X freezes after login on iMac8.1 after upgrade to oneiric

[Wichert Akkerman]

This problem appeader after upgrading to oneiric and restarting the system. lightdm works fine, but seconds after logging in X freezes, and Xorg and compiz are both spinning. Nothing responds anymore: keyboard and mouse are both dead. I can still log in remotely luckily, which is how I was able to capture some information. Killing Xorg (via service lightdm stop) did not have any noticable effect: the screen was still showing an unresponsive X screen. reboot appeared to not work either, forcing me to powercycle the machine. This freeze happens every time.

I have attached a lockup.tar.gz file with the dmesg, lspci and Xorg.0.log for two consecutive boot/login cycles/

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.10.4-1ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 280.13 Wed Jul 27 16:53:56 PDT 2011
 GCC version: gcc version 4.6.1 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.1-9ubuntu3)
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,place,move,imgpng,resize,regex,grid,animation,snap,session,compiztoolbox,vpswitch,expo,unitymtgrabhandles,gnomecompat,mousepoll,ezoom,workarounds,wall,fade,scale,unityshell]
Date: Fri Oct 14 09:47:13 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-10-13 17:07:24.220393
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 8800M GTS] [10de:0609] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Apple Computer Inc. Device [106b:00a7]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
JockeyStatus:
 kmod:wl - Broadcom STA wireless driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use) [auto-install]
 xorg:nvidia_173 - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
 xorg:nvidia_173_updates - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
 xorg:nvidia_current - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use)
 xorg:nvidia_current_updates - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
MachineType: Apple Inc. iMac8,1
ProcEnviron:
 LC_COLLATE=C
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=C
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=de1f3495-364d-4ab7-9c4e-4148d2e2851c ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg-server
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-13 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 02/09/08
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: IM81.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091538
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Mac-F227BEC8
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: PVT
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag#
dmi.chassis.type: 13
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-F227BEC8
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrIM81.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091538:bd02/09/08:svnAppleInc.:pniMac8,1:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-F227BEC8:rvrPVT:cvnAppleInc.:ct13:cvrMac-F227BEC8:
dmi.product.name: iMac8,1
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu3
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu26
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1

[Wichert Akkerman (wichert)]

Booting with the older 2.6.38-11-generic kernel did not help.

[Wichert Akkerman (wichert)]

I did a quick attempt to use an older nvidia driver by modifying /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphic-drivers.conf like so:

#blacklist nvidia-173
#alias nvidia nvidia_current
blacklist nvidia_current
alias nvidia nvidia-173

But this did not work due to API version conflicts with the X driver:

[ 310.056496] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 173.14.30 Sat Apr 16 21:49:29 PDT 2011
[ 321.209685] NVRM: API mismatch: the client has the version 280.13, but
[ 321.209686] NVRM: this kernel module has the version 173.14.30. Please
[ 321.209687] NVRM: make sure that this kernel module and all NVIDIA driver
[ 321.209688] NVRM: components have the same version.

[Wichert Akkerman (wichert)]

A workaround seems to be to remove nvidia-current and force reinstallation of nvidia-173, so everything gets recompiled with the right API

apt-get remove nvidia-current
apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-173

and then reboot. So far X has been working for five minutes, which is already five minutes more than nvidia-current driver managed.

[Wichert Akkerman (wichert)]

Moving to nvidia-current, since this appears to be a driver bug.

[Olivier Robert (novhak)]

nvidia-173 is a special legacy driver, which doesn't cover your 8800M GTS card. Hence don't expect performance... Better try nouveau instead !

I have Oneiric x86_64 too and experience similar problems with my 8800M GTX, i.e. systematic X freeze shortly after startup. Logging in doesn't matter here, it freezes anyway after some time waiting at the login screen. I have the same strange /proc/driver/nvidia/params too (I don't think the value 4294967295 is anything like normal where it appears). A few system BIOS/vBIOS flashes didn't change anything.

If you dare breaking your distribution's packaging system, you could try an old version of the driver (but NOT the legacy 173 one) from nVidia's website. Eventually it used to work in the past, with older drivers, it started freezing with last summer's drivers if I remember correctly... but those older drivers had problems anyway, most notably with flash players.

I have been suspecting a buggy BIOS, especially the ACPI DSDT, since I got ACPI-related error messages. You share at least one with me :
[Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored

Booting with acpi=off doesn't solve it though, at least for me.

Anyway, can't help thinking our problems are related. The 8800M GTS and 8800M GTX are similar, both G92M, and released the same day by nVidia... I will come back if I ever find a solution to this !

[Wichert Akkerman (wichert)]

I don't need performance, but stability is important. I'll try the nouveau driver.

[Olivier Robert (novhak)]

If you're using Oneiric, the only thing you need to do is remove the nvidia_173 or nvidia_173_updates driver.

The command "jockey-text -l" will give you what supplementary drivers are installed, which you can remove with e.g. :
jockey-text -d xorg:nvidia_173

Remove all activated, xorg-prefixed drivers and the system should fall back to nouveau. IMHO nouveau is the best you can get if you don't have a proprietary driver supporting your GPU. If you're a perfectionist, you can even purge the remnants of the nvidia drivers, get a list with :
dpkg -l 'nvidia*'

You will notice some packages have the status flags "rc" which means they're removed/scheduled for removal ("r"), and configuration files remain ("c"). Then do an "apt-get purge" followed by the names of those nvidia "rc" packages separated by spaces... But don't remove nvidia-common !

[dino99 (9d9)]

That version is no more supported; please open a new bug report if the actual archive found version also has the same issue.