[Arrandale] Blank screen when booting with external monitor (x86_64)

[feffemannen]

Binary package hint: xorg

When booting with external monitor connected and switched on (with or without the laptop lid closed) most of the time I get a black screen after gdm starts.
However booting with the external monitor connected but switched off I get the correct gnome-desktop on the internal monitor.. Then switching on the external screen after logging in gives me desktops on both internal and external monitor. As expected.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6~3ubuntu11
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-6.34-generic 2.6.38-rc7
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-6-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
DRM.card0.DP.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: Off
 modes: 1920x1200 1920x1080 1600x1200 1680x1050 1280x1024 1440x900 1280x960 1024x768 800x600 640x480
 edid-base64: AP///////wAi8GkoAQEBAQMVAQSlNiN4LvyBpFVNnSUSUFQhCACBQIGAlQCpQLMA0cABAQEBKDyAoHCwI0AwIDYAImAhAAAaAAAA/QA7PRhQEQAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABIUCBaUjI0dwogICAgAAAA/wBDTlQxMDMxNDRQCiAgAD4=
DRM.card0.DP.2:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.HDMI.A.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.HDMI.A.2:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.eDP.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: Off
 modes: 1280x800 1280x800
 edid-base64: AP///////wAw5E8CAAAAAAAUAQSAGhB4ArqVl1lVjCchUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBEhsAgFAgFDAYIEQABKAQAAAYcBIAgFAgIDAYINQABKAQAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAPROUMPGQYFidkAAAAAGY=
Date: Mon Mar 14 11:06:04 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: vboxhost, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-6-generic, x86_64: installed
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:7008]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha amd64 (20110302)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP EliteBook 2540p
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   product info: "RICOH", "Bay8Controller", "", ""
   manfid: 0x0000, 0x0000
   function: 254 (unknown)
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   3.3V 16-bit PC Card
   Subdevice 0 (function 0) bound to driver "pata_pcmcia"
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=sv_SE:en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=sv_SE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-6-generic root=UUID=7610eb02-7d84-482a-b9f2-4f8d34f504f5 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/09/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 68CSU Ver. F.04
dmi.board.name: 7008
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 38.2E
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: CZC0325547
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr68CSUVer.F.04:bd07/09/2010:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPEliteBook2540p:pvr:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn7008:rvrKBCVersion38.2E:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP EliteBook 2540p
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4-0ubuntu4
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.1-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6~3ubuntu11
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu5

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Does it happen if you select Classic Desktop (no effects) from the boot screen?

[feffemannen (fredrik-ellborg)]

This bug doesn't happen anymore after some upgrade last Thursday or Friday (even though that upgrade introduced other problems). I'm closing it for now.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 07:51:45AM -0000, feffemannen wrote:
> This bug doesn't happen anymore after some upgrade last Thursday or
> Friday (even though that upgrade introduced other problems). I'm
> closing it for now.
>
> ** Changed in: xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => Fix Released

Thanks for following up and closing the bug as fixed.

[feffemannen (fredrik-ellborg)]

I reoponed the bug, the problem is still there.

When booting with external monitor attached, I get a black screen just when X starts (I don't even see the login screen). Ctrl-Alt-1 gives me a prompt but Ctrl-Alt-7 just gives me a black screen.

When attaching an external monitor to an already running system all is fine and I get my desktop on both external and internal monitor.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

feffemannen,
Please run the tool intel_reg_dumper once when the screen is working correctly, and once with it showing the blank screen / out-of-range error, and attach both files. Comparing the register settings for them may highlight where the problem is.

Perhaps would also be helpful to have an Xorg.0.log from the failed boot and one from the working boot, to see how X is differing in its capabilities detection.

However, ultimately I think this may be a KMS bug.

[feffemannen (fredrik-ellborg)]

With the "success_boot" I booted with the external monitor turned off and then when desktop showed on to internal monitor I switched the external monitor on. (The result was a desktop on the external monitor as expected.)

With the "filed_boot" I booted with the external monitor turned on and after waiting till activity seized I Ctrl-Alt-F1 to command line mode and made the dumps.

Thanks for taking your time and looking into this.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thanks feffemannen,

Would you mind checking if the following command restores the blanked monitor after reproducing the problem?

xset dpms force on

I'm wondering if this is just a dpms setting issue. I have an idea on how we could workaround it if it is.

[feffemannen (fredrik-ellborg)]

Thanks for looking into this (minor) problem.

No, it does not restore the blanked screen. In fact I'm not sure how far in the booting process it gets: When I close (or open, depending on the current state) the laptop lid I get a pointer at the (external) screen but nothing else. I'll attach a photo of the screen.

Is there any other tests I could do?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi feffemannen, yes there are two other things to test:

a. Install this patched X driver, which attempts to force on DPMS from the X side of things:

https://launchpad.net/~bryce/+archive/elderberry

b. Test against the Intel experimental drm kernel tree, which we now do daily builds of:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/drm-intel-next-proposed/

(a) is a bit of a long shot; I've had others test it and so far it doesn't seem to help, but you never know. With (b) even if it still fails, that is at least helpful data since we can then take this issue upstream more easily.

[feffemannen (fredrik-ellborg)]

a. When I installed your patched driver and the laptop lid was _open_ it worked fine(!): I got the desktop showing on the external monitor as expected. The odd thing is that with the laptop lid closed I still get a blank external monitor...

b. I couldn't even boot with that kernel.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 07:23:30AM -0000, feffemannen wrote:
> a. When I installed your patched driver and the laptop lid was _open_ it
> worked fine(!): I got the desktop showing on the external monitor as
> expected. The odd thing is that with the laptop lid closed I still get
> a blank external monitor...

Yeah it may not be a perfect fix; it forces dpms on in some
circumstances but others (such as lid events) aren't really handled by X
(one of the reasons why this functionality got moved to the kernel in
the first place) so there will be corner cases this X driver solution
can't handle.

Given that... I'm on the fence about whether to pursue using this fix in
the X driver or just leave the bug until the kernel team can get a real
fix. What is your opinion, given your view of the severity of the bug?

> b. I couldn't even boot with that kernel.

Bummer; well there are also some other new kernel snapshots at
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ you could try. The
2.6.39-rc*-natty ones are snapshots of the current mainline kernel from
Linus. The drm-intel-next and drm-next ones are the staging trees for
graphics changes that are queued to go to Linus shortly, so are more
experimental than the rc Linus kernels, but less experimental than
drm-intel-next-proposed.

[feffemannen (fredrik-ellborg)]

I don't think the bug is critical in any way. Personally I don't have more than slight issues with it. I think you should leave it to get fixed for "real".

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Alright. On some other similar bugs to this one people are indicating that the drm-intel-next-proposed kernel does indeed fix it. However, we're far from narrowing down what specific patch is needed.

I am pretty sure your bug is the same as theirs. I will dupe these together. If you have time to help us with this issue, please follow up with testing results.