Pink bar and disappearing background just after GRUB menu or after turning on screen after inactivity period

[Filiprino]

As the title says, I'm having a strange behaviour that appears randomly. Sometimes it happens just after passing the GRUB menu and I have to turn off computer or reboot with Ctrl + Alt + Del various times in a row until it decides to load the graphics card correctly.

It also happens when the screen turns on after having turned off due to inactivity. If after some time I try to wake up the screen by moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard, the same pink bar and colour degradation appears. The system is working perfectly as I can type my password, still listen sound and reboot by pressing menus as I can remember them, it's just that the framebuffer gets corrupted.

I have attached a video (MKV container, encoded with H.264 for video and MP3 for audio) of this event when it occurs just after the GRUB menu. It's always the same pink/blue bar and that background degradation, doesn't matter if it's at boot time or trying to continue my open session.

My laptop is an ASUS N53SN and has an Intel Core i7 2630QM (Sandy Bridge) with an NVIDIA GT550M that I have disabled by blacklisting the nouveau module. This bug was showing before doing that anyways so it doesn't matter.

Just for more indications, this laptop has a LED to tell which card is supposed to be running. If the LED is blue it's running the Intel integrated card, but if it's white then it's the NVIDIA GT500M which is supposed to be working. The LED is always white, something that for me does not have any logic because I have disabled any modules that have something to do with the NVIDIA GPU. I've even issued the Ironhide commands to disable the card and that LED maintains it's white color. I just say it because maybe it's related, although it just maybe an ACPI or WMI problem.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: linux-image-3.0.0-14-generic 3.0.0-14.23
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-14.23-generic 3.0.9
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-14-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: raul 1794 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No existe el archivo o el directorio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xdf000000 irq 49'
   Mixer name : 'Intel CougarPoint HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,10431063,00100100 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 22
   Simple ctrls : 12
Date: Mon Dec 26 01:58:32 2011
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=968e95f3-010c-4925-976d-6af33e7c279b
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111011)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. N53SN
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=es_ES.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.0.0-14-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubunturoot-raiz ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.0.0-14-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.0.0-14-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.60
SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: mei
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 08/10/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: N53SN.208
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: N53SN
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrN53SN.208:bd08/10/2011:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnN53SN:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnN53SN:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: N53SN
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

[Filiprino (filiprino)]

Hello,
I've upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and after rebooting various times in a row this problem hasn't appeared any more. I wouldn't mark it as fix released and wait a bit more, but it seems so. Probably it was kernel's fault.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Filiprino, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/908649/comments/2 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.