated and without any corruption.
Usually the mouse pointer never gets corrupted and behaves correctly, but sometimes instead of the mouse pointer I see a square of garbage. Sometimes the system suddenly hangs of reboots.

3. It seems that the Guest session is starting, but the screen becomes black and a mesmerizing waterfall of light slowly starts drawing some scary grey clouds on the screen (see attached image 03). The system completely hangs and the sysrq keys don't have any effect.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.1-1ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic i686
Architecture: i386
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1400x1050 1280x1024 1280x1024 1440x900 1440x900 1280x960 1152x921 1280x800 1280x800 1152x864 1024x768 1024x768 1024x768 832x624 800x600 800x600 800x600 800x600 640x480 640x480 640x480 640x480 720x400
 edid-base64: AP///////wAEcoCtZGDOoC4QAQMIKRp46JrlplhJmSMRUFS/74CQT5UPgYCBQIEPgQBxkHFPxCKgoFCEGjAwIDYAmgERAAAeAAAA/QA4TB9UDgAKICAgICAgAAAA/wBMODAwQzAwMTQwMTAKAAAA/ABBTDE5MTZXCiAgICAgAIc=
Date: Fri Dec 3 19:23:53 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7N8X-X
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=2600e4e6-fde9-48d2-aeae-5e5fee5c0460 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=it_IT.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
dmi.bios.date: 08/04/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: ASUS A7N8X-X ACPI BIOS Rev 1011
dmi.board.name: A7N8X-X
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: REV 2.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufactture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvrASUSA7N8X-XACPIBIOSRev1011:bd08/04/2004:svnASUSTeKComputerINC.:pnA7N8X-X:pvrREV2.xx:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnA7N8X-X:rvrREV2.xx:cvnChassisManufactture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: A7N8X-X
dmi.product.version: REV 2.xx
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.35-23-generic

[bugbot (bugbot)]

Hey jacopoL,

Hi, have you had a chance to test if this bug is still present in natty?

If it does (and if you're the original reporter), please boot into natty
and run the command:

  apport-collect <bug-number>

which will update the bug with fresh logs and tag the bug as affecting
natty. (It is best to run this right after reproducing the problem.)

[bugbot (bugbot)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.