Clobbered X screen state during installation

[Matt Zimmerman]

Setting up console-setup (1.13ubuntu3) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/keyboard-setup ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/console-setup ...
 * Setting up console font and keymap... [ OK ]

This caused my screen to become corrupted and unreadable in X. I had to switch to a text console and back in order to read anything again.

[Johan Kiviniemi (ion)]

console-setup.postinst contains "setupcon --force --save";

      --force do not check whether we are on the console

That seems to be the culprit.

[Johan Kiviniemi (ion)]

Scratch that, also the edgy version uses --force.

The breakage seems to happen when setupcon runs 'consolechars -v --tty=/dev/tty1 -f /etc/console-setup/Lat15-VGA16.psf.gz'.

I built and installed the edgy version of console-tools; the bug was triggered by it, too.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Not checking whether we're on the console is deliberate; this is needed for setup-console-under-usplash. Evidently console-tools isn't quite as ready for it as I'd hoped, though.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

consolechars doesn't cause this breakage for me (ati X driver, on a Radeon 9600). Matt, Johan, what X drivers are you using?

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

An strace of that consolechars command, or failing that all of setupcon, on a failing system would be appreciated.

[Johan Kiviniemi (ion)]

I'm using the proprietary nvidia driver :-(.

Attached a strace of the consolechars command.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

On Fri, Dec 01, 2006 at 06:42:36AM -0000, Colin Watson wrote:
> consolechars doesn't cause this breakage for me (ati X driver, on a
> Radeon 9600). Matt, Johan, what X drivers are you using?

nv

--
 - mdz

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Could you please try the following to see if it exhibits the same problem? You may want to run 'sudo setupcon' afterwards to ensure that the console is in a sane state again.

  zcat /etc/console-setup/Lat15-VGA16.psf.gz > Lat15-VGA16.psf && psfstriptable Lat15-VGA16.psf > Lat15-VGA16-stripped.psf && sudo consolechars -v --tty=/dev/tty1 -f Lat15-VGA16-stripped.psf

This will help me narrow down which ioctl confuses X.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

I did a quick survey on #ubuntu-devel, and had one failure report (reproducing this bug) from fglrx and one success report from i810.

[Johan Kiviniemi (ion)]

Colin, that triggers the bug as well.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

OK, so that suggests it's the KDFONTOP ioctl.

[Karianne Fog Heen (simira)]

Reproduce confirmed on nc8230 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HPNC8230)

[wiertel (wiertel)]

I've just saw this interesting effect during dist-upgrade in feisty. And I can have it again using
$ /etc/init.d/console-setup restart

My video card is S3 SuperSavage on IBM T23. Sometimes it show me something strange after suspend and/or hibernate, but I don't remember using those since last reboot.

[wiertel (wiertel)]

I wasn't using framebuffer or (boot)splash. Now I added vga= to kernel boot options and console-setup restart does nothing interesting.

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

I just installed the latest batch of updates in Feisty and I got bit by this bug :) To confirm the package that was causing the problems, I copied all the DEBs that had just installed in the latest round from /var/cache/apt/archives and manually reinstalled them until I got to the one that broke X: console-setup

The latest version that caused the problem is "console-setup_1.13ubuntu4_all.deb"

I'm using a Toshiba Satellite A25-S207 laptop which supposedly uses a Trident CyberBlade XP2 video chip (though the Device Manager says its a CycberBlade XPAi1) and haven't monkeyed around with any video drivers AFAIK :)

[Odin Hørthe Omdal (velmont)]

Also happening on Knot 1 Feisty Fawn. I'm not able to install it.

Using nVidia GeForce 2 MX200.

I can't install Feisty on my computer. I get part of the brown background repeated over my screen after clicking through Ubiquity keyboard selector.

[Cecil Bayona (cecil-bayona)]

Feisty is very experimental but if you still want to install it when
it goes crazy the following;

Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 then press Ctrl+Alt+F7

It will straighten the display so you can continue.

At 07:12 AM 1/8/2007, you wrote:
>Also happening on Knot 1 Feisty Fawn. I'm not able to install it.
>
>Using nVidia GeForce 2 MX200.
>
>I can't install Feisty on my computer. I get part of the brown
>background repeated over my screen after clicking through Ubiquity
>keyboard selector.
>
>--
>Clobbered X screen state during installation
>https://launchpad.net/bugs/73955

[Efrain Valles (effie-jayx)]

It still happens on feisty herd 2...

I'm using ati radeon xpress 200
on a compaq presario m2000

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Thanks, but there is no need for further confirmations of this bug at this point. Help from another developer to fix it would be wonderful, though.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

I have a machine that reproduces this bug now. According to strace, X isn't even waking up when the corruption occurs, so I doubt it's an X bug. It looks to me as if the kernel is overwriting video memory by mistake. The fbcon and vesafb modules are loaded, and X is using the vesa driver.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

OK, I've worked around this in console-setup; I have an idea as to how to implement setup-console-under-usplash while still avoiding this problem. I do think it's a kernel bug that you can't reliably set the font on another virtual console, though - and it's particularly irritating that vgacon doesn't support more than one font at all, and doesn't appear to store the font you give it anywhere other than in video memory!

console-setup (1.13ubuntu5) feisty; urgency=low

  * Add a --save-only option to setupcon, to save the keyboard/font on the
    root filesystem but not actually tell the kernel to set it up.
  * Back out part of setup-console-under-usplash changes: attempts to change
    the font must be guarded against being run while on an X display or
    while usplash is running, because some kernel console drivers (at least
    vgacon) are fundamentally unable to change the font only on some virtual
    consoles, and will corrupt video memory if you try (LP: #73955). We now
    use setupcon --save-only to make sure the font is available on the root
    filesystem for the next boot but don't load it immediately.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:08:33 +0000

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

Colin Watson wrote: "OK, I've worked around this in console-setup"

I just installed 1.13ubuntu5 in Feisty and confirm that it installed without incident, thanks! :-)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this bug to the new "linux" package. However, development has already began for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. It would be helpful if you could test the upcoming release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . If the issue still exists, please update this report by changing the Status of the "linux" task from "Incomplete" to "New". We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Thanks!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Markus Korn (thekorn)]

Unfortunately this bug report is being closed because we received no response to the last inquiry for information. However, the Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Beta release was most recently announced - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/beta . If you are able to confirm this is still an issue with this most recent release please feel free to reopen this report. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New".

Thanks,
Markus

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.