Cannot use external monitor

[Springnuts]

I am running an HP 455 G2 Laptop, AMD A series A8-7100 1.8 GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 15.6" Display, DVDRW, AMD Radeon R5, Webcam, Bluetooth with Ubuntu 16.04; upgraded from 15.10.

Under 15.10 I connected and used an acer vga monitor. After the upgrade to 16.10 the second monitor has no display.

Steps to reproduce:

Disconnect monitor; restart computer.
Enter "Screen Display". confirm only one (internal) monitor is shown.
Connect monitor. Click "detect displays". Monitor is detected and shown in grey (screenshot 1)
Select acer monitor; click "on" at slider. (screenshot 2)
Click "Apply". No display on acer monitor. Click "Keep this configuration".
Still no display on acer monitor, however mouse is not held at edge of laptop screen - ie the computer thinks the external display is in use. Also windows can be pushed entirely into the extended desktop (but are then, obviously, not visible).
The little indicator light on the monitor switch remains in the amber "no signal" condition.
Now click "power > shut down > shut down" As computer shuts down the purple screen with line of dots lighting up appears on BOTH the built in screen AND the external screen.
On restart, the computer still thinks the external screen exists and is active, but there is no display.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: unity-control-center 15.04.0+16.04.20160413-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue May 3 10:19:01 2016
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/unity-control-center
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-02-26 (66 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: unity-control-center
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-04-22 (10 days ago)

[Springnuts (simon-springnuts-orangehome)]

I have a video showing the behaviour, but it is 135MB. Can upload if required.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. What's the output of the "xrandr" command when the external monitor is connected/configured?

[Springnuts (simon-springnuts-orangehome)]

Good evening Sebastien, and thank you.

With the monitor connected and set to on with the software switch the output is as below.

Regards,

Simon.:

simon@simon-HP-ProBook-455-G2:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2646 x 1024, maximum 16384 x 16384
VGA-0 connected 1280x1024+1366+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 376mm x 301mm
   1280x1024 60.02*+ 75.02
   1152x864 75.00 59.97
   1024x768 75.08 75.03 70.07 60.00
   832x624 74.55
   800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25
   640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 60.00
   720x400 70.08
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
eDP connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1366x768 60.00*+ 40.00
   1280x720 59.86
   1152x768 59.78
   1024x768 59.92
   800x600 59.86
   848x480 59.66
   720x480 59.71
   640x480 59.38

For comparison, with the external monitor disconnected the output is:

simon@simon-HP-ProBook-455-G2:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 16384 x 16384
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
eDP connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1366x768 60.00*+ 40.00
   1280x720 59.86
   1152x768 59.78
   1024x768 59.92
   800x600 59.86
   848x480 59.66
   720x480 59.71
   640x480 59.38

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

seems like the second monitor gets correctly activated ... could you add your ~/.cache/upstart/unity7.log to the bug after enabling the external screen?

[Springnuts (simon-springnuts-orangehome)]

Thank you.

Unity7.log reads:

Performance warning: Async animation disabled because frame size (1642, 20) is bigger than the viewport (1464, 837) or the visual rectangle (1642, 20) is larger than the max allowable value (17895698) [span]
Performance warning: Async animation disabled because frame size (1626, 20) is bigger than the viewport (1464, 837) or the visual rectangle (1626, 20) is larger than the max allowable value (17895698) [span]
Performance warning: Async animation disabled because frame size (1626, 20) is bigger than the viewport (1464, 837) or the visual rectangle (1626, 20) is larger than the max allowable value (17895698) [span]
Performance warning: Async animation disabled because frame size (1475, 20) is bigger than the viewport (1464, 837) or the visual rectangle (1475, 20) is larger than the max allowable value (17895698) [span with id 'yui_3_16_0_1_1463653479956_17842']
1463653962174 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for <email address hidden> did not contain an updates property
1463653964658 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for <email address hidden> did not contain an updates property
1463653964678 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for <email address hidden> did not contain an updates property
1463653964723 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd} did not contain an updates property
failed to create drawable
compiz (core) - Warn: glXCreatePixmap failed
failed to create drawable
compiz (core) - Warn: glXCreatePixmap failed
failed to create drawable
compiz (core) - Warn: glXCreatePixmap failed

(soffice:13456): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at `/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel': Permission denied.

(transmission-gtk:9370): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel': Permission denied.

(gedit:21372): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel': Permission denied.

(soffice:13456): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at `/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel': Permission denied.

(transmission-gtk:9370): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel': Permission denied.

(gedit:21372): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but the parser failed: Failed to open file '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel': Permission denied.

(gedit:21372): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to read the recently used resources file at '/home/simon/.local/s...

[Springnuts (simon-springnuts-orangehome)]

Seeing as the log file refers to a failure to open '/home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel' I looked that file up. Using 'sudo nautilus' to open a file manager I found it and opened it: it reads as below the line of asterisks.

I looked at its permissions and it states:
Owner - Root - Read and write
Group - Root - none
Others - none
Allow executing file as program - not checked.
Security context - unknown

I then opened a normal "files" window and opened the file with gedit - which struck me as odd because it has covered with locked icons - and it now does not have locked icons, and reports its permissions as:

Owner - Me - Read and write
Group - Simon - none
Others - none
Allow executing file as program - not checked.
Security context - unknown

I am user 'Simon'.

* * * * * * * * * * *

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xbel version="1.0"
      xmlns:bookmark="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-bookmarks"
      xmlns:mime="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"
>
  <bookmark href="file:///home/simon/Downloads/unity7.log" added="2016-05-19T11:00:34Z" modified="2016-05-19T11:01:17Z" visited="2016-05-19T11:00:34Z">
    <info>
      <metadata owner="http://freedesktop.org">
        <mime:mime-type type="text/x-log"/>
        <bookmark:groups>
          <bookmark:group>gedit</bookmark:group>
        </bookmark:groups>
        <bookmark:applications>
          <bookmark:application name="gedit" exec="&apos;gedit %u&apos;" modified="2016-05-19T11:01:17Z" count="2"/>
        </bookmark:applications>
      </metadata>
    </info>
  </bookmark>
</xbel>

[Springnuts (simon-springnuts-orangehome)]

After being opened with files and gedit as above the file has been modified and reads:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xbel version="1.0"
      xmlns:bookmark="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-bookmarks"
      xmlns:mime="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"
>
  <bookmark href="file:///home/simon/.local/share/recently-used.xbel" added="2016-05-19T11:09:19Z" modified="2016-05-19T11:14:06Z" visited="2016-05-19T11:09:19Z">
    <info>
      <metadata owner="http://freedesktop.org">
        <mime:mime-type type="application/x-xbel"/>
        <bookmark:groups>
          <bookmark:group>gedit</bookmark:group>
        </bookmark:groups>
        <bookmark:applications>
          <bookmark:application name="gedit" exec="&apos;gedit %u&apos;" modified="2016-05-19T11:13:11Z" count="2"/>
          <bookmark:application name="nautilus" exec="&apos;gedit %U&apos;" modified="2016-05-19T11:14:06Z" count="2"/>
        </bookmark:applications>
      </metadata>
    </info>
  </bookmark>
</xbel>

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the log has

"Performance warning: Async animation disabled because frame size (1642, 20) is bigger than the viewport (1464, 837) or the visual rectangle (1642, 20) is larger than the max allowable value (17895698)"

unsure if that's the issue though...

[madbiologist (me-again)]

There was a recent fix to Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" for some AMD VGA outputs. Does this issue still occur with the latest Xenial 4.4.0-45.66 kernel?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Springnuts (simon-springnuts-orangehome)]

Thanks Madbiologist for the tip - I had a check and it seems to be fine :)

Many thanks to all those who keep on fixing and improving stuff!

Regards,

Springnuts.