compiz compositing locks up computer for rv350 chip

Bug #134893 reported by Wenzhuo Zhang
20
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
compiz (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Michael Vogt
compiz-fusion-plugins-main (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
xserver-xorg-video-ati (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Tormod Volden

Bug Description

Binary package hint: ubiquity

Tribe-5 desktop CD boots successfully on my desktop computer with ATI9550 graphics card as always. However, X can easily lock up unless Desktop Effects is disabled as soon as the desktop CD finishes booting.

I am wondering if compiz compositing should be enabled on the desktop CD by default and if Ubiquity should offer users an option to disable Desktop Effects.

I consider it a major bug of Ubiquity, because it can lock up many computers during installation.

Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

Is there a boot option to disable Desktop Effects of the Desktop CD?

Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

Attaching Xorg.0.log. When X locks up, the kernel SysRq magic keys are still working. I can sync the file system and reboot the computer by pressing Alt-SysRq-S and Alt-SysRq-B.

Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton) wrote :

How can you reproduce it, ie. is there something that will always make it hang?

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-ati:
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton) wrote :

Closing for ubiquity. If it can't be made to work for you, compiz will eventually know your device pciid and refuse to start.

Changed in ubiquity:
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Michael Vogt (mvo) wrote :

Thanks for your bugreport.

If it always hangs your machine, we will have to blacklist the pciid:
 1002:4153
(RV350 AS [Radeon 9550])
in the compiz wraper.

Changed in compiz:
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

Navigating in the Applications menu can reproduce the lockup in a matter of seconds.

Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

I believe it's wise to enable compiz based a whilelist of well-tested graphics cards at the first stage. If you choose to enable compiz by default and to disable compiz for a blacklist of graphics card, it's cautious to provide a boot option to disable desktop effects, because you never know if compiz works with a particular untested graphics card.

Revision history for this message
Travis Watkins (amaranth) wrote :

That's what the failsafe GNOME session is for. Compiz doesn't run there.

Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in compiz:
assignee: nobody → mvo
Changed in compiz:
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
MaxNegro (maxnegro) wrote :

Just a quick followup: i have the very same chip (PCI ID 1002:4153) but here compiz runs quite stable, after disabling the blacklist in the wrapper script. Took a while to understand why it didn't start: only error message I got was "unable to activate graphic effects"...

Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

Perhaps it is related to the graphics mode. I am using a 1280x1024 LCD. Please attach your Xorg.0.log.

Revision history for this message
smemorex (luca-consales) wrote :

it work for me too with the same chip when i disable my card from the blacklist

This is my output when i run compiz:

user@ubuntu:~$ compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 01:00.0 0300: 1002:4153 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: not present.
Trying again with indirect rendering:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (1152x864) to maximum 3D texture size (2048): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: not present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Starting gtk-window-decorator
/usr/bin/compiz.real (video) - Warn: No 8 bit GLX pixmap format, disabling YV12 image format

The only one problem seems to be when i try to maximize firefox i see a black background in the firefox window for a moment and than it works normally

Revision history for this message
smemorex (luca-consales) wrote :

it work for me too with the same chip when i disable my card from the blacklist

This is my output when i run compiz:

user@ubuntu:~$ compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 01:00.0 0300: 1002:4153 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: not present.
Trying again with indirect rendering:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (1152x864) to maximum 3D texture size (2048): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: not present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Starting gtk-window-decorator
/usr/bin/compiz.real (video) - Warn: No 8 bit GLX pixmap format, disabling YV12 image format

The only one problem seems to be when i try to maximize firefox at the beginnig shows me a black background in his winodow and than it works normally

Revision history for this message
MaxNegro (maxnegro) wrote :

Actually I'm using 1680x1050, and used to use 1280x1024 before switching to this new monitor I bougth recently. :)
I can confirm I'm still having no problems at all running with composite enabled and effects running (I use compiz-fusion, but I customized the list of plugins that gets loaded). More than 5 days of uptime at the moment.

Anyway, Xorg.0.log attached.

Revision history for this message
Gaspard Leon (gaspard.leon) wrote :

Someone with an RV350 should try it with the new driver (23 Oct 2007):
Read about it here: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=887

Revision history for this message
iDont (dennis-groenen) wrote :

Hello,
I have an ATi Radeon 9550SE (RV350)

I never had problems with:
* in the beginning Beryl (on Ubuntu 6.10, using the open source fglrx driver and XGL),
* later Compiz (on Ubuntu 7.04, using the open source fglrx and XGL driver)
* and now Compiz Fusion (on Ubuntu 7.10, using the official ATi driver 8.40.4 and later 8.41.7 on XGL)
since I use Ubuntu with an 3D Desktop with my Graphic Card.

I have installed the official ATi 8.42.3 driver today (for the first time using AIGLX :D) and I still haven't experienced any problems with Compiz Fusion.

I don't know why the RV350 is on the blacklist,
is the group people experiencing problems with it bigger than the group for who the card works flawless or not?
Otherwise I suggest to don't blacklist this card.

Feel free to ask any questions about my configuration and log files.

-Dennis

P.S. Sorry for my bad English, I am from the Netherlands

Revision history for this message
Leszek (bigl-aff) wrote :

Hi,

In previous versions of Ubuntu I could use Beryl/Compiz only with XGL with my Radeon 9550. Yesterday I installed official ATi 8.42.3 driver and now I can work with Compiz without XGL ( with AIGLX). Sadly performance is very poor - worst than with Ubuntu 7.04 with Ati restricted driver on XGL.

But at least I can confirm that with new ATi driver RV350 chip can be on whitelist.

Leszek

Revision history for this message
BastiBense (basti-bense) wrote :

I'm using a ATI 9550 (R300) card in Ubuntu 7.10 and can confirm that it works perfectly.

Revision history for this message
Justin Forest (umonkey) wrote :

I'm using ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AS [Radeon 9550] and it works well (with the ati driver, not fglrx). It always worked well, I'm surprised that (if) it got blacklisted without proper investigation.

Revision history for this message
Zoran Jolic (zjolic) wrote :

Hi, i had same problem, just that i installed ati proprietary driver (fglrx), and compiz didnt wont to work. Everything that I did after was quoting the blacklist for my chip (rv350), and now works perfect.

Nanley Chery (nanoman)
Changed in compiz-fusion-plugins-main:
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
tuxo (beat-fasel) wrote :

I am using a ATI X1050 - RV350 AS [Radeon 9550] with the free ati drivers on Gutsy Gibbon. I don't know why this card has been blacklisted. Compiz works well for me and does not crash.

Revision history for this message
Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h) wrote :

Compiz works very well for me in Gutsy with rv350 chip.

I suspect that Wenzhuo Zhang problem is due to other reasons... (and it's not confirmed by any other people)

In addition to this, he experienced it on Tribe 5.

I think it's time to whitelist this chip.

Revision history for this message
Travis Watkins (amaranth) wrote :

We have already done so in hardy.

Revision history for this message
Timo Jyrinki (timo-jyrinki) wrote :

Marking xserver-xorg-video-ati as fix released, since the current driver seems to work with compiz.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-ati:
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

I just tried un-blacklisting 1002:4153 again on up-to-date Gutsy. Compiz still locks up my computer. It seems that I am the only unlucky one with this graphics card. :( Perhaps I've got a faulty card, or it cannot draw enough current from the AGP socket. The desktop computer is very stable otherwise.

Unfortuately, I don't have enough hardware to isolate the problem.

Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

Further findings regarding to this problem:

1. When X locks up, the system is still running. I can ssh into this machine from another machine. Everything is fine except that the screen stays frozen no matter what I do, including typing switching to console by typing "Ctrl-Alt-F1", and restarting gdm/X. The computer screen will not come back to life until system reboot.

2. The i845 motherboard has an AGP 4X socket. If I lower the AGPMode to 1 or 2, it seems that lockups no longer occur. At the time of writing, it has been running well in AGPMode 2 for one hour already.

Section "Device"
        Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AS [Radeon 9550]"
        Driver "ati"
        BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option "AGPMode" "2"
EndSection

Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

Marking the bug as Incomplete for xserver-xorg-video-ati, because lockups no longer occur in AGP 1X and 2X mode. I haven't tried Hardy though.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-ati:
status: Fix Released → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Wenzhuo Zhang (wenzhuo) wrote :

Just for the record: I submitted a repair request to the graphics card vendor because of the noisy fan, but they shipped me a newer version of this card as a replacement instead. Now X no longer locks up with AGP in 4x mode when normal or extra desktop effects are enabled in Gutsy.

Revision history for this message
Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h) wrote :

So the problem was related to hardware, as I suspected.
Closing this bug.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-ati:
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Tormod Volden (tormodvolden) wrote :

Wenzhuo, do you still have any problems running compiz with your RV350 card? If you need to specify a given AGPMode, we should fix this in xserver-xorg-video-ati.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-ati (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)
status: Invalid → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

No response in a couple months; assuming the issue is long since resolved.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-ati (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
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