[bochs_drm] Booting gets stuck with corrupt graphics

[Tim Mueller]

When booting on a VPS connected via VNC at first the text messages via boot are displayed. Then the resolution changes several times (VNC size changes) and after a lot of resolution changes it gets stuck in a corrupd graphic design. The cursor is still blinking but alt+Fx does also not work.

Using sudo service gdm3 stop and sudo startx is working. Due to the fact that the VNC console is completely frozen and this is hosted at a provider I have to use a separate putty session to stop gdm and starting a new gui session which is then displayed in the VNC.

This problem does not exist with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It does not matter if I use a fresh installed Ubuntu 20.04 or an upgraged 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS. On a second VPS the problem is similar but not the same. The second one does not get totally frozen. There is still no GUI when booting but it ends up in a purple uniform screen even the text mode is purple (the first VPS ends up a blueish screen with blue vertical lines).

On the second VPS it is possible to switch to shell (purple style) and executing the abovementioned commands directly without a second putty session. But the behavior is basically similar for both VPS.

When using sudo reboot the second VPS displays text again and the first only some graphic trash. So basically they have both the same behavior but on the first the graphics are totally destroyed even text is not working anymore. The Funny thing is that startx is still working but after clothng the startx session the graphic trash is shown again.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-33.37-generic 5.4.34
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-33-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
Date: Fri Jun 5 10:39:59 2020
DistUpgraded: 2020-04-26 18:18:02,277 ERROR Cache can not be locked (E:Konnte keinen exklusiven Zugang zur Sperrdatei /var/lib/dpkg/lock erhalten. Diese wird vom Prozess 21979 (dpkg) gehalten., W:Beachten Sie, dass das Entfernen der Sperrdatei keine Lösung ist und Ihr System zerstören kann., E:Sperren des Administrationsverzeichnisses (/var/lib/dpkg/) nicht möglich, wird es von einem anderen Prozess verwendet?)
DistroCodename: focal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 rapiddisk, 5.2, 5.4.0-31-generic, x86_64: installed
 rapiddisk, 5.2, 5.4.0-33-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Device [1234:1111] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Red Hat, Inc. Device [1af4:1100]
Lsusb: Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Lsusb-t: /: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=uhci_hcd/2p, 12M
MachineType: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.4.0-33-generic root=UUID=4bffe67b-531d-4b96-b192-538defc6d4a0 ro nomodeset
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-04-26 (39 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: SeaBIOS
dmi.bios.version: rel-1.12.1-0-ga5cab58e9a3f-prebuilt.qemu.org
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: QEMU
dmi.chassis.version: pc-i440fx-4.1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnSeaBIOS:bvrrel-1.12.1-0-ga5cab58e9a3f-prebuilt.qemu.org:bd04/01/2014:svnQEMU:pnStandardPC(i440FX+PIIX,1996):pvrpc-i440fx-4.1:cvnQEMU:ct1:cvrpc-i440fx-4.1:
dmi.product.name: Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)
dmi.product.version: pc-i440fx-4.1
dmi.sys.vendor: QEMU
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.101-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.0.4-2ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 20.0.4-2ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.6-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200226-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please try editing /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and uncomment:

  #WaylandEnable=false

so it is:

  WaylandEnable=false

Then reboot.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Oops. Before you edit that file please try just removing the kernel parameter 'nomodeset'.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It seems like the (Wayland-based) login screen is failing to start. One reason is the unusual (virtual?) hardware, but the bigger reason is probably just that the 'nomodeset' kernel parameter explicitly prevents Wayland from working.

A secondary problem is that gdm3 should detect the failure and revert to a Xorg-based login screen. That's also not working, but one problem at a time...

[Tim Mueller (muellert1)]

Thanks.

I think I have tried both before but just to be sure I changed both settings and rebooted. Now the screen is not bluish with blue lines anymore it is black and I can switch to shell. So that's more or less like on VPS2 but without purple look.

After that I returned to #WaylandEnable=false and the result after reboot is also the black screen. Seems to remove nomodeset is making the minimal difference.

[Tim Mueller (muellert1)]

I don't wan't to advertise but just to give an impression what virtual hardware we are talking about:
https://contabo.com/?show=vps

Both VPS are the SSD models. The interesting thing is that the problems started with Ubuntu 20.04. - I already used gnome on Ubuntu 18.04. Now I installed ubuntu-desktop and as far as I can remember I used gnome-desktop with 18.04. - basically both should use the same base if I'm not wrong.

So the problem is not that big because XRDP is working and also X2GO. The VNC direct connection to GUI is my last option if everything else is not working.

After Upgrade I also hat some problems with missing mouuse and keyboard in GUI. I used apt install xserver-xorg-input-evdev which solved this problem.

Due to the several graphic modes which are tested at boot I thought maybe that this testing takes to long or something like this. But up to know I found no way to skip this resolution / graphic modes testing. If I use startx this process is much shorter.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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