[nouveau] Unusable graphics (screen is broken into triangles) with GeForce 7600, 6600

[Tim Hockin]

This is an older card, but it worked well on ubuntu 12.x :)

Booting "Try Ubuntu" on 20.04 get the correct resolution and 2 displays, but the video glitches and shows all sorts of noise. It is largely unusable (which makes filing this bug very hard).

Safe Graphics works in low-res.

The nvidia proprietary driver seems to not support this device any more. I like this card because it has no fan (and I don't do a lot of graphics-intense stuff).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-26.30-generic 5.4.30
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-26-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CasperVersion: 1.445
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Apr 28 18:13:48 2020
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: focal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GT] [10de:0391] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd G73 [GeForce 7600 GT] [1458:3417]
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=C.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/username.seed initrd=/casper/initrd --- priority=low
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/30/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P1.40
dmi.board.name: X58 Extreme6
dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.40:bd12/30/2010:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnX58Extreme6:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.family: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.sku: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
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 N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
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

[Tim Hockin (thockin)]

Note: the corruption is not changing unless I move windows around. Moving the mouse alone draws the pointer corrctly.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Since it's the same GPU generation and same driver I think we should group this in with bug 1860483.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Actually there's a new bug 1876379 that looks more similar to this, and it's the same Ubuntu release. So let's handle them both here.

[Adrian Nida (labthug)]

Hi, Upgraded an old desktop from 19.10 to 20.04 and hit this graphics display issue. I also have the same graphics card:

From lspci:
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GT] (rev a1)

Is there any workaround I can perform to make this desktop usable? Other than blowing away the install and going back to 19.10?

[Tim Hockin (thockin)]

Buy a cheap Radeon card. This fight is not worth having.

On Mon, Jul 27, 2020 at 3:15 PM Adrian Nida <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Hi, Upgraded an old desktop from 19.10 to 20.04 and hit this graphics
> display issue. I also have the same graphics card:
>
> >From lspci:
> 03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GT] (rev a1)
>
> Is there any workaround I can perform to make this desktop usable? Other
> than blowing away the install and going back to 19.10?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1875712
>
> Title:
> Unusable graphics, nouveau + G73 (GEForce 7600)
>
> Status in mesa package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
> Status in mutter package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> This is an older card, but it worked well on ubuntu 12.x :)
>
> Booting "Try Ubuntu" on 20.04 get the correct resolution and 2
> displays, but the video glitches and shows all sorts of noise. It is
> largely unusable (which makes filing this bug very hard).
>
> Safe Graphics works in low-res.
>
> The nvidia proprietary driver seems to not support this device any
> more. I like this card because it has no fan (and I don't do a lot of
> graphics-intense stuff).
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
> Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-26.30-generic 5.4.30
> Uname: Linux 5.4.0-26-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
> ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
> Architecture: amd64
> CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
> CasperVersion: 1.445
> CompositorRunning: None
> CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
> Date: Tue Apr 28 18:13:48 2020
> DistUpgraded: Fresh install
> DistroCodename: focal
> DistroVariant: ubuntu
> ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
> GraphicsCard:
> NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GT] [10de:0391] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
> Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd G73 [GeForce 7600 GT] [1458:3417]
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
> MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
> ProcEnviron:
> TERM=xterm-256color
> PATH=(custom, no user)
> XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
> LANG=C.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcKernelCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/username.seed initrd=/casper/initrd --- priority=low
> SourcePackage: xorg
> Symptom: display
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
> dmi.bios.date: 12/30/2010
> dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
> dmi.bios.version: P1.40
> dmi.board.name: X58 Extreme6
> dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
> dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
> dmi.chassis.type: 3
> dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
> dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
> dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.40:bd12/30/2010:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnX58Extreme6:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
> dmi.product.family: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
> dmi.product.name: To Be Fille...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Sadly I think you are right. Fixing the nouveau driver, and particularly for older cards, is an open-ended problem.

Officially Nvidia only supports the GeForce 7600 hardware in driver version 304. But driver version 304 is too old for inclusion in Ubuntu 20.04.

A newer Nvidia card (and using the latest proprietary Nvidia driver) would also have solved the problem.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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