screen corruption when using xterm

[Tormod Volden]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

I am using metacity since compix crashed (bug 712810). I launched an xterm but there is only garbage in the window, and also around, on the desktop and adjacent windows (unless they are redrawn). This is on today's live image.

I experienced a full X lock up earlier while clicking around with unity/compiz. The whole screen got scrambled. Unfortunately I had not set up ssh access so I could not investigate.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.2+git20110124.fadee040-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-1.28-generic 2.6.38-rc2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-1-generic i686
Architecture: i386
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1680x1050 1400x1050 1280x1024 1440x900 1280x960 1280x854 1280x800 1280x720 1152x768 1024x768 800x600 848x480 720x480 640x480
 edid-base64: AP///////wBMowAAAAAAAAANAQOAIRV4Cof1lFdPjCcnUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBRC+QxGAaD0AYWBMAS88QAAAZAAAADwAAAAAAAAAAADzSAmQBAAAA/gBTQU1TVU5HCiAgICAgAAAA/gBMVE4xNTRQMS1MMDIKAP4=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Sat Feb 5 00:22:52 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GdmLog1: Not present
GdmLog2: Not present
GraphicsCard: Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0070]
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha i386 (20110202)
MachineType: Acer, inc. TravelMate 8100
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8:en
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=en_AG.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=(loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/tmp/natty-desktop-i386.iso noeject noprompt nohdparm
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
dmi.bios.date: 01/20/06
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: 3C25
dmi.board.name: Kingfisher
dmi.board.vendor: Acer, Inc.
dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: , Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvr3C25:bd01/20/06:svnAcer,inc.:pnTravelMate8100:pvrNotApplicable:rvnAcer,Inc.:rnKingfisher:rvrNotApplicable:cvn,Inc.:ct1:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: TravelMate 8100
dmi.product.version: Not Applicable
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer, inc.
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6~3ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.13.2+git20110124.fadee040-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-1ubuntu5
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu4

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

The dmesg output got consumed by me pressing alt-sysrq-t at one point. Here is a stripped kern.log.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Just bookmarking this while I git-bisect on the live image:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33918
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33738

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

git-bisect narrowed it down to ef9bfb262db7004bef3704e5d914687e50d3fca4. Reported upstream (above links).

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

This got a but confusing. Above commit is /after/ the natty snapshot. I think the commit was meant to solve a similar issue as the original problem (which is intermittent and I can not reproduce it now, maybe triggered by the previously running or crashing compiz) but introduced more steady corruption, which was what I saw while bisecting.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi Tormod, I'm a little confused by the links and upstream bug report... first, are you still seeing this corruption? If so, did you find one of the upstream fixes solved it, which I should pull into natty?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi, just now we've uploaded the new -ati 6.14.0 as well as a switch of defaults from the r600 to the r600g driver. The r600g is a reimplementation of the driver using the Gallium framework, which particularly affects 3D behavior. I don't know whether this is a fix for your bug, but it would be worth retesting at this point. It will probably take some hours before the packages are built and distributed to mirrors, so could you plan tomorrow (Feb 19th) to update to latest Natty and retest your bug?

Fwiw, we have some other reports of terminal-related corruption although the other reports seem distinct from this one so I don't think they're dupes. However in at least a couple of those cases the kernel seems suspect, so testing against 2.6.37 seems to be a prudent first step in isolating these bugs.

If it does still occur, please upload your /var/log/Xorg.0.log from reproducing the issue, since this will now have the r600g debug log messages in it. Thanks ahead of time.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

It works fine with today's live image.