GPU hangs after opening google earth when compiz is enabled

[Sunil M]

Steps to Reproduce:

Hardware: Dell XPS 15 L502x (i7-2720/8G/nvidia525M with Optimus).
nvidia GPU disabled with acpi_call module compiled. (This is presumably irrelevent)
Ubuntu natty beta up-to-date.

1. Login to default unity session (with compiz).
2. Start Google Earth.

Google earth performance is quite choppy. I see messages in /var/log/syslog like :
kernel: [ 329.203437] [drm:i915_hangcheck_ring_idle] *ERROR* Hangcheck timer elapsed... blt ring idle [waiting on 23327, at 23327], missed IRQ?

There is already a bug opened for this in RedHat Bugzilla (684097). This was a regression in intel graphics driver which is fixed in 2.6.39-rc1 kernel. I installed the kernel with the patch from kernel PPA. The bug appears fixed.

Just want to know if this will be fixed in default natty kernel before release. I strongly feel that regressions like these should be fixed before final release especially when they are fixed upstream. Another key reason is that this affects all openGL apps like google earth and games which could not run without the fix.

[Harry (harry81b)]

I have the same exact problem. Are you planning to ship 11.04 with 2.6.29 kernel?

[IKT (ikt)]

Harry, as much as we'd all love for ubuntu to ship with a currently unstable kernel, 11.04 will ship with 2.6.38.

AceLan Kao do you plan on backporting the fix?

[AceLan Kao (acelankao)]

IKT,

Yes, 11.04 will ship with 2.6.38 kernel and Ubuntu kernel already freeze now.
I didn't find out the root cause of this problem yet, so it's hard to say if the patch is suitable for a SRU for Natty kernel.
I'll propose a SRU if possible and update the info here.

[AceLan Kao (acelankao)]

Hi,

This is the new natty kernel I cherry picked 4 patches from .39 kernel.
Please try it and check if this kernel fix the problem, thanks.
http://people.canonical.com/~acelan/bugs/lp753189/

[Sunil M (sunil-mujumdar)]

Hi AceLan,

I installed the kernel (amd64) and I see the same error messages in /var/log/syslog. Looks like your patches dont fix the problem. And google-earth performance is choppy. No improvement in performance.

[Felix Engemann (felix-engemann)]

It's not just Google Earth ... : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/761065

kernel: [ 329.203437] [drm:i915_hangcheck_ring_idle] *ERROR* Hangcheck timer elapsed... blt ring idle [waiting on 23327, at 23327], missed IRQ?

happens also with other opengl apps and kernel 2.6.38

[Sunil M (sunil-mujumdar)]

I can confirm that "ALT-F2" also causes a GPU hang and overall unity interface appears slow and unstable due to this defect. Since a large number of laptops have intergrated graphics, I think this defect needs to be fixed to improve first impression of Unity interface.