Mir is just a black screen and mouse cursor on Nvidia GTX 900 when using nouveau

[Daniel van Vugt]

Nvidia (using nouveau not binary drivers): Mir servers freeze on start-up for 30 seconds, and then you get just a black screen and mouse cursor (which at least moves).

Using lp:mir r3480 ...

[2016-04-27 15:20:19.369559] mirserver: Selected driver: mir:mesa-kms (version 0.22.0)
nvc0_screen_create:762 - Error allocating PGRAPH context for M2MF: -22
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.934145] mirserver: Using hardware cursor
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937691] mirserver: Initial display configuration:
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937703] mirserver: 0.36: unused DVI-I
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937713] mirserver: 0.39: DVI-D 24.0" 520x320mm
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937722] mirserver: Current mode 1920x1200 59.95Hz
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937731] mirserver: Preferred mode 1920x1200 59.95Hz
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937740] mirserver: Logical position +0+0
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937781] mirserver: 0.41: unused HDMI-A
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937799] mirserver: 0.43: unused DisplayPort
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.937972] mircommon: Loading modules from: bin/../lib/server-modules/
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.938015] mircommon: Loading module: bin/../lib/server-modules/graphics-android.so.9
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.938107] <WARNING> mircommon: Failed to load module: bin/../lib/server-modules/graphics-android.so.9 (error was:libhardware.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.938119] mircommon: Loading module: bin/../lib/server-modules/graphics-mesa-kms.so.9
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.938142] mircommon: Loading module: bin/../lib/server-modules/server-mesa-x11.so.9
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.938536] mircommon: Loading module: bin/../lib/server-modules/input-evdev.so.5
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.955316] mirserver: Selected input driver: mir:evdev-input (version: 0.22.0)
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.955500] mirserver: Mir version 0.22.0
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962627] GLRenderer: EGL vendor: Mesa Project
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962645] GLRenderer: EGL version: 1.4 (DRI2)
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962651] GLRenderer: EGL client APIs: OpenGL OpenGL_ES OpenGL_ES2 OpenGL_ES3
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962657] GLRenderer: EGL extensions: EGL_EXT_buffer_age EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import EGL_KHR_create_context EGL_KHR_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_gl_renderbuffer_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_2D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_cubemap_image EGL_KHR_image EGL_KHR_image_base EGL_KHR_image_pixmap EGL_KHR_surfaceless_context EGL_MESA_configless_context EGL_MESA_image_dma_buf_export
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962670] GLRenderer: GL vendor: VMware, Inc.
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962679] GLRenderer: GL renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.8, 256 bits)
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962688] GLRenderer: GL version: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
[2016-04-27 15:20:51.962697] GLRenderer: GLSL version: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00

lspci:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] (rev a1)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The fallback to software rendering (llvmpipe) is a good sign. And a moving mouse cursor is also a good sign (working KMS).

Although I don't yet see anything else on screen. Maybe our renderer is using features that LLVMpipe lacks?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

On one occasion also got:

Dynamic exception type: boost::exception_detail::clone_impl<boost::exception_detail::error_info_injector<std::runtime_error> >
std::exception::what: Failed to schedule page flip

Maybe we're in a mode that needs blitting instead of flipping. I know that's never been implemented in mesa-kms yet.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Also the kernel logs this during the 30 seconds of hanging:

[ 470.282196] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: fifo: read fault at 0000011000 engine 07 [PBDMA0] client 06 [HOST] reason 00 [PDE] on channel -1 [00ff86f000 unknown]
[ 485.280032] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: mir_proving_ser[3146]: failed to idle channel 2 [mir_proving_ser[3146]]
[ 500.280104] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: mir_proving_ser[3146]: failed to idle channel 2 [mir_proving_ser[3146]]

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Confirmed, it appears KMS page flipping is not happening at all on the GTX 970.

Our renderer supports LLVMpipe just fine (as I discovered separately today using Intel graphics).

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Also note that Mir supporting the Nvidia binary driver won't solve this. Ubuntu setup and live images need to work, and they won't have the Nvidia binary driver.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Page flipping on this system actually works fine, so long as you use dumb buffers:
https://github.com/dvdhrm/docs/blob/master/drm-howto/modeset-vsync.c

Unfortunately Mir does not support dumb buffers, so Mir can't display anything right now.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

how is this different than, say, bug 1537389 on (at least) intel?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for pointing that bug out. It has not been assigned to the right packages sufficiently...

Also, that bug is not about Nvidia/nouveau, whereas this one is.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Victor gonzalez (victor-gonzalez-0)]

same here with product: GF119M [GeForce GT 520MX]. Anything I can do?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Tried some more recent kernels... and the problems got worse: bug 1613158

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Incomplete. I can't seem to even boot Ubuntu on this system any more. Maybe wait till yakkety is released and try again.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for mir (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Mir because there has been no activity for 60 days.]