[i945] lockup on mac mini 945GM [8086:27a2]

[ljlolel]

I am using a new Mac Mini on a fresh fully-updated Hardy Heron Install (I reinstalled it twice). OS X works fine on this computer

At random times when using Hardy, with no warning and no patterns in terms of amount of time the computer has been in use, and no pattern in terms of what programs are on and what programs I am using, X just stops working and I see a black screen. I can do ctrl+alt+f1 to get to a terminal, and everything works fine there. No runaway processes. I can reboot safely from there, but I have to kill x.

Killing X and restarting X does not fix the problem of the black screen of death. I have to reboot.

Why does X randomly go black? Gutsy never did this.

[Sergio Barjola (sbarjola)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description does not yet have enough information.
Could you attach the following files:
- /etc/X11/xorg.conf
- /var/log/Xorg.0.log
and the output of lspci -vvnn ? Thanks.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Mac minis should have an intel gfx chip inside.

[ljlolel (launchpad-net-jperla)]

lspci -nn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
00:07.0 Performance counters [1101]: Intel Corporation Unknown device [8086:27a3] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller [8086:27df] (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller [8086:27c4] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 02)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller [11ab:4362] (rev 22)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
03:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Agere Systems FW323 [11c1:5811] (rev 61)

[ljlolel (launchpad-net-jperla)]

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
 Driver "kbd"
 Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
 Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
 Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Configured Mouse"
 Driver "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "Default Layout"
 Screen "Default Screen"
EndSection

[ljlolel (launchpad-net-jperla)]

xorg.0.log

[ljlolel (launchpad-net-jperla)]

I thought I saw on the forums other people reporting a similar problem, eh?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Please install dbg packages and obtain a full backtrace - see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Backtracing for directions.

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

I have identical setup (Mac Mini + Hardy) and have similar problems.
I must add:
1) In my case screen becomes gray (not black) and becomes black only if I switch to textual console and back. After that X is still working but driver doesn't redraw the buffer. I've tested with X11VNC and X session is fully operable via VNC. That happens randomly but at least once in 1-2 hours.
2) In addition, screen blinks randomly every few seconds. It looks like some parts windows in background jumps to foreground and then foreground windows redraw it self. It is also possible that Video controller jumps to wrong part of frame buffer.
3) I have to reboot to use X serer again via Video controller. Removing driver (intel, i was not able to remove intel_agp, it's locked) from kernel doesn't help.
I am willing to assist, please request any information and tests you may need to perform.

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Forgot to mention:
a) I am not using xorg.conf. X configures itself perfectly as it should in Hardy.
b) I am not using compiz or anything similar.
c) Gutsy was happy on same machine and problems begun at first boot after upgrading to Hardy.
d) Tried to boot with nosmp, it doesn't help.

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Forgot to mention #2 :-):
There is nothing in any log available. Looks like nor driver nor X aware of the problem.

[Colin Gebski (colin-gebski)]

I got this problem too.
I've a core duo mac mini (so, intel GMA 950).
I haven't seen anything in the X log.

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

as Dmitry pointed out - you can almost eliminate these effects by:
a. Disable Display power Management completely. Do this as Administrator AND User.
b. Completely disable kpowersaved

Disabling a just as user didn't stop these effects to happen. Since I also disabled it as Administrator - I barely had a black screen anymore !

[ljlolel (launchpad-net-jperla)]

a. This never happens because of display power management. In fact, this only ever happens in the midst of my using the computer, never while I'm away. It also does not happen after a set time, as you would expect if it were display power management.
b. I am using GNOME, not KDE.

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

Happens if I´m working or I'm away. No Difference here.

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Actually, in my case, the problems appears only when system is used.
Graphic adapter and LCD monitor are perfectly awaken every morning and problems starts only after systems is being used for a while.
BTW: Problem does not exists on GM965 in same setup.

This bug must be treated as "show stopper" and I can't imagine the damage it can make (if not already) to Ubuntu, GM945 is widely used out there and Ubuntu Hardy is not usable on that adapter!

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

This seems to be limited to the mac-mini systems...
Anyone having no mac-mini with that issue in here ?

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Not sure if it's relevant, but if yes, we are not alone :-)
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/linux/kernel/892952

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Yesterday I've built and installed new xf86-video-intel-2.3.1 driver.
I've used Debian/unstable source for libpciaccess-0.10 and xserver-xorg-video-intel-2.3.1.
After some minor editing of control file, I was able to build and install new created driver.

And now to results of experiment...
X still "jumps" the screen every few minutes, but since yesterday no "Colored Screens of Death" :-).
I'll update you if I loose my luck :-).
BTW: I've tried server and 386 flavor of linux-images in Hardy, they all suffers from problem also.

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

There are good news for guys who suffered from blank screens only: http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14693
Should we split the bugs into two different now?

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Good news second attempt :-)
After testing version 2.3.1 of intel driver of X, I've found in bugzilla of freedestop, a patch to xorg-intel driver that looks like a solution to our problems.
By now everything looks fine, at least after trying reconstructing bug scenario (Start X -> Let X bring Monitor to sleep -> Wake it up -> Work for several minutes -> See screen flickering every few minutes -> Colored screen after few hours...)

Here is the link to bug details: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13326
Hope that patch can be pushed to main Hardy tree to ease pain of xorg-intel users.

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Update: After playing with new patched driver for one day, I can state there is not flickering and colored screen BUT blank black screen with huge amount of "Pipieline underrun" errors appeared :-(
I am trying now driver version on hardy with patch to see if it helps.

BTW: That thread looks like my personal dairy, anyone else here? or problem is solved for all other?

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

Nope - we like your personal Diary ....
Guess most don't have time to go after it in detail - but your Input is highly appreciated :) by us all :)

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Update: Tried to use driver version 2.2.1 from Hardy with a patch and flickering is back!
So I will stick to my custom made 2.3.1+patch, at least in combination with disable power savings it's not flickering and working :-)

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

Good one ...
I manage to get it to run without patching - just disabling Powermanagement entirely for the chip - and not starting any Screen-Lock/Saver

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Well, after leaving PC for a weekend I've found it broken state.
X was flickering and after few minutes screen became deadly grey :-(.
Seems like workarounds are helping only partially and X is still doing something nasty.
Meanwhile I've downgraded to Xorg 7.2/1.3 from Gutsy, of course compiz is not usable any more, but stability is more important!

P.S. Usually, I don't tend to be dramatic, but If things are not going to be fixed very soon, I'll have to recommend our IT department to replace Gutsy with something more "productive" then Hardy.
I do understand that it's not Canonical's solely fault, but nothing is done from their side, at least not in public.
I must remind those who may concern, Most of PCs and Laptops existing at today's corporative market are i945 based. It will be very sad if Ubuntu will loose that market :-(.

[DavidV (david-varnes)]

eugenesan,
thanks very much for your pursuit of this bug. It is affecting 3 Mac Mini machines here and is making life intolerable for their influential users :-( [and therefore me too].

Can you post a simple sequence of how to downgrade to Xorg 7.2/1.3 from Gutsy? Is it as simple are re-enabling the gutsy repositories and pinning the parent Xorg package to the appropriate version ?

thanks again for your efforts .. much appreciated here !
davidv

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

DavidV: Yes, just add Gutsy repository to sources.list and downgrade and pin xserver-xorg-*. Lucjy us, nothing got broken after that operation :-)

[DavidV (david-varnes)]

eugenesan,
I can confirm that downgrading to the Gutsy xserver-xorg-* packages works fine with 3 hardy Mac Mini's here (as you would expect since they all worked fine in Gutsy). No side-effects :-)
thanks very much!!
davidv

[ljlolel (launchpad-net-jperla)]

Cool. So, the exact steps are:

edit /etc/apt/sources.list, change 'hardy' to 'gutsy' everywhere

With what commands to I downgrade xserver-xorg-*? How do I "pin" it?
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-* --pin?

Then, I edit /etc/apt/sources.list and go from 'gutsy' back to 'hardy'

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

ljlolel:
Actually, your procedure is not well.
I am proposing duplicating in sources.list every line containing "hardy" and replace in duplicated line hardy with gutsy.
That way your installation still will be hardy but with optional versions from gutsy for every package.
After that enter enter aptitude and:
1) Look for all "xserver-xorg-*" packages by: pressing "/"+"xserver-xorg-". use "enter" to enter package properties, on that screen toy may select desired version of the package.
next press "g" twice to apply changes.
2) After packages installed you may "pin" packages to their current version by pressing "=" on a package.

BTW: apt-get is obsolete and not recommended and aptitude must be used instead.

[Jcnengel (jcnengel)]

Using latest git xf96-video-intel I experience some buffer underruns on Pipe B together with a jittering of the image on the attached LVDS.
As Jesse told me I changed the critical value for DSPARB_BSTART_SHIFT from 64 to 48 and upto now it feels good. :)

[Jcnengel (jcnengel)]

OK, it is not yet totally gone, but not that frequent as before.

[Tino-keitel+fdo (tino-keitel+fdo)]

On my Mac mini Core Duo with i945, I also have a blank display after some time. In this case, I need to reboot to get the display back.

[Jesse Barnes (jbarnes-virtuousgeek)]

I'm still talking with the chipset guys about this; hopefully we'll have a resolution soon.

[Jesse Barnes (jbarnes-virtuousgeek)]

Out of curiosity, what does xrandr report on your machines? Can you attach your X log with "modedebug" enabled?

[unggnu (unggnu)]

I guess it is the best to report this issue upstream but please check this unofficial package http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/intel/hardy-i386/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.3.1-1ubuntu1~bwh3_i386.deb (AMD64 http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/intel/hardy-amd64/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.3.1-1ubuntu1~bwh3_amd64.deb) of a newer -intel driver.

To install it you have to remove the old i810 driver before.
sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-i810 xserver-xorg-video-all

And please regenerate your xorg.conf to be sure.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

If you want to reset everything do the follow commands.
sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-all

If it still doesn't work please attach a current /var/log/Xorg.0.log, /etc/X11/xorg.conf, the output of >>lspci --vvnn<< and dmesg.

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

Hia mate.

Sorry - but it didn't work over here. If I activate Power-Management, it takes roughly 5minutes until I get a Grey-Screen ...
With Powermanagement disabled, it works though.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

Can somebody then get a full backtrace like described here http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Backtracing ?
The dbg packages for the unofficial driver are http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/intel/hardy-i386/xserver-xorg-video-intel-dbg_2.3.1-1ubuntu1~bwh3_i386.deb (AMD64 http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/intel/hardy-amd64/xserver-xorg-video-intel-dbg_2.3.1-1ubuntu1~bwh3_amd64.deb).
After this and the information requested in my post before we could move it upstream I guess.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

@Smurphy
If you have a laptop maybe it is just a Pipe A problem for you.
The fix for this issue is to quirk your card to force enabling Pipe A. Try setting this option in your xorg.conf, then restart X and wait five minutes or how long it takes to suspend your screen:

  Section "Device"
    ...
    Option "ForceEnablePipeA" "true"
  EndSection

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

I did actually made what you suggested - but I have a mac-mini, edition late 2006 (December).
Let's see if it's a pipe-issue ;) Would be nice :D

[Peter T Hayward (energonic)]

I don't know what is fixed in the kernel but it was a problem for me in 2.6.24 and 2.6.25 (on Sidux). No instability at all under kernel 2.6.27, and I haven't changed xserver-xorg-video-intel, so I don't think that was responsible in my case.
I'm guessing but this looks like kernel behaviour changed in 2.6.24, then video module was changed to work round that, then kernel behaviour reverted to original, thus allowing original video module to work OK (and probably the newer video module too).

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

2.4.1 is in intrepid now.

[Eugene San (eugenesan)]

Hi all,

Ok, after weeks of testing looks like problem is fixed both in xorg-driver 2.4.2 and kernel 2.6.27.
Updating any of them or both works for me.

But since latest Hardy snapshot still suffer from problem, I wonder what is official recommendation for Hardy users?
Will fixes be backported to Hardy?

[Dmitry Ivanov (dimss-telecentrs)]

On Mon, 2008-09-29 at 07:24 +0000, eugenesan wrote:
> Ok, after weeks of testing looks like problem is fixed both in
> xorg-driver 2.4.2 and kernel 2.6.27.
> Updating any of them or both works for me.

The same for me.

[Greg Thomas (greg-d-thomas)]

I've been keeping a watching eye on this bug, as I've been suffering the same problem (Hardy Heron on Intel Mac Mini). At the weekend I upgraded to Intrepid Ibex. I'm still suffering the exact same problem; is there anything additional I need to carry out other than a standard upgrade to get this fix?

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

The only thing that helped me is to disable all Powersaving stuff to Screen and CPU.

[Greg Thomas (greg-d-thomas)]

> The only thing that helped me is to disable all Powersaving stuff to Screen and CPU.

Sadly, although I didn't get a black screen of death, with powersaving disabled I just got a pink screen of death!

[Dave Steinberg (dmsteinberg)]

Like Greg, I suffered from this problem on Hardy and continue to be affected on Intrepid.

I'm running kernel 2.6.27-7 and xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.4.1 on a Mac mini with Intel 945GM graphics. I still get jitters, eventually followed by a blank screen. Both are accompanied by "(EE) intel(0): underrun on pipe A!" messages in my Xorg.0.log file.

Should I reopen this bug or create a new one?

[Greg Thomas (greg-d-thomas)]

>> The only thing that helped me is to disable all Powersaving stuff to Screen and CPU.
> Sadly, although I didn't get a black screen of death, with powersaving disabled I just got a pink screen of death!

I may have spoke too soon. Since the reboot caused by the the problem after disabling power saving, I've not had it again. Perhaps a reboot is needed after disabling power saving to get this to happen?

[Dave Steinberg (dmsteinberg)]

Greg,

What did you do to disable power saving? I still haven't been able to shake this problem yet...

Thanks.

[seivan Heidari (seivan)]

I got a mac mini with c2d cpu and Xubuntu inteprid.
I have tried 64 bit, 32 bit, ubuntu, xubuntu, hardy, inteprid.
ALL mixed together, like 64, xubuntu, inteprid.
I got screensaver turned off, I even uninstalled gnome-screensaver, I got power-saving stuff turned off as well.

My issue is that my screen freezes up, and get's a certain colour depending on what I was looking it, usually it is black, but it has been beige and white as well.
Sound is ok, and I can still use irssi through SSH as normal.
but my screen is black/white/beige/whatever and not even restartin X/GDM helps.
I i have tried xset dpms off and on, and I have tried sudo X -configure or sudo configure -phigh xserver-xorg and etc.
Still no help
This happends when I watch movies.

I have tried VLC and Xbox media center, both time it occurs.
Sound is also way low, and yes I have yanked up all the sound settings, but thats for another thread or search.

I am using the LATEST kernel, that is 2.6.27-8-generic
And latest drivers.

IS there a fix for this, and if it is, how do we do we implement it :/
It's odd that no one in the channels have ever heard of this issue, it's very annoying.

[Greg Thomas (greg-d-thomas)]

Despite my earlier optimism, my problem has not gone away with the power saving. Turns out that I can reproduce quite readily, it occurs within 10 or so minutes of me watching a video.

I can't help wondering if it's a subtly different issue from the one fixed here, albeit with similar symptoms.

[seivan Heidari (seivan)]

Man this is driving me nuts, a reason why I left for OS X.
But I need Ubuntu for school and movies (XBMC) and amongs other things, so I need to get this fixed now :(

[seivan Heidari (seivan)]

Added gutsy rep
Downgraded Xorg to 7.2/1.3
and put a Hold on Xorg (no xorg at upgrades)
Reboot, DONE.
It actually works and my resolution doesn't look fubar now on a 37 inc LCD.

Before the icons where to large and shit.. but now it looks like a real screen, even if the movies worked before, they I just got that screen freeze and a random colour (usually black)

Thats a temporary fix guys!

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

As we have many people here without knowledge on how doing this - could you post exactly which steps you did - to perform the change ? Like a Mini-Howto ?

[Dave Steinberg (dmsteinberg)]

I count at least four people commenting on this bug who are still affected on Intrepid, so I think it's safe to say it hasn't really been fixed. It seems we're just talking to ourselves as long as the bug says it's fixed, so I'm reopening it.

[Dave Steinberg (dmsteinberg)]

Here are my details:

linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic (2.6.27-7.16)
xserver-xorg-video-intel (2:2.4.1-1ubuntu10)

I'm still seeing exactly the same effects as described in this bug: periodic jitters, followed by a usually black screen (occasionally some other solid colour). At that point, X is dead until I reboot the machine. Each jitter is accompanied by an "underrun on pipe A!" message in the log; the blank screen comes with many such messages. Playing video is about the fastest way to make it happen.

This is on a Mac mini (circa November 2007). I've attached the output from "lspci -vvnn". xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log to follow.

[Massimo (massimo-sabbadin)]

Gee, this bug is slimy... Same configuration for me, and same problem since Hardy. Video Streaming (Youtube also, right?) ease the flickering and the crash.
Ubuntu is really fine for the Intel Mac Mini, albeit this bug.

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

You folks,

try adding this:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Option "ForceEnablePipeA" "true"
EndSection

to the device section. Seems this does something ?

[Peter T Hayward (energonic)]

I've rediscovered this bug, or something very similar.
My system is a Mac Mini Solo with 2GB memory, running Ubuntu 8.10 + recent updates.
During the run-up to Intrepid release I had no trouble like this. Now, after a few updates, it's back.
The first black screen was while running virtualbox 2.0.4. Just prior to lock-up the screen was flashing intermittently.
I turned off compiz and the flashes stopped.
Avoiding virtualbox seems prudent for the moment.
However, I have had another crash while just playing solitaire. The screen went black, X tried to re-start three times, each time showing the X cursor but nothing else. Eventually a message came up reporting errors from the Xorg.0.log file (I've attached this log, it seems to show X running out of 'ring' space).

This kind of error is very damaging because it ruins fundamental confidence in desktop stability - and makes you wonder about the breadth and level of testing that X undergoes.
I know it won't happen in OS X so I have to keep that as an alternative.

[Massimo (massimo-sabbadin)]

Following the suggestion from Smurphy I've added the 'Option "ForceEnablePipeA"' line in the xorg.conf .
This evening the screen had the alert window below:

Ubuntu is Running in low-graphics mode
The following error was encountered.
You may need to update your configuration to solve this.
(EE) intel(0): underrun on pipe B!

the next few windows enabled me to save a backup log, that I attach here, and to revert the modification to xorg.conf .
Maybe this info can put a little sparkle of light on this trouble?

[Dave Steinberg (dmsteinberg)]

I tried adding the ForceEnablePipeA option, and it makes no difference for me.

[Greg Thomas (greg-d-thomas)]

I too have added
       Option "ForceEnablePipeA" "true"
and am still getting a blank screen and "underrun on pipe A!" in the log ...

[testax (davide-gargantini)]

same problem running Intrepid on Asus eeeBox (945GM)
I solved forcing Framebuffercompresssion off in my xorg.conf
as suggested here --> http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18491

[Greg Thomas (greg-d-thomas)]

I can confirm that adding

 Option "FramebufferCompression" "false"

to my "Device" section resolved my issue, too.

[Peter T Hayward (energonic)]

I have also run with "FrameBufferCompression" set to "False" since the post by testax.
Since then I have had no black screens, lockups, freezes; the system has been stable, and seems to run at the same speed as before.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notice.]

We'd like to forward your bug upstream, however upstream requires
that you first test it against their newer driver code.

To save you the effort of building the driver from source, we've built
packages for the driver and its new dependencies.

So you have a couple options:

 1. Download and test .debs for intrepid, from:
     https://edge.launchpad.net/~intel-gfx-testing/+archive

 -or-

 2. Download and test the Jaunty alpha-2 (or newer) Live CD,
     (which includes a beta of the new xserver 1.6 as well).
     See http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/9.04/ for ISOs

Thanks ahead of time! You can simply reply to this email to report your
findings.

P.S., if you wish to forward your bug upstream yourself, please follow
these directions to do so:
  http://intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html

[Dmitry Ivanov (dimss-telecentrs)]

On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 02:26:06AM -0000, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> We'd like to forward your bug upstream, however upstream requires
> that you first test it against their newer driver code.
.....
>
> 1. Download and test .debs for intrepid, from:
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~intel-gfx-testing/+archive

OK, I've downloaded new driver and removed old xorg.conf as well.
Running new version right now. So far, no problems observed.

--
Dmitry Ivanov
Network engineer
[phone]

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

@ljlolel, since you're the original reporter, would you be able to confirm Dmitry's findings that the new driver solves the lockup issue?

[ljlolel (launchpad-net-jperla)]

I will be away from my Mac Mini for a few weeks. I cannot remember if I activated the FrameBufferCompression fix described above, but I think I did and I don't remember having a blackout any time recently.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

@ljlolel, Okay, then let's assume the issue is fixed, and you can reopen it if you run into it in the future when running with the default settings.

[Nicolas Ochem (nicolas-ochem)]

This issue is not fixed.

I have a eeebox b202 with an intel chipset. I am running XBMC on top of ubuntu server. There is a 32' LCD screen plugged from the DVI output.

I installed the latest intel driver from the testing ppa as instructed.

After playing videos for a few minutes, the screen goes black (sometimes gray or other colors) and on the X11 output I have those "underrun on pipe a!" messages every second or so. Restarting X does not help.

The bug is exactly this one : http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18491

Strangely enough, it does not happen when I play a 720p video, only a Small Definition one. Maybe an interpolation problem ?

I temporarily solved the issue by adding this to my xorg.conf :
Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Option "FramebufferCompression" "false"
EndSection

There is a slight decrease in video performance (my system is a bit borderline for 720p video) with those parameters so it would be nice if the system could run full performance.

[Dimitris Kalamaras (dimitris-kalamaras)]

I have the same problem with a fresh 8.10 install on a 2 years old Intel Centrino laptop. The VGA is this:

dimitris@laptop:~$ lspci -v | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Didn't have any problems in previous Ubuntu releases (hardy, etc).

I will try the deb packages suggested here
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/218334/comments/84

and report back shortly.

[Dimitris Kalamaras (dimitris-kalamaras)]

No, no luck for me. I added the lines

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/intel-gfx-testing/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/intel-gfx-testing/ubuntu intrepid main

to sources.list, updated, upgraded, restarted, but the message "could not enable desktop effects" keeps on appearing. There are the installed packages:

dimitris@laptop:~$ dpkg -l | grep intel
ii libdrm-intel1 2.4.1-0ubuntu7~intrepid Userspace interface to intel-specific kernel
ii xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.5.1-1ubuntu5~intrepid X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display d

Note that 3D effects were always a click away for me, and work OK in other distros (i.e. openSUSE 11.1).

I will try the xorg.conf modification now...

[Dimitris Kalamaras (dimitris-kalamaras)]

:(

Nothing seems to work over here.

This my xorg.conf last lines, now:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Option "FramebufferCompression" "false"
EndSection

I restarted the x server but no luck.
I can't understand what's going on here. People report they are OK either by using the testing packages or adding the aforementioned line in xorg.conf. In my case, nothing works.

Anybody else with "Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2]" having the same symptoms? :(

[Dimitris Kalamaras (dimitris-kalamaras)]

I need to clarify something here: Gnome works OK for me. I dont have any lockup problems. Instead my problem is that I cannot enable 3D graphics (which used to work OK). Sorry for the misunderstanding. My mistake.

[Dave Steinberg (dmsteinberg)]

No luck for me, either.

I have upgraded to the latest version from the intel-gfx-testing PPA (2.5.1-1ubuntu5~intrepid) and tried with and without FramebufferCompression disabled. I still get a blank (or, occasionally, solid coloured) screen frustratingly often, although it seems the jitter might be less frequent. Both events are still accompanied by "(EE) intel(0): underrun on pipe A!" messages in Xorg.0.log.

Would it be reasonable to reopen the bug? Should I repost my details? Nothing much has changed.

Oh, I did find a workaround: if I suspend after my screen blanks, the display works when I wake it up again. Fortunately, my keyboard has a shortcut for suspending, but another option is to ssh in to the box and run pm-suspend. Hopefully that will be of help to others who are still affected until this finally gets fixed.

[Smurphy (smurphy-linux)]

OK - I don't have any more issues - and I have redone the entire X stuff - by removing and reinstallation all the X stuff.
My xorg.conf looks like this:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

which is plain straigt, and I have no issues on any hardware (one 10/2006 and one 04/2008) - so 2 different hardware revisions.
Works nice on both.
Ah yes - Using KDE 4.2 over here ....