plymouth text messages fail with radeon.modeset=0

[Paul Crawford]

Binary package hint: plymouth

Testing 10.04 release i386 on my machine and I found that adding radeon.modeset=0 to the /etc/default/grub GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT parameter was needed to stop the occasional 'blank screen of death' where on booting the ATI card is put in to a mode that causes my monitor to blank as if power-saving.

However, as side effect of this is it kills the output of splash screen text that plymouth normally reports from a back-up script using the command:
plymouth message --text="something to say"
This is in both with the version shipped with 10.04 and the unstable test 0.8.2-2ubuntu3~ppa1 version. (As an aside, why has plymouth not got a --version command option?)

Initially I though it was the VGA style mode that radeon.modeset=0 seems to select, but on removing radeon.modeset=0 then shutting down, plymouth was still using VGA-like resolution but the text appeared OK. So it is either random, or it is directly down to the radeon selection parameter.

I expected to see messages, and there was nothing except, perhaps, a brief flash of a grey rectangle around the logo position (not below it where the text usually goes).

Some machine info in case it helps:

sudo hwinfo --bios | grep Socket
    Socket: "J3E1"
    Socket Type: 0x01 (Other)
    Socket Status: Populated
    Location: 0x00 (Internal, Not Socketed)
    Location: 0x00 (Internal, Not Socketed)

sudo hwinfo --gfxcard | grep Modules
  Driver Modules: "drm"

sudo hwinfo --gfxcard | grep Model
  Model: "PC Partner Radeon X300 (PCIE)"
  Model: "PC Partner Radeon X300SE"
---
Architecture: i386
DefaultPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-logo/ubuntu-logo.plymouth
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: Viglen D945GTP
Package: plymouth 0.8.2-2ubuntu3~ppa1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=10fe7c39-801d-412d-964d-a82f10cc03ee ro radeon.modeset=0 quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 VGA16 VGA
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Tags: lucid
TextPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 09/29/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: NT94510J.86A.2706.2005.0929.1417
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: D945GTP
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAC97844-303
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: NONE
dmi.chassis.type: 2
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrNT94510J.86A.2706.2005.0929.1417:bd09/29/2005:svnViglen:pnD945GTP:pvr001320CB72D6:rvnIntelCorporation:rnD945GTP:rvrAAC97844-303:cvn:ct2:cvr:
dmi.product.name: D945GTP
dmi.product.version: 00:13:20:CB:72:D6
dmi.sys.vendor: Viglen

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Please run 'apport-collect 575808'.

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

apport information

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

Unrelated, but out of curiosity, does anyone know what is the message "This is not a genuine Ubuntu package" is due to?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

That refers to the fact that you've installed a ppa package version instead of one from the Ubuntu archive.

Whose PPA are you installing from? Whatever this version is, it's not anything that's been merged into the Ubuntu bzr branch.

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

I added http://ppa.launchpad.net/arand/unstable/ubuntu to get the fix for plymouth/mountall running fsck and taking ages when run at boot time, not sure if it is now fixed mainstream though.

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

Is it worth reverting to the official packages? How would I do that, as simply un-ticking the unstable repository and then checking for updates has not resulted in any proposed changes, etc.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

I haven't fully reviewed the plymouth changes proposed in that PPA, so I don't know whether they could be related to this problem and would suggest that you downgrade, yes. You should be able to force a downgrade by running 'sudo apt-get install plymouth=0.8.2-2ubuntu2' from the commandline. (If this command wants to remove packages, you may need to include those package names on the commandline also, with the same version specifier.)

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

And the mountall package now in lucid-updates should fix the worst symptoms of the fsck problem, so it should be safe to downgrade plymouth.

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

Trying to install a 'lower' version of plymouth did not work, I got this message:

>The following packages have unmet dependencies.
> plymouth: Depends: libplymouth2 (= 0.8.2-2ubuntu2) but 0.8.2-2ubuntu3~ppa1 is to be installed

And an attempt to update (downgrade) libplymouth2 resulted in a serious warning about trashing the system:

>After this operation, 1,604MB disk space will be freed.
>You are about to do something potentially harmful
>To continue type in the phrase ‘Yes, do as I say!’

Suffice to say, I decided not to...

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 12:31:36PM -0000, Paul Crawford wrote:
> Trying to install a 'lower' version of plymouth did not work, I got this
> message:

> >The following packages have unmet dependencies.
> > plymouth: Depends: libplymouth2 (= 0.8.2-2ubuntu2) but 0.8.2-2ubuntu3~ppa1 is to be installed

> And an attempt to update (downgrade) libplymouth2 resulted in a serious
> warning about trashing the system:

> >After this operation, 1,604MB disk space will be freed.
> >You are about to do something potentially harmful
> >To continue type in the phrase ‘Yes, do as I say!’

> Suffice to say, I decided not to...

That suggests that you tried to downgrade libplymouth2 separately from
plymouth. As I said, you should list both packages on the commandline at
the same time, i.e.:

 apt-get install plymouth=0.8.2-2ubuntu2 libplymouth=0.8.2-2ubuntu2

If you're still getting this error, please post the full output of the
command, not just the last error message.

--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
<email address hidden> <email address hidden>

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

OK, that last command worked (with libplymouth2=0.8.2-2ubuntu2) and it has changed some things!

First, the test is back to 'normal size' not the VGA bulked-up manner, which is good.

Second, the text from my back-up script is going to the expected place on the screen, which is also good.

But...third, it appears that anything going to /dev/console is now appearing on the screen as it is comes from the last dot '.' of the throbber.

Attaches is a screen shot taken from a short movie of the machine doing a reboot. This shows both the wanted text of "(home.dat.tgz 54 M)" but also the unwanted stuff. There is also a brief flash of a message on start up related to NIS, maybe a similar message intended for /dev/console

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

That screenshot appears to show a blank window. Wrong screenshot? Or maybe not screenshottable within the player?

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

WTF? Yes, I did not use the movie player's screenshot, but assumed that Alt+PrintScreen would capture the screen. How naive was that, it worked until I closed the player and then the picture went!

Attached is (hopefully) a usable picture.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Ok, this latest screenshot shows that you're using the plymouth text theme instead of the Ubuntu theme. Do you still have the plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo package installed, or was it removed as part of your downgrade? (Run 'sudo apt-get install plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo' to correct this - this will reintroduce the bugs from before, but give us the baseline we need for debugging.)

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

OK, I installed the plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo package and it is now without any text at all. Not even the intended messages!

At boot-up there is a brief flash of something odd, but nothing now at reboot. Attached is the single frame out of the camera's video clip showing the boot-up oddity.

If you want to see exactly what I am doing, there is a section on this page with a download link to the backup scripts, and links to an explanation of how/why it works (or at least, should do!).

http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~psc/Ubuntu/ubuntu-stuff.html

It is the file pbackupd in the .tar.gz archive that launches the back-up script and then monitored the backup file's name/size and prints the progress message to the monitor.

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

Well, after installing VMware the message came back, but then went again! It comes and goes randomly as far as I can tell, not sure if that points to an uninitialised flag or something.