Screen Drawing Ceases Updating (ex, ScreenSaver stays black), Mouse-Pointer Updates Correctly

[Dave Lindquist]

On an unpredictable basis (from twice per day to once a week), my login session simply stops 'drawing'.

Most often, this happens when waking from screensaver -- I attempt to wake from screensaver, and the screen stays black (the screensaver is 'blank screen'). However, moving the mouse around, the mouse pointer correctly changes arrow and text cursor shapes when moving over the 'correct' locations for entry of password on-screen.

Ubuntu 11.04
Unity 3D interface (default)
Intel Sandybridge system (sandybridge graphics)
xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3.1

Latest updates all installed. No 'funky' software (for example, dock software, etc).

Oddly enough, if two sessions (two different users) are logged in, the Ctrl-Alt-F8 keystroke will switch to the second session, which will draw correctly.

Remotely doing a kill of the correct gnome-session will 'log it out' in some semblance of normality, and begin drawing again. (i.e, I can log in on that same vt with no problems).

This has also happened at least once on login -- i.e., I'm stuck at the logging in graphic, but the mousepointer changes when going over windows that have 'opened' invisibly.

Is there anywhere I could look for further information in debugging this?

My /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old gives this at the end (the VT switch will be me hitting Ctrl-Alt-F8, likely), the rest is likely my kill of gnome-session:

[ 81011.234] (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
[ 81230.157] (II) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: Close
[ 81230.603] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 81230.603] (II) Unloading evdev
[ 81230.603] (II) Eee PC WMI hotkeys: Close
[ 81230.603] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 81230.603] (II) Unloading evdev
[ 81230.603] (II) Microsoft Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse v2.0 : Close
[ 81230.603] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 81230.603] (II) Unloading evdev
[ 81230.603] (II) UVC Camera (046d:0804): Close
[ 81230.604] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 81230.604] (II) Unloading evdev
[ 81230.604] (II) Power Button: Close
[ 81230.604] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 81230.604] (II) Unloading evdev
[ 81230.604] (II) Video Bus: Close
[ 81230.604] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 81230.604] (II) Unloading evdev
[ 81230.604] (II) Power Button: Close
[ 81230.604] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
[ 81230.604] (II) Unloading evdev
[ 81230.897] ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log

My /var/log/Xorg.1.log has this (not sure if this is valid or not):

[ 81011.412] (WW) intel(0): first get vblank counter failed: Invalid argument
[ 81011.420] (WW) intel(0): first get vblank counter failed: Invalid argument
[ 81011.429] (WW) intel(0): first get vblank counter failed: Invalid argument
[ 81011.576] (WW) intel(0): first get vblank counter failed: Invalid argument

Any hints would be appreciated!

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-10.46-generic-pae 2.6.38.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-10-generic-pae i686
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,resize,imgpng,unitymtgrabhandles,grid,vpswitch,regex,gnomecompat,animation,compiztoolbox,commands,expo,place,move,workarounds,obs,mousepoll,session,snap,wall,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Fri Aug 5 18:20:19 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-05-12 06:42:26.788318
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 vboxhost, 4.0.12, 2.6.38-10-generic-pae, i686: installed
 virtualbox-ose, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-10-generic-pae, i686: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!) (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!) (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0112] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:844d]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-10-generic-pae root=UUID=0ddb05b2-f241-409b-8b53-1ab081c9f581 ro quiet splash i915.semaphores=1 vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-05-12 (85 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 02/11/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0603
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P8H67-M LX
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0603:bd02/11/2011:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP8H67-MLX:rvrRevX.0x:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110606-0ubuntu1~natty2
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+4ubuntu3.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4.1
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

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hey junk-dlindquist,

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.

[Dave Lindquist (junk-dlindquist)]

I have upgraded to oneric, and this problem appears to no longer happen (or at least, hasn't happened yet).

I suspect this was driver related, and given the fact that oneric gives me about 600 fps as opposed to 60 fps in natty, I'm inclined to think that the graphics driver quality has improved overall.

My guess is that this bug can now be closed.

[Maarten Bezemer (veger)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.