[8400m] nvidia-graphics-drivers (295.33-0ubuntu1), is causing failed restarts. shutdowns & only a blackscreen on tty's other than tty7

[Doug McMahon]

It's possible that this is an extreme corner case, (my hardware), 8400m chipsets in general or a bit more widespread.
So i'm opening this report in case it's one of the latter 2

It occurs like this:
After the install or upgrading to the .20 drivers shutdowns/restarts works as expected.
This lasts for at least 3 normal uses of either, by normal I mean boot up, use the session a bit, then do a shutdown or restart.

Somewhere between the 4 - 8 attepmt either a shutdown or restart fails to complete properly.
Once this occurs it then continues for all subsequent attempts, there may be an occasional exception to that, if needed I can relay, in any event the respite is only temporary, basically a reset of the above

What happens is this -
My normal shut down or restart takes about 2.5 sec's, after clicking either the restart or shutdown button there is a screen flash, then a plymouth splash for 2 sec's, then the machine either shuts down or restarts as normal.

When it fails - as soon as the button is clicked the display is immediately shut off, there is harddrive activity for about 2 sec's, then nothing else.
The machine remains powered on, the harddrive stays spinning, all else is like it was shutdown. Recovery is only possible holding the power button down for 10 sec's to affect a forced power off

Have tested completly here with multiple installs, both from A2 upgraded & any number of installs from the dailies, same exact thing.

Meanwhile this never occurs with the .10 driver, which baring this just 'going away' will be the one I'll use, now & come release

[dmesg]
[ 1400.375732] show_signal_msg: 36 callbacks suppressed
[ 1400.375737] synaptic[3430]: segfault at 782d636c ip 08096e77 sp bfb12b7c error 4 in synaptic[8048000+b4000]

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: nvidia-current 295.20-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-17.26-generic-pae 3.2.6
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-17-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 295.20 Mon Feb 6 20:25:38 PST 2012
 GCC version: gcc version 4.6.2 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.2-14ubuntu2)
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 1.93-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,snap,gnomecompat,regex,resize,place,mousepoll,animation,move,vpswitch,expo,wall,ezoom,session,fade,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Fri Feb 24 14:05:34 2012
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: nvidia-current, 295.20, 3.2.0-17-generic-pae, i686: installed
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation G86 [GeForce 8400M GS] [10de:0427] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0209]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha i386 (20120220)
JockeyStatus:
 xorg:nvidia_current - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use)
 xorg:nvidia_current_updates - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
MachineType: Dell Inc. XPS M1330
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-17-generic-pae root=UUID=0f691c02-28fb-4367-ac9c-6a4c52fb79c2 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
XorgConf:
 Section "Device"
   Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce"
   Driver "nvidia"
   Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerEnable=0x1; PerfLevelSrc=0x3322; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1"
 EndSection
dmi.bios.date: 12/26/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A15
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA15:bd12/26/2008:svnDellInc.:pnXPSM1330:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: XPS M1330
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.0~bzr2995-0ubuntu5
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.30-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.1-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.1-0ubuntu2
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.99.901+git20120126-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Doug McMahon (mc3man)]

Decided to revisit this on a new 2 day old Beta1 install
Was using the .10 drivers from the get go, fully updated regularly, no restart/shutdown issues.

Updated nvidia-current tonight to the .20, just like clockwork after 3 normal restarts over the course of an hr. or the 4th one failed.
Again here now real issue for 12.04, likely that the .10 package will remain viable for install. Just wonder if this may become more than a rare issue once the user hardware base increases, time will tell

I guess there would be no consideration of making the .10 driver 'nvidia-current' & making use of nvidia-current-updates for .20 or higher

[Doug McMahon (mc3man)]

Seeing same on the current nvidia, 295.33-0ubuntu1
Same scenario, good for 4 - 8 restarts/boots, then fails for good.
Additionally cannot switch to any tty other than 7, only a black screen is produced

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

@Alberto: Regression in .20 still not fixed in .33. Please escalate with NVIDIA.

[Doug McMahon (mc3man)]

Just to follow up -
using fresh beta installs
This issue remains & occurs as described on a 32 bit install, 3 good cycles then will break shortly after - the 290.XX drivers were last good ones

However on a 64 bit install it never occurs, shutdowns/restarts & switching tty's are solid

[IgnatiusReilly (ignatiusreilly75)]

Same issue with Ubuntu 12.04 32bit and nvidia-current 295.20-0ubuntu1.
I do not know if it's a coincidence, but the issue never happened when I shutdown the pc from the terminal:
sudo shutdown -h now

[rootan (4-rootan1)]

Same issues with the 295.40-0ubuntu1 driver.

[emptythevoid (emptythevoid)]

Also getting the same issue on the 295.40 driver offered up from "Additional Hardware." Doesn't seem to happen all the time.

[IgnatiusReilly (ignatiusreilly75)]

I decided to move to the nouveau open driver.
Remove nvidia driver:

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia*

and install the open one:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau libdrm-nouveau1a nouveau-firmware

It works very well (Ubuntu 12.04 Nvidia GeForce Go 8400M GS).
No Xorg crash so far and no shutdown issues.

[emptythevoid (emptythevoid)]

Just updated to nvidia 295.53 and it still had all the same issues as before (freezing on restart, blue colors on Flash video). Nouveau for me.

[Kirk Wolff (kirk-stpaulinternet)]

ubuntu precise linux-image-3.2.0-26-generic-pae, nvidia-current-updates v295.49: Same problem. In the past, while trying to isolate the problem, reverted to basic VGA drivers and power management problems went away. Re-install any available version of nvidia from ubuntu default repos and the problem comes back: freeze during power-down or reboot.

[Kyle Auble (auble48-deactivatedaccount)]

I just came across this report, and while I'm not having problems with black screens or failed shut-downs so much, I have a similar set-up to the original reporter: Nvidia 8400M GT, Core 2 Duo, and I've been having problems with the GPU failing to activate (see Bug #1009312). It seems to be happening at the actual kernel level very early in booting, not the nvidia drivers.

I'm seeing a lot of similarities in the patterns here though: problem seems to happen in cycles over multiple shutdowns, much better luck with the 64bit version of Ubuntu and the kernel (comment #6 above), having to revert to the VGA drivers (comment #12), some relation to power management. I don't think my report is an exact duplicate of this (and I think all kernel reports are supposed to be treated separately), but I would be interested if anyone here is seeing something similar to what I am. If anyone is, that could really help us narrow down what's going on.

And again, if you have a 64bit processor, you really might want to try moving to the 64bit build of Ubuntu; when I was on the PAE kernel, GPU problems were the norm, but since switching to the 64bit version, I've only had one bad session over at least 10 reboots.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

Subscribing NVIDIA to the bug report