Precise live and installation forces 3D with P4M800 GPU

[Erick Brunzell]

I really struggled as far as what package to file this against so apologies in advance, but I don't know what process determines whether to load standard unity or unity-2d.

As the title says I'm running an old VIA C7 CPU with P4M800 graphics and both the live desktop appeared to be booting into the standard "ubuntu" DE, and it was so unusable I couldn't really even see what was going on. So I rebooted the 20120225 i386 live CD (actually DVD due to iso size) and chose install.

The installation completed but as expected I booted into a nearly unusable DE, although I was very patient and managed to get a terminal launched to run "echo $DESKTOP_SESSION" and it said "ubuntu". So I logged out and chose the 2D session ............ certainly that was much more acceptable.

I looked at the xorg logs and it seems x properly recognized the graphics, and I don't think this would be a ubiquity bug since it also effects the live DE, maybe a casper bug? I'm really clueless so apologies again.

After installation, managing to logout, and choosing 2D things seem acceptable (aside from unrelated bugs) and the choice of 2D is retained by lightdm if that's helpful.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity-2d 5.4.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-17.27-generic-pae 3.2.6
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-17-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 1.93-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Feb 26 01:15:01 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha i386 (20120225)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity-2d
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

This is only a test, I'm having trouble attaching logs from the effected machine/OS so I'm just testing my connection.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Still just another test, can't attach my logs so checking from the same computer :^/

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

It seems to me that the PSU is dieing in that box so I can't recover any more info until I get a new one ........... maybe a week from now.

[Jane Atkinson (irihapeti)]

This sounds very similar to what I've found on installing from the alternate CD (DVD as you say) during ISO testing. 3D is extremely frustrating and virtually unusable. At first login, I got a black screen, when then reluctantly showed the background. Window rendering was slow, jerky and left lots of artifacts.

2D is fine. It's what I mostly use, anyway.

The graphics is Via PM900 in my case.

I've attached a hardware profile.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/941275

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Just as a heads up, I'm looking at this computer now, still suspect a pending PSU failure, but if I knew for sure what logs might be helpful I should be able to move this hard drive to another box and gather those logs.

Kicking myself for not having a spare PSU ATM :^(

[Jane Atkinson (irihapeti)]

@Erick

You could play safe and copy everything in /var/log

[Jane Atkinson (irihapeti)]

When I did the install earlier, I also installed gnome-panel after I'd done the post-install tests. I noticed that gnome-panel (gnome fallback) in 3D mode is no different from 2D mode. I.e. it seems to force 2D to be used.

Maybe that's what Unity needs to do with this hardware. I think that in the past it did so, because I don't remember anything like this happening with alpha 2 or earlier. As I don't usually run Unity except when ISO testing, I can't be sure when this odd behaviour started to happen.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Another heads up, I think I have that PSU patched well enough now to keep this old beast running until a new PSU shows up. The internal PSU power switch was just roasted, like it had not been making good contact for some time, so I bypassed it ................ don't tell my insurance company ;^)

I want to clarify that I seriously doubt the PSU failure had anything to do with this hardware failure. I use this box mostly for Wubi testing a few times towards the end of each release cycle, and also as a loaner while I'm working on friends computers. It gets mistreated a lot!

But I'm sure this bug is valid. I still maintain about 20 of these old P4M800 boxes, mostly with VIA C7 CPU's but a few Biostar builds with other CPU's, and since I started using Gutsy they've never supported 3D, nor full-screen flash for that matter ................. low-end garbage now :^(

Regardless of all that I think this is now running stable enough to run an "apport-collect" if the proper package/process is assigned. Just be sure to tell me the exact command to run because I'm far from being a genius!

One more thought, if we can't fix this by Beta 1, a fairly decent work around for installation is simply to NOT choose the auto-login option. Then when the login screen appears just choose the 2D session. Subsequent boots will then retain that option in lightdm.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

@Jane

I'm sure one of the devs will let me know just what they need. I'm embarrassed that I don't know what process is involved in determining if metacity or compiz is more appropriate. I just never needed to know before.

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Whatever the problem was it appears to be fixed in the Ubuntu 20120227 i386 iso. I tried both the live session and an installation .......... no problem now.

[Jane Atkinson (irihapeti)]

Appears to be fixed in ISO 20120227.1 (alternate install).

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

Changed to invalid because this was fixed in later images.