Unity Live session nvidia display unuseable

[cwsnyder]

E-Machines T5212 Intel Pentium D805 2G/nVidia GeForce 6200TX 256M PCI-e add-on display card/Etronix 1701B 17" 1280x1024 LCD display
Natty beta download from 6 April 2011
Presently operating on same boot CD after checked for errors in disk, using the motherboard ATI Radeon Express 200 display driver.
I have had problems in the past because the Etronix display card doesn't correctly report an EDID.

When I tried to boot with my 'normal' nVidia display card in the system on the Natty beta CD burned from a download from Ubuntu.com, everything seemed to operate normally until I got to the desktop display. I just used the defaults, did not try to download proprietary drivers, indeed didn't touch the keyboard after beginning the boot from the CD.

At the desktop, the display would show for a second, then go black for a second, cycling endlessly. The only variation was that the display when showing the background of the desktop would sometimes show the Unity menu, sometimes the top bar, sometimes just the background, in no sequence that I could determine, although I left it running for about 30 seconds to see if it would stabilize. USB keyboard and mouse had no effect. I got out by turning off the power.

Any further information which I can supply?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for your bug report, is that still an issue using the current version? could you copy your .xsession-errors log to the bug?

[cwsnyder (carlwsnyder)]

Following are my present .xsession-errors from the CD I created this morning. My display still blinks, but much slower, and my display comes back to the same display. It is usable.

[begin file]
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
Setting IM through im-switch for locale=en_US.
Start IM through /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/all_ALL linked to /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/default.
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/tmp/keyring-jqIaNB
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/keyring-jqIaNB/ssh
GNOME_KEYRING_PID=4786
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/tmp/keyring-jqIaNB
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/keyring-jqIaNB/ssh
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/tmp/keyring-jqIaNB
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/keyring-jqIaNB/ssh
Window manager warning: Type mismatch: Expected `int' got `bool' for key /apps/metacity/general/num_workspaces
Window manager warning: 0 stored in GConf key /apps/metacity/general/num_workspaces is out of range 1 to 36
Initializing nautilus-gdu extension

(nautilus:4813): GConf-CRITICAL **: gconf_value_free: assertion `value != NULL' failed
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/UpdateManager/SimpleGtkbuilderApp.py:35: GtkWarning: Ignoring the separator setting
  self.builder.add_from_file(path)
WARNING:root:timeout reached, exiting
** (process:4823): DEBUG: desktop-launch-listener.vala:118: ran with uri: file:///home/ubuntu

(nautilus:4813): GConf-CRITICAL **: gconf_value_free: assertion `value != NULL' failed

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed
Nautilus-Share-Message: Called "net usershare info" but it failed: 'net usershare' returned error 255: net usershare: cannot open usershare directory /var/lib/samba/usershares. Error No such file or directory
Please ask your system administrator to enable user sharing.

(nautilus:4813): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_value_get_object: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_OBJECT (value)' failed
** (process:4823): DEBUG: desktop-launch-listener.vala:118: ran with uri: file:///home/ubuntu/.xsession-errors
** (process:4823): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
** (process:4823): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 3 events
** (process:4823): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
[end file]

Any more information which I can provide? Operating with nVidia GeForce 6200.

Note: I tried with the option to load only free software and didn't have this problem, either.

[cwsnyder (carlwsnyder)]

I forgot to add to my previous comment, the desktop default seems to be GNOME, not Unity, for this download Live session.

When I go to a terminal session, I get a nouveau error: "DDC responded, but no EDID for VGA-1"

As noted in my original report, my Etronix 1701B LCD display does not respond with a valid EDID, which I have been using /etc/X11/xorg.conf or xrandr to fix since Ubuntu 7.04. The default 1024x768@60Hz display is a valid mode for this monitor, which is 1280x1024.

Should I try to install Natty to a flash drive persistent image to fix this?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[cwsnyder (carlwsnyder)]

No real change in effect, Unity, GNOME 3.x, and Cinnamon still unusable.

Hardware was changed to a BioStar N68S38 motherboard/Athlon II x3 processor/8G RAM/Graphics: Card: NVIDIA C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a]
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NV4C GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3
Monitor: Etronix 1701B 17" 1280x1024 LCD display does not give proper edid
I can now sometimes get a stable display on one of the three above DEs.until I attempt to actually open menu items, then the display freezes or goes for repeated pattern of dots on the screen, in either case the display freezes after a few seconds, requiring hard reset or power cycling
Knoppix with LXDE & Compiz works fine, as does Bodhi 2.x and 3.x and Xubuntu and Mate have remained working with no problems.
I am thinking that all three of the above do not handle the case where the edid is not returned from the monitor to the computer acceptably.
My only other monitor had been an old NEC Multisync II (800x600), but I obtained a Sansui model SLED 2900 I television/monitor and seeking confirmation.

[cwsnyder (carlwsnyder)]

The Sansui monitor trial reminded me that there are other outcomes beside the freezing and repeating pattern of dots. This trial set ALMOST worked from the trials of the LIVE disks of Unity, GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Cinnamon desktops, but random patterns made the display still unusable. The graphics did not freeze, and the nVidia proprietary driver may have worked, did not try in this set of trials. The other outcome which happened on Unity, GNOME/GNOME Classic and Cinnamon was to have yellow and white on white background for the screen text and other graphic elements, rendering most text onscreen unusable. BTW, the Sansui SLED2900I model was capable of 1280x1024.

I tried Ubuntu 14.04 for Unity. Xubuntu 14.04 & 14.10 worked fine, as is PCLinuxOS LXDE.

Next test would be to check using the nVidia proprietary driver and/or installed system.

[cwsnyder (carlwsnyder)]

With the Sansui monitor, I was able to install the nvidia-current package and get a stable display. nvidia-current had not helped with the Etronix 1701B monitor on which the edid was not read correctly. I am typing this on a Unity desktop on 14.04, so my problems seem to have been solved. I also tried on GNOME desktop with similar results.

My problem seems to have been a combination of hardware (edid not reading properly) and driver (nouveau) not working together, and I will so report publicly.