Unity fails and crashes X when second display connected

[Ben Romer]

On a Sony Vaio EB (VPCEB11FX) with the i3's integrated graphics, Unity was unable to handle a transition from laptop panel only to laptop + external display connected via HDMI. After connecting the display to the laptop and configuring the display settings for 1920x1080, when I clicked apply, the external display appeared black while the panel had a wide black stripe across the top, and graphics corruption in the launcher. When I tried to turn the external display back off, X crashed.

In Ubuntu classic mode, the problem does not occur and both displays work correctly.

[andrey_campbell (andreycampbell)]

I can confirm this. Using an Asus i3 2.53 GHz laptop. This seems to have started occurring after Natty was released (after a big update for many packages, including X).

Also, seems to cause problems with waking up from the suspended state (blank screen on wake up, hangs) when the external monitor is connected.

My external monitor is connected using a standard VGA port.

[andrey_campbell (andreycampbell)]

Other report here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10790194

[andrey_campbell (andreycampbell)]

Here's how I fixed it. I basically reverted to the previous version for 3 packages (I pinned them to the previous version). See below.

Now, a message to Ubuntu devs: Guys, I have tremendous respect for what you are doing, but could you please focus more on the stability issues and spend less of your efforts on adding new features? I would have expected that with Natty shipped, things would have gotten to a less volatile state, but instead of fixing issues, the latest update has broken stuff (overall) even more.

Here's how my /etc/apt/preferences file looks like now:

Package: unity
Pin: version 3.8.10-0ubuntu2
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: unity-common
Pin: version 3.8.10-0ubuntu2
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel
Pin: version 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7
Pin-Priority: 1001

Based on my (albeit superficial) tests, it's likely that all 3 packages introduced bugs relevant to this issue.

Here's more details on pinning: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PinningHowto

Don't do this if you don't know what you're doing, or can't handle unexpected issues (e.g. it might remove ubuntu-desktop etc.).

[andrey_campbell (andreycampbell)]

After more thorough testing I can confirm that the biggest culprit is xserver-xorg-video-intel - though the other packages may play some part. I for one have switched to Ubuntu Classic and probably won't perform any updates for the next 6 months (except perhaps for security issues) - until I see where's this new Unity/direction going.

[tcfar (blindmymind)]

same problem here..hope you can guys fix this problem soon and release an update for this problem.

[tcfar (blindmymind)]

* hope you guys

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, your crash report is either missing or challenging to deal with as a ".crash" file. Please follow these instructions to have apport report a new bug about your crash that can be dealt with by the automatic retracer.

If you are running the Ubuntu Stable Release you might need to enable apport in /etc/default/apport and restart.

Now open your file manager, navigate to your /var/crash directory and open the crash report you wish to submit.
If this fails you will have to open a terminal and file your report with 'ubuntu-bug /var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash' where _my_crash_report.crash is the crash you would like to report. If you get an error that you aren't allowed to access this report you will have to file it with 'sudo ubuntu-bug /var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash'.

I'm closing this bug report since the process outlined above will automatically open a new bug report which can then dealt with more efficiently. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

[andrey_campbell (andreycampbell)]

Is there at least a duplicate of this bug that's being worked on? The bug is very real, as can be seen from many reports across the internet. The bug is also very serious. Also, I'm pretty certain that almost anyone can reproduce this bug by just plugging in an external monitor.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

could you please follow the instructions in my comment and enable
apport? then report the bug with it so that the problem could be
looked into.

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 9:08 PM, andreic <email address hidden> wrote:
> Is there at least a duplicate of this bug that's being worked on? The
> bug is very real, as can be seen from many reports across the internet.
> The bug is also very serious. Also, I'm pretty certain that almost
> anyone can reproduce this bug by just plugging in an external monitor.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to unity.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/779681
>
> Title:
>  Unity fails and crashes X when second display connected
>
> Status in Unity:
>  Invalid
> Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
>  Invalid
>
> Bug description:
>  On a Sony Vaio EB (VPCEB11FX) with the i3's integrated graphics, Unity
>  was unable to handle a transition from laptop panel only to laptop +
>  external display connected via HDMI. After connecting the display to
>  the laptop and configuring the display settings for 1920x1080, when I
>  clicked apply, the external display appeared black while the panel had
>  a wide black stripe across the top, and graphics corruption in the
>  launcher. When I tried to turn the external display back off, X
>  crashed.
>
>  In Ubuntu classic mode, the problem does not occur and both displays
>  work correctly.
>

[Rogan Creswick (creswick)]

@Omer:

Closing this bug prematurely is *almost* enough to convince me to switch back to Debian. Please don't do that; you've assumed that a duplicate will be created; you've assumed that this failure *does* generate a crash report (it does not, at least for me, with the apport setting enabled), and you've insulted all of us by insinuating that our time is less valuable than yours.

As Anderic pointed out; this is trivial to reproduce - every user I know with Intel video (~6 people that I'm aware of) have given up and switched back to classic mode or other distros because of this bug. Most thinkpads have this problem, and it's easy to see the visual glitches by plugging in a monitor.

In my experience, it does not *always* cause the machine to crash irrevocably - I've spent the last 30-45 min trying to get a crash file without success (it only went unresponsive once, and I was able to get to a VT to restart cleanly).

I've attached some screenshots that show the visual glitches I'm experiencing, at two different monitor orientations.

[Rogan Creswick (creswick)]

Attaching a second screenshot.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

actually the mistake is on my part. As i was closing the reported crashers with the term 'crash' in them and no logs attached this one mistakenly got closed. Its not a crash but the description made me thing if it was a crash :)

[Rogan Creswick (creswick)]

@Omer: Ah, thanks for re-opening it! Sorry for my snarky response... I'm biased towards extreme skepticism from many other launchpad experiences....

[Ben Romer (bromer)]

I'll reproduce this as soon as I can and see if I get a crash file. I'll attach it here if I do.

[Brendan Donegan (brendan-donegan)]

Hi Ben,

Please check the duplicate bug and see if you agree it's a duplicate. Good news is a fix coming along shortly.

[Ben Romer (bromer)]

Agreed - that looks like the same thing to me. Thanks!