Display keeps flashing on and off on IBM Thinkpad T42

[Thomas MacCallum]

Installed the latest Ubuntu netbook distrobution (10.10) 0n an IBM Thinkpad T42.
1.6 Ghtz cpu, 1Gb ram
This is a clean install (not a dual boot)
On completion of installation, the Unity desktop flashed off every time the mouse hovered over the left hand icons, or any change in displayed windows occoured. This made the OS unusable.
Desktop version of Ubuntu 10.10 (Gnome) was installed instead (This works fine).

[Neil J. Patel (njpatel)]

Hi, could you please include some information about which graphics card you have? Also, the output of glxinfo would be great.

[Thomas MacCallum (thomas-maccallum)]

Hello Neil
... The low down =
d:
display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
physical id:
0
bus info:
pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: agp agp-2.0 pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration:
driver = radeon
latency = 66
mingnt = 8
resources:
irq : 11
memory : e0000000-e7ffffff
ioport : 3000(size=256)
memory : c0100000-c010ffff
memory : c0120000-c013ffff

++++++++++

maccallum@maccallum-ThinkPad-T42:~$ glxinfo -t
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer,
    GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_INTEL_swap_event
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer,
    GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control,
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync,
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap,
    GLX_INTEL_swap_event
GLX version: 1.4
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer,
    GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control,
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync,
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap,
    GLX_INTEL_swap_event
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R100 (RV200 4C57) 20090101 x86/MMX/SSE2 TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 7.9-devel
OpenGL extensions:
    GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multisample,
    GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
    GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
    GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
    GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
    GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_texture_rectangle,
    GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_window_pos,
    GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_logic_op,
    GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array,
    GL_EXT_convolution, GL_EXT_copy_texture, GL_EXT_draw_range_elements,
    GL_EXT_framebuffer_object, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_histogram,
    GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil,
    GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_rescale_normal,
    GL_EXT_secondary_color, G...

[Elthommo (elthommo)]

I would imagine that for Natty, the lack of openGL support will be detected and will automatically switch the desktop to Unity2D. The problem here is as I understand it, Maverick Netbook edition should have detected the lack of 3D support on the ThinkPad and switched to Gnome but didn't.

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

hey Elthommo, the bug status has been changed by a script (as the upstream task has been set to incomplete but not reverted when you answered). So, you're right, there have been some issues in maverick when the card was telling "I can handle unity", where it couldn't. It seems your card is in that case.

Can you try natty? (and set the bug to confirmed if it doesn't work). There is a fallback mode in natty to start gnome-panel abd metacity if unity or compiz can't run.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Could you please test with natty as suggested in the previous comment.

[Elthommo (elthommo)]

Hi Omer, I am writing this on the latest build of Natty on the Thinkpad and it all works fine, it has gone straight into the Gnome2 shell, no Unity.

Due to the fact that the laptop is now a family computer, I have booted from a USBkey.
The keyboard layout has defaulted to a US layout without asking me but that is another matter.

[Elthommo (elthommo)]

Also, its worth mentioning, I tested Unity 2D on this machine and that too is working fine.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for unity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]