Precise : AMD graphics card fails when RAM increased to 4Gb

[Tony Mugan]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-radeon

I have a Powercolor ATI Radeon HD5770 graphics card on an ASUS M2V-MX motherboard.
The motherboard has two RAM slots which can take up to 2Gb each.

If I use with either of my 2Gb DIMMS in either slot it works fine.
If I then try with both DIMMs in place, the login screen appears scrambled.

I can actually provide a password and can hear the login tune but the screen is just a garbled mess.

I have also tried the proprietary ATI driver "fglrx" with the same outcome.

This is on 64-bit Ubuntu v11.04 Natty Beta with all of the latest updates.

I'd be happy to assist with any further testing.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-radeon 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.41-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Apr 10 22:46:51 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha amd64 (20110319)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110407-0ubuntu2
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu11
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.1-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.1-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu6
---
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
DkmsStatus:
 fglrx, 8.791, 2.6.35-26-generic, x86_64: built
 fglrx, 8.791, 2.6.35-27-generic, x86_64: built
 fglrx, 8.791, 2.6.35-29-generic, x86_64: installed
 fglrx, 8.791, 2.6.35-28-generic, x86_64: installed
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100406.1)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati (not installed)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-29-generic root=UUID=459e14ec-8e51-497d-91c0-6bbf70c508b2 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_AU.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-29.51-generic 2.6.35.12
Tags: maverick maverick
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-29-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout libvirtd lpadmin plugdev sambashare
XorgLogOld:

dmi.bios.date: 01/13/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1202
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: M2V-MX
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1202:bd01/13/2009:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnM2V-MX:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.35-29-generic

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Please run apport-collect 756540 after reproducing the erroneous behavior.

Also, please attach a photo of the screen showing the garbled mess. Corruption patterns can often be helpful in diagnosing memory issues.

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

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[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

My machine is dual boot with Maverick 10.10 (ATI proprietary drivers) and also Natty 11.04 (radeon drivers).
I have tried both a 5770 and a 5870 chipset card under both versions of Ubuntu and all 4 combinations fail if the the extra 2Gb DIMM is inserted.

If I leave it with a single 2Gb, they work (apart from a recent issue with a Natty update on the 5770 which causes serious GPU lockups that make the desktop unusable).

This other seemingly unrelated issue i being tracked at...
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/775575

I will post a photo of the screens (dual screen display configuration) next.

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

This photo is of one of the two screens attached to the ATI Radeon 5870 under Natty.

All latest updates have been installed.

The system is still responsive as I can Ctrl-Alt-F1 and see a change in the screen and then ctrl-Alt-F7 reverts to the image here.

However, on some reboots the system hangs. Caps-lock LED on keyboard does not toggle indicating a complete hardware lockup.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Are you using the open-source ATI driver or the proprietary fglrx driver? If you are using the open-source driver, I notice that you have an ASUS M2V-MX motherboard with a VIA chipset, so you may be encoubntering the problem described at http://choon.net/forum/read.php?21,106131,115940
This problem has been fixed upstream in kernel 3.0-rc3 and the fix has also been cc'd to the stable kernel tree. From the changelog:

commit 62fff811d73095bd95579d72f558f03c78f7914a
Author: Daniel Haid
Date: Wed Jun 8 20:04:45 2011 +1000

    drm/radeon/kms: fix for radeon on systems >4GB without hardware iommu

    On my x86_64 system with >4GB of ram and swiotlb instead of
    a hardware iommu (because I have a VIA chipset), the call
    to pci_set_dma_mask (see below) with 40bits returns an error.

    But it seems that the radeon driver is designed to have
    need_dma32 = true exactly if pci_set_dma_mask is called
    with 32 bits and false if it is called with 40 bits.

    I have read somewhere that the default are 32 bits. So if the
    call fails I suppose that need_dma32 should be set to true.

    And indeed the patch fixes the problem I have had before
    and which I had described here:
    http://choon.net/forum/read.php?21,106131,115940

    Acked-by: Alex Deucher
    cc: <email address hidden>
    Signed-off-by: Dave Airlie

A PPA of the 3.0-rc3 kernel is available at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Never mind my question about the driver. I just reread comment #22.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Given that this problem can occur with older ATI graphics cards (such as the Radeon HD4350 in the report I mentioned in comment #24), users of older versions of Ubuntu will be pleased to hear that the abovementioned patch is included upstream in kernel 2.6.33.15 (Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" uses a 2.6.32 based kernel but with DRM from the 2.6.33 kernel series).

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

madbiologist,

Thanks for the information.

I just tried the extra stick of RAM again (adding an extra 2Gb to the existing 2Gb).
Unfortunately, I did not get a responsive desktop on either of my bootable partitions

Natty 11.04 with kernel 2.6.38-8
Oneric 11.10 with kernel 3.0.0-5

Cheers,

Tony

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

Correction: the Natty kernel should read

Natty 11.04 with kernel 2.6.35-30

I am downloading the mainline kernel 2.6.38 for Natty now and will let you know how that goes.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hey tmugan,

You filed this bug report against natty, but I see it's still open and
doesn't appear to have much activity recently. So, now that oneiric
is released and stable, this may be a good point for you to upgrade
and re-test if this issue is still present there.

If it's solved in the new release and you think it's worth backporting
the fix, please indicate that. Or if having the fix in the new release
is good enough, feel free to close out the bug (or let us know and we'll
close it.)

If it's not solved, leave the bug report open. I can't promise we'll
get to it (we get way more bugs filed than we can usually get to), but
your testing and feedback can help out if and when we do.

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

This is confirmed again on Oneiric with all current updates applied.

[Tony Mugan (tmugan)]

I have just verified that is still the case.
I've also checked on the latest version of Ubuntu 12.04 Alpha 2 - Precise Pangolin

I have not heard that anyone is working on this.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Tony Mugan, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p xserver-xorg-video-ati REPLACE-WITH-BUG-NUMBER

Please note, given that the information from the prior release is already available, doing this on a release prior to the development one would not be helpful.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xserver-xorg-video-ati (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]