Blank Screen with ATI driver and Radeon 9800 Pro

[Linus Lüssing]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.04 via a usb stick (alternate image as the same bug was present with the desktop version) but the screen stays black. I hear sound (the famous drums) and I'm also able to switch to one of the terminals and have output on my monitor there. However, after doing this back and forth switching a couple of times, I'm not having any output for the terminals as well. I'm still able to access the pc via ssh though, so the pc did not freeze completely. The only modification I did I'm currently aware of is adding the option 'nomodeset' to the boot parameter (http://askubuntu.com/questions/42921/ati-radeon-nomodeset-kernel-parameter-is-necessary-since-i-upgraded-to-kernel-2).

I'm attaching some Xorg log files from this switching procedure, Xorg.0.log-blank-screen* is the current Xorg.0.log file after switching with Ctrl+Alt+F7, Xorg.0.log-teminal* the Xorg.0.log file after switching to a terminal. After Xorg.0.log-blank-screen4 I'm not able to get anything on my screen again. I'm also attaching the according dmesg.log from at the end of this procedure.

White I also tried to narrow down the problem:

Tried things from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/BlankScreen:
* vesafb.nonsense=1 -> did not help
* removing 'quiet splash vt.handover=7' -> did not help

despite from xf86-video-ati 6.14.0 tried compiling and using older and newer versions:
(http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonBuildHowTo)
* 6.12.7, 6.14.1 -> did not help

tried 2.6.39-2-generic (from oneiric), removed nomodeset:
-> did not help

tried booting Ubuntu 10.04, but:
"Unknown keyword in configuration file: gfxboot"
"vesamenu.c32: not a COM32R image"
"boot: "
"vesamenu.c32: not a COM32R image"
"boot: "
[...]

The only thing that worked was starting in graphics failsafe mode. At the moment I'm running the system with the vesa driver (having copied /etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.). But I would like to get it running with the actual ati open source driver.

I'm running a little bit out of ideas what else I could test. Any ideas and hints appreciated.

Cheers, Linus

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-radeon 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Mon May 16 20:58:48 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro] [1002:4e48] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:0002]
   Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:0003]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110426)
Lsusb:
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c52f Logitech, Inc. Wireless Mouse M305
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366A-8233
PlymouthDebug: Error: [Errno 13] Keine Berechtigung: '/var/log/plymouth-debug.log'
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=82d35100-cb03-46e7-99f9-b8ca8625db47 ro nomodeset quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Software
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/06/2002
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 6.00 PG
dmi.board.name: VT8366A-8233
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvr6.00PG:bd11/06/2002:svnVIATechnologies,Inc.:pnVT8366A-8233:pvr:rvn:rnVT8366A-8233:rvr:cvn:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: VT8366A-8233
dmi.sys.vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
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 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7

[Linus Lüssing (linus-luessing)]

Ok, got it, ticket #655200 got me on the right track: It's just the DVI output that shows nothing with the radeon driver (while vesa does). Before the LCD screen was connected to the DVI output of the graphics card via a DVI-to-VGA adapter (because there used to be another screen on the normal VGA output). Now I connected the LCD screen directly to the VGA output and it works, the screen is not blank anymore.

I have now idea which packages fault that is though and where something needs to be changed and fixed. Would be great and desired to have a screen working connected to any output by default, I suppose :).

Cheers, Linus

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Linus Lüssing, 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.]