Compiz on Ubuntu Mate 15.04 fails on DELL XPS 13 (9343) with external monitor

[ullix]

The DELL XPS13 (9343) came with Ubuntu 14.04 factory preinstalled. But it has too many bugs to be useful. In the meantime I have upgraded to Ubuntu Mate 15.04 (Vivid) with kernel 3.19.0-18-generic.

The laptop has only a Mini-Displayport connector. So I use an adapter for VGA and HDMI, a no-name 3-in-1, model# 27391 from German company CSL.

When the window-manager is "Marco (Simple desktop effects)" then I do get a connection to an external monitor as it should be. However, Using Marco results in a failure when resuming from suspend. (see bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1454651)

When I use the window-manager "Compiz (Advanced GPU accelerated desktop effects)" I get a proper resume from suspend, but connecting an external monitor results in a black screen on both the internal and external monitor. I can still see the mouse pointer moving across both screens, but no desktop, no menus or anything clickable. Same problem for both an external VGA or an external HDMI connection. Sometimes I do get a picture on the external monitor, but with a few blank spots, and everything is frozen, nothing can be clicked.

Switching to a terminal by CTRL-ALT-F1 still works, and gives a terminal on the internal monitor.

So currently I can either have a working suspend, or a working external monitor, but not both.
---
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[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jason Moiron (jmoiron)]

This bug is not limited to the dell hardware but also affects the MacbookAir6,2 model. Some more potentially relevant info:

05:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation DSL3510 Thunderbolt Port [Cactus Ridge] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

Some more information playing around with it:

Plugging in the monitor makes everything black but the cursor shows, as described. Unplugging the monitor doesn't fix it. ctrl+alt+backspace shows the desktop briefly before X crashes.

Setting up the monitor in Marco and then switching to Compiz will work, but unplugging it will leave the laptop monitor unusable, and plugging it back in also has pretty mixed results. However, after the monitor has been set up (in Marco), you can restart X and log in and use Compiz and it will initialize properly.

[Antony (antony-css)]

This bug also affects my Thinkpad X250. The observation is the same as described in comment #19.

[ZoLToR (zoltor)]

Also reproduced in Asus X200MA-KX242D :(

$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display (rev 0e)

Only one workaround found: connect external monitor via HDMI, switch to terminal (for example, Ctrl+Alt+F6) and restart lightdm (sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart). After it, both monitors working. But if you will try to change some monitor settings of internal or external monitor - you will receive black screens again and should be repeat workaround.

System - Ubuntu Mate 15.04 x64, Mate 1.8.2, Compiz 0.9.12.1, Kernel - 3.19.0-26-generic

[Jason Moiron (jmoiron)]

A small update as to potential progress on this bug. This issue persists in Ubuntu Mate 5.10 x64, Mate 1.10.3, Compiz 0.9.12.2, Kernel 4.2.0-16-generic.

[ullix (ullix)]

#Jason: strange that you say the issue persists, because it seems solved in my case!

When reporting the bug I had on my DELL XPS13(9343) installed UbuntuMATE 15.04. I have now upgrade to UbuntuMATE 15.10 (kernel 4.2.0-16-generic #19-Ubuntu x86_64) and both the external monitor issue and the suspend issue are gone:

Using the MiniDisplayport-to-VGA/HDMI adapter (see orig. post) I tested both an external VGA and a HDMI monitor (the latter actually a DVI monitor DELL U2412M connected via a HDMI-to-DVI converter). I tested all 3 Window Managers (Marco, Metacity and Compiz). And every time I also tried suspend.

In all 6 combinations both internal + external monitor and suspend worked!

There was one glitch, though. Sometimes, when using MATE Tweak to switch from compiz to metacity the screen freezes. Mouse pointer is visible, but nothing can be clicked. I can do CTRL-ALT-F2 and login, and e.g. kill Xorg, and it continues.

However, this is not reproducible at will, but I have observed it several times when playing around with the window managers.

[Jason Moiron (jmoiron)]

@Ulix: interesting, it did persist when I first installed Ubuntu Mate 15.10, but it's now working for me under compiz-mate 1:0.9.12.2+15.10.20151015-0ubuntu1 under the same hardware as first reported.

[Martin Wimpress  (flexiondotorg)]

I can't reproduce this on Ubuntu MATE 15.10.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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