Laptop monitor does not initially display

[Matthew Molnar]

When booting my laptop from a cold boot, my monitor is black and shows nothing. It's as if it's defaulting to an external monitor that isn't there. Hotkeys like for wireless work and hitting certain keys I can get alert beeps. If I close my lid after a certain time, let the laptop sleep, then open it back up, my laptop display works. I have to do this on every boot though. I tried adding 'nomodeset' to grub and that fixes the issue, however suspend no longer works, trying to suspend my laptop will always result in a crash and having to reboot every time.

Laptop: HP Pavilion dv6
Graphics: AMD A8 APU
lspci -nn | grep VGA: 00:01.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] BeaverCreek [Radeon HD 6620G] [1002:9641]
Ubuntu Mate 16.04.1

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: linux-image-4.4.0-36-generic 4.4.0-36.55
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-36.55-generic 4.4.16
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-36-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: matt 3581 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: matt 3581 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: MATE
Date: Sun Sep 18 14:30:34 2016
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=3fc4e517-79e6-42c7-aaae-ef67aa90114f
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-05-06 (135 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
ProcFB: 0 radeondrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-36-generic root=UUID=df959605-bc73-46dc-87a1-14b707d40867 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-36-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-4.4.0-36-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.157.3
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/02/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: F.02
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 1805
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: 33.19
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Chassis Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrF.02:bd09/02/2011:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPPaviliondv6NotebookPC:pvr0591110000204710000620100:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1805:rvr33.19:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: 0591110000204710000620100
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a prior kernel version where you were not having this particular problem?

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.8 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.8

[Matthew Molnar (mmolnar)]

4.8 seems to fix it. Got a number of warnings about possible missing firmware for Radeon, not sure if it matters.