[i855] Acer TravelMate 290: Fn + F5 (CRT/LCD) cause crash-down

[Christine Liebig]

Reproduce by pressing special function key "Fn" plus "F5".

All other hotkey work just fine on my laptop with Dapper (6.06).

What the key should do:
Switch between external monitor, laptop display and both.

Key code:
Unfortunately, I'm not able to retrieve the key code.

Method 1 (Keyboard Shortcuts) and Method 3 ("sudo tail -f /var/log/acpid") are both followed by a crash-down when I press the critical key.

Method 2 ("sudo showkey -u | tee -a hotkey-log.txt" in the console) doesn't give any useable output, but exits with an error message.

My laptop:
Manufacturer: Acer
Product name: TravelMate 290
Version: 290

[Do Huynh (huynhdo)]

Same problem on my laptop (Ubuntu 6.06, Acer TravelMate 290)

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and help to improve Ubuntu.

Do you still see this problem with Ubuntu 9.04 or with karmic?

If showkey exits with an error message, what is that error?

If you run 'sudo service acpid stop' and run these commands from the console, do you still see a crash?

[Christoph Jüngling (chris.juengling)]

I have indeed a similar problem with the same machine. When I press the Fn+F5 key, my graphic display always shows crazy patterns, which I didn't manage yet to go away. I usually then have to remove the supply cable and the battery, then reboot.

'sudo service acpid stop' didn't change anything of this.

In fact I have reached it in two situations that the VGA output was active and the beamer shows some pictures. But I can't get this reliably to be done, so it's quite useless.

The same computer with the formerly installed Windows XP had no problems with this key and external monitors/beamers.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Chris,

Which release of Ubuntu are you seeing this on?

[Christoph Jüngling (chris.juengling)]

I have currently Ubuntu 9.04, but have seen this in 8.10 and 8.04, too.
The service command was only tried in 9.04.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Reassigning to the xorg package, since it sounds like the problem is not with processing of the hotkey, but with the display not working right when it's processed.

If you are still seeing this issue in Ubuntu 9.10, please run 'apport-collect -p xorg 70064', so that the X maintainers know which chipset and driver you have.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi kiki,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn` and `dmesg`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (and maybe Xorg.0.log.old) file from after reproducing this issue. If you're using a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

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

[Christine Liebig (kiki)]

Hi Bryce,

I have since upgraded to Hardy 8.04 LTS and the behaviour of the keys "Fn + F5 (CRT/LCD)" is quite different now:

 1) There is no crash anymore.
 2) When pressing once, the external screen is swichted on in addition to the laptop screen, but has some flickering noise.
 3) When pressing a second time, the laptop screen is swichted off, and the external screen works perfectly.
 4) After that I cannot switch on the laptop screen anymore. I tried by repeatedly pressing "Fn + F5 (CRT/LCD)", and by using the command "sudo i810switch lcd on", but I cannot switch on the graphic display anymore without restarting the computer.

Another issue (maybe unrelated) is the following: In mirror screen mode I use the command "sudo i855crt on 1024x768@60" which removes the flickering, BUT (and this completely puzzles me) on the external display a small (~1%) either white or black square appears in the top left corner that cannot be removed.

I can try to provide more information, if you tell me what could be of interest.

Please also inform me, if this should be filed elsewhere...

[torrom (torrom1)]

Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb:
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Acer TravelMate 290
Package: xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu10
PackageArchitecture: i386
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-9-rt root=UUID=1d567a40-5b98-4b99-8c60-d787ace96098 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-9.152-rt
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu10
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-9-rt i686
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2321): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:2414): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2425): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
dmi.bios.date: 07/29/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: ACER
dmi.bios.version: V2.00
dmi.board.name: 855GM
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: FAB-2
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.chassis.version: A1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnACER:bvrV2.00:bd07/29/2004:svnAcer:pnTravelMate290:pvr290:rvnIntelCorporation:rn855GM:rvrFAB-2:cvnIntelCorporation:ct8:cvrA1:
dmi.product.name: TravelMate 290
dmi.product.version: 290
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-9-rt

[Vaughan Newton (balkrah)]

I have a Dell Studio XPS, and when I press fn + display button the screen freezes and the laptop becomes unresponsive. I am using karmic 9.10.

[tristan8276 (tristan8276)]

Confirming based upon number of users affected and amount of information given.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The functionality triggered by this hotkey combo is no longer handled by X, but is communicated between GNOME and the kernel.

Please re-test natty and feel free to reopen if it is still problematic.