[i945gme] X.Org freezes when opening gnome-display-properties with multiple displays

[bruno.braga]

Binary package hint: transmission

I just installed the new 9.10 on my machine, and verified that the gnome-display-properties is not working as it was in 9.04. I am actually setting multiple display by attaching my TV to the VGA output of my laptop. I had issues before with 8.10 (worked, but getting it back to a single display would cause the gnome to get weird), which were also fixed on the 9.04 version. I even blog'd about it at: http://www.brunobraga.net/linux-geek/multiplemonitors

The issue: I plug the TV on my laptop, and nothing happens (checking dmesg, the device is properly recognized: [drm] T-14: set mode NTSC 480i 0). As usual, I would just go to the "screen resolution" (became "display" now). But when it starts, the whole Ubuntu freezes (I can not even open other tty's) completely. I enabled the apport but there is no visible crash or report of the problem, so I don't know how I can be more helpful to troubleshoot this.

Replicate the issue: connect to external monitor (I did with TV), and try to open the gnome-display-properties window.
Incidence: happens every single time

Additional info:
Machine: Toshiba Dynabook TX/66C
OS: Ubuntu 9.10 64-bits

Thanks in advance,

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

I could not find any package name associated to the "Display" application, available at: Menu > System > Preferences > Display
In the processes list, it is presented as "gnome-display-settings".

[Krzysztof Klimonda (kklimonda)]

The right package for gnome-dispaly-settings/properties would be gnome-control-center. Reassigning

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

Additional info: it works if the second monitor is plugged in since booting.

I will add the backtrace as soon as possible, thanks for the reply.

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

Sebastien,

I did the debugging using gbd, however the crash (or better, freeze),
does not seem to be saved in the file.
Here is the result of my test:

GNU gdb (GDB) 7.0-ubuntu
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>...
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/gnome-display-properties...(no debugging
symbols found)...done.
(gdb)
(gdb) handle SIG33 pass nostop noprint
Signal Stop Print Pass to program Description
SIG33 No No Yes Real-time event 33
(gdb)
(gdb) set pagination 0
(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/bin/gnome-display-properties
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]

(gnome-display-properties:27060): Gtk-WARNING **: Ignoring the separator setting

(gnome-display-properties:27060): Gtk-WARNING **: No object called:

--EOF

Can you tell me what else can I do to track this down?

Thanks in advance,

BRUNO

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

Additionally, I made a (very amateur) video to show the issue, which also happens with other monitors as well (Dell 17'' on the video).

I followed the instructions for debugging, and ran the application once for testing (video first seconds). The screenshot of this is attached here. Next, I plug in the monitor thru the VGA port and when I tried to execute the "run" command, as always, it just freezes everything. The screen goes partially black (although I can see the mouse pointer on the other screen).

So, I could not get the chance to do a backtrace command.

Anything else I can do, just let me know.

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

Sorry, here is the link for the video (58s).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54E05FWPe9I

[Roman Zimmermann (torotil)]

I too experience this problem - on a Sony Vaio VPCW11S1E and a fresh installation of karmic.

The system freezes completely when I do one of the following things:
1. boot+login, plug-in the monitor, open the display settings
2. plug-in the monitor, boot+login (monitors are mirrored), start display settings and try to deactivate mirroring

I'd guess that this is graphics driver related, I have a i915 chip.

Making a backtrace does not seem possible since the system as a whole is freezing. Please tell me if I can provide you with any additional information.

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

Hi mereandor,

I did not have the same problem on the case (2) you reported... but it
is nice (or bad) to know that I am not the only one with problems. I
was starting to think that I might be doing something really stupid
here.

I have the same one (from lshw dump):

        *-display:0
             description: VGA compatible controller
             product: Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated
Graphics Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list rom
             configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
             resources: irq:16 memory:f0a00000-f0a7ffff
ioport:1800(size=8) memory:d0000000-dfffffff(prefetchable)
memory:f0b00000-f0b3ffff

And it seems there are lots of updates on this code in the kernel...

BRUNO

[Roman Zimmermann (torotil)]

Yeah good to know that the error is reproducible. I'm not yet entirely convinced that we have the same problem. Maybe trying to use xrandr directly instead of gnome-display-settings would shed some light on this.

In the meanwhile I got sure we really have the same/a similar graphics chip.

This is the corresponding output from my laptop.
ad 2.: now it freezes soon after I login - before the desktop is fully loaded, it seems that gnome tries to restore the settings that lead to the freeze.

*-display:0
             description: VGA compatible controller
             product: Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list rom
             configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
             resources: irq:16 memory:f0000000-f007ffff ioport:1800(size=8) memory:d0000000-dfffffff(prefetchable) memory:f0400000-f043ffff

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

I ran a simple diff on the 9.04 (working back then, with 2.6.28) and the 9.10 (with 2.6.31) kernel versions, and verified that there were severe changes on the i915 chip inside the kernel, possibly resulting on the errors we are facing now (lucky guess, but it is a point to start looking).

Attached the diff:
diff linux-2.6.28/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/ linux-2.6.31/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/ > kernel_diff_2.6.28-2.6.31_i915.diff

[Roman Zimmermann (torotil)]

I think I've tracked it down a little further.

It seems that only X freezes not the system as a whole. I was able to trigger this bug from a remote computer via ssh and gather the logs afterwards. Here's what I did:

$ ssh <email address hidden>
$ export DISPLAY=:0.0
$ export XAUTHORITY=/var/run/gdm/auth-for-login-*/database
$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1366x768 59.9*+
   1360x768 59.8
   1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
   720x400 85.0
   640x400 85.1
   640x350 85.1

now I plugged in the other display

$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1280x1024+1366+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
   1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
   1152x864 75.0
   1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 72.8 75.0 60.0
   720x400 70.1
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1366x768 59.9*+
   1360x768 59.8
   1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
   720x400 85.0
   640x400 85.1
   640x350 85.1

At the moment I issued this command the screens went blank (except the pointer) as before with gnome-display-settings.
Successive calls to xrandr -q simply block until I hit ctrl+c.

I attached the output of dmesg and Xorg.0.log.
In dmesg 2495 is the time of the first "xrandr -q" 3974 the second one.

I hope this get's us a bit

[Roman Zimmermann (torotil)]

...further.

Here is the output of dmesg.

Can anyone reproduce this?

[crez (clement-rezvoy)]

Same problem for me, gnome-display-settings only works if the X server is restarted after plugging in the external monitor. Worked correctly on 9.04.

[bruno.braga (bruno-braga)]

Additional info: I had no problems on Kubuntu 9.10, same Linux Kernel (which leads us to think that the problem really might be on Gnome side).

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

setting to confirmed, raising importance to medium, adding duplicate

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

Does anyone have this issue on a graphics chipset other than 945gm?

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

Actually this (and all others) is a duplicate of bug #419328