X does not behave properly with the -16 kernel in Lucid

[Doug Whitfield]

This is different hardware than the other -16 bug I filed. In this case, my second monitor (vga output) has some sorta crazy wave thing going on...looks like an oscilliscope. If I go back to the -14 it works fine.

Below is my lspci. I'm guessing the line I have brought to the front is the important line.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M56P [Radeon Mobility X1600

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M56P [Radeon Mobility X1600]
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
02:06.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
02:06.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
02:06.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
02:06.4 Communication controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 GemCore based SmartCard controller
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5753M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 21)
10:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

[Monkey (monkey-libre)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I have classified this bug as a bug in xorg.

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport, either via the appropriate application's "Help -> Report a Problem" menu or using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi DouglasAWh,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn` and `dmesg`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (and maybe Xorg.0.log.old) file from after reproducing this issue. If you're using a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

lspci -vvnn http://pastebin.org/115539
dmesg http://pastebin.org/115548
/var/log/Xorg.0.log http://pastebin.org/115558

I don't think the old is needed since the same xorg works fine with the -14 kernel. I installed the -386 instead of -generic and also the -pae and nothing. There's a -303 kernel which looks very odd that I am going to install next.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

-303 kernel did nothing (maybe the dependencies were broke...didn't show up in grub), but I found http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.33/ and installed the .deb from there. It has the same problem as the -16 kernel. I did not see the -15 kernel still in the repo, but I might try that just to narrow down where the problem starts occurring.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

installed the the 2.6.32.9 mainline kernel found at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ (the non-lucid one) and that works, so it seems like something ubuntu has changed, though I still don't know for certain about the -15 kernel. I will try that later...probably tomorrow.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

this is still a problem on the -17 kernel. This is also a problem on the HP nc6400, which has an ATI M52 [Mobility Radeon X1300] video card. To be clear, on both models, the wavey video output is on the second (VGA) monitor, not on the laptop monitor itself.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

this seems like an upstream issue. I have the same problem with Fedora 13 rawhide, though they are using a .34 kernel.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

upgraded vesa driver in Lucid today and this is still a problem. Am I the only one experiencing this? It seems as though it should be pretty reproducible since I'm getting it on multiple sets of hardware.

Is there anything else that is needed? I gave the lspci -vvnn info (http://pastebin.org/115539) on the 16th and haven't heard anything back. Having to install a mainline kernel is a pretty ridiculous workaround for an average user. The ATI proprietary drivers for this hardware do not support the version of X in Lucid, so that's an even worse workaround.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

still a problem with the -18 kernel. :(

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

still a problem with latest xorg in the Lucid repos.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

As suspected, this appears to be an upstream issue. Here's the Fedora bug report: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=571874

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

Seems like there is a thread going about this on the X list: http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-driver-ati/2010-March/014074.html

I don't know how to mark this as an upstream bug, but it seems pretty obvious at this point it's an upstream issue.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Also appears to be a kernel drm issue. The -16 kernel brought in the .33 drm, as opposed to the .32 drm that we carried prior to that. Since you are seeing the behavior is correct with earlier kernels, that confirms this to be a kernel bug.

For future reference, when requested for information attach it as files directly, not via links on pastebin. We have tools that identify and prioritize bugs with required data attached; since yours did not have attachments it did not get bubbled up to the developers.

[flashydave (dave-opensourcesolutions)]

I am also seeing it on my NC6400 as reported in #6 above. Running kernel -22

[flashydave (dave-opensourcesolutions)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/562138 reports similar issues

[Alan Lord (theopensourcerer)]

Also experiencing the external vga "wobble": https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/562138/comments/42

It appears to be frequency related, e.g. if I increase the frequency of the VGA output from 60Hz to 70hz then the wobble gets faster...

Our machines are Intel Core i3 (Integrated Graphics) running the i915 driver. Am running the latest kernel from kernel.ubuntu.com: 2.6.34-020634rc6-generic but problem still present.

[Alan Bell (alanbell)]

Bryce, Alan Lord has the same Samsung laptop and same wobble issue as I showed at UDS

[Steve Conklin (sconklin)]

There are a number of similar issues reported against this driver -

For some models, it is reported that booting with radeon.new_pll=0 solves the issue

Could you please try that and report the results

Also, I have posted test kernels here:

http://people.canonical.com/~sconklin/radeon_flicker/

which contain a single candidate patch from upstream - this did NOT
fix the bug as reported on a different model of card, but testing is appreciated.

Steve

[Gene Moreau (anothergene)]

I can confirm I too am seeing this with 9.10 64bit. with a Core i3 and i915. The current kernel I'm running is 2.6.31-22-server. It happens in Gnome or just at the console as well. When it boots it's fine until the resolution switches to match the monitor.

I still have the -14 kernel, so I'm going to go back and try that to see if it goes away tonight.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

@anothergene I'm confused. this is a Lucid and .32 kernel and new issue, as far as I'm aware.

As a side note, I'm using the latest -rc .35 kernel from kernel.ubuntu.com on the nx9820 I posted this bug about and that works great. The kernel from the Lucid repo still has the problem on that model. I have not tested recently on the 6400, but it sounds like others have.

[Gene Moreau (anothergene)]

@DouglasAWh Apparently it's not limited Lucid. Apologies if I am not posting in the correct area, but this did sound exactly like the behavior I as experiencing.

[Doug Whitfield (douglasawh)]

I believe the videos below are on the HP 6910p, but I'm still seeing crazy video issues:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawhitfield/5308837374/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawhitfield/5308233491/

The 6400 secondary monitor issue still exists. Do I need to submit more data? Is this ever going to be fixed?

I did notice that turning off KMS fixes the issue on the 6400s. I don't know if that's helpful. I'm not sure which kernels I'm using on the two machines, but I can get that info, if desired.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 539350

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

Closing this bug with Won't fix as this kernel / release is no longer supported.
Please feel free to open a new bug report if you're still experiencing this on a newer release (Bionic 18.04.3 / Disco 19.04)
Thanks!