[Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS 32-bit] Unity GUI will hang during bootup with AMD Radeon HD 4350 (RV710) and VIA Technologies PT880 Ultra chipset

[fpgahardwareengineer]

Hi,

This bug report is very similar to Launchpad bug #1063656 (Unity GUI will hang during bootup with ATI Technologies Radeon X600 (RV380) and VIA Technologies PT880 Ultra chipset).

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1063656

I have this mainboard called ASUS P5VD1-X.
This is a little "odd ball" of a mainboard.
It contains an AGP 8X Slot (AGP 1.5V) and a PCI Express Gen 1 x16 Slot (x16 connector, x4 link).
Both AGP and PCI Express are connected to the Northbridge chip, VIA Technologies PT880 Ultra.
PT880 Ultra is one of the last VIA Technologies chipset that supported Intel platform.
A perfect mainboard to do hardware compatibility validation against number of cards and Linux.
I updated the BIOS to the last release version (Revision 0704).
The problem is, booting will stop after displaying Unity GUI default background wallpaper image under Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS 32-bit.
It won't get to displaying launch bar with icons on the left side of the screen or a title bar on the top part of the screen.
I suspect this bug to be there due to lack of testing.
Very few VIA Technologies PCI Express supporting chipset exist, and I assume very little validation testing was done on VIA Technologies PCI Express supporting chipset.
        The only temporary workaround I found was to run Ubuntu 12.04 LTS in recovery mode, and everything works fine.
It is just that it won't work the normal way.

System Configuration:

- Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS 32-bit
- ASUS P5VD1-X mainboard
  * BIOS Revision 0704
  * VIA Technologies PT880 Ultra (Northbridge)
  * VIA Technologies VT8237R Plus (Southbridge)
- Intel Pentium D
  * 2.66 GHz
  * 533 MHz FSB
- 1 GB MB DDR400 DDR SDRAM
  * 512 MB DDR400 DDR SDRAM DIMM X 2 (in dual channel mode)
- MSI R4350 MD1GD3H graphics card
  * AMD Radeon HD 4350 (RV710)
  * 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM
  * PCI Express x16
- Maxtor 80 GB PATA hard drive
- Sony PATA DVD-RW drive
- PS/2 keyboard
- PS/2 mouse

Workaround:

Press Shift during boot to enter GRUB's menu screen.
Select recovery mode boot instead of normal boot

Please don't flag this bug as a duplicate because I was told that one report per hardware configuration.

Regards,

fpgahardwareengineer

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+12ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-34.53-generic-pae 3.2.33
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-34-generic-pae i686
.tmp.unity.support.test.1:

ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu15
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Sun Dec 9 15:18:10 2012
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, even including gdb or git bisection work if needed
GpuHangFrequency: Continuously
GpuHangReproducibility: Yes, I can easily reproduce it
GpuHangStarted: Today
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV710 [Radeon HD 4350] [1002:954f] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device [1462:8112]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120817.3)
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-34-generic-pae root=UUID=a310a45e-a35f-4a97-9856-3404fdef1e8b ro recovery nomodeset
Renderer: Software
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/16/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0704
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P5VD1-X
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0704:bd11/16/2006:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP5VD1-X:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.8+bzr3121-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.32-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.4-0ubuntu0.2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.4-0ubuntu0.2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu10.8
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1.2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4.2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2

[fpgahardwareengineer (mypersonalmailbox1)]

Hi,

I tested Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32-bit with Linux 3.7-rc7 kernel.
The screen will go blank (black) if I booted with Linux 3.7-rc7 kernel.
It won't even display the Ubuntu logo during the booting process.
If I used recovery mode, everything works fine, including ACPI S3 State resume.
It looks to me that there was a regression regarding this issue between Linux 3.2 kernel and Linux 3.7 kernel.

Regards,

fpgahardwareengineer

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

fpgahardwarenegineer, could you please confirm this issue exists with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . If the issue remains, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.11-rc4

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

There is an RV710 fix queued up for inclusion in the upstream 3.12 kernel which might fix this problem:

author Alex Deucher 2013-08-13
committer Alex Deucher 2013-08-13
commit 4883a43704ca2e8876cd7441e2fdfb9cec5918c1
tree 166c8f88b03be842176bcc3c4983362470d053c1
parent 112a6d0c071808f6d48354fc8834a574e5dcefc0

drm/radeon/r7xx: fix copy paste typo in golden register setup

Uses the wrong array size for some asics.

Fixes: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60674

Signed-off-by: Alex Deucher
Cc: stable

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Original reporter fpgahardwareengineer ->
Page gone

There’s no page with this address in Launchpad.

If this is blocking your work, let us know by asking a question at Launchpad Support. Otherwise, complain to the maintainers of the page that linked here.