hardy upgrade breaks video settings, can't get them back

[sem]

Binary package hint: xorg

1. Just upgraded to hardy from a working gutsy install using the "nvidia" driver. Now the nvidia driver doesn't work -- every time I boot, the splash screen starts up in the proper resolution (1440x900), then I see the text login screen for a moment, then I get the "low graphics" warning with the choice to Continue, Cancel, or Configure.

By configuring, I can get the "nv" driver to work in the "test," but the changes are never kept, even if I choose to save to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Using the Hardware Drivers menu item doesn't help at all either.

The only way I was able to get my screen in the correct resolution was by personally editing xorg.conf, specifying the "nv" driver, hashing out all the modelines and using normal modes instead (i.e. "1440x900" rather than "1440x900@60").

I tried changing "nv" to "nvidia" so I could get 3d hardware acceleration, but this sent me back down to the inferior resolutions, so maybe the problem is with the nvidia driver.

[lspci]
00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller [10de:03ea] (rev a1)
     Subsystem: EPoX Computer Co., Ltd. Unknown device [1695:102a]
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] [10de:0392] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
     Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Unknown device [1458:3438]

[sem (semitones)]

all of these tests done in the broken xorg environment

$ uname -a
Linux big-ubuntu 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12 02:46:46 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ sudo discover --disable=parallel,serial,usb,ide,scsi,pcmcia --format="%M\t%S\t%D\t%i\n" video
[sudo] password for phix:
G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] XFree86 nv 10de0392

$ sudo xresprobe nv
id:
res:
freq:
disptype:

$ sudo xresprobe nvidia
id:
res:
freq:
disptype:

[TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers)]

HI Phix,

I read your comment in the chat room looking for help. From this page,

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Reporting#head-8c2902c284112c960b29386ea3d2f97fd3c57109

I can see that you could also include the output of:
sudo ddcprobe

as well as:
xrandr

Aside from that, it's a very thorough report.

Jarlath

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I think this is probably an -nvidia issue, so refiling there.

[sem (semitones)]

What should I do to move this bug from incomplete to confirmed?

[sem (semitones)]

Tried a fresh install of ubuntu 32 bit, this is what I got at the start:

$ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: No (If you want to find out why, try setting LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose)
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect

Then I enabled the "Nvidia accelerated graphics driver" in the hardware drivers manager, and got

$ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: Yes.

So the problem seems to be amd 64 specific. Now I'm going to do a fresh install of amd 64 with the alternate cd, and see if the binary driver works or does not work on a fresh install.

[sem (semitones)]

Tried a fresh install of ubuntu 32 bit, this is what I got at the start:

$ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: No (If you want to find out why, try setting LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose)
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect

Then I enabled the "Nvidia accelerated graphics driver" in the hardware drivers manager, and got

$ glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: Yes

So the problem seems to be amd 64 specific. Now I'm going to do a fresh install of amd 64 with the alternate cd, and see if the binary driver works or does not work on a fresh install.

[sem (semitones)]

Strange thing happens: on the fresh install of AMD 64, "Hardware Drivers" says "nvidia_new" is enabled but Not in use!

[sem (semitones)]

After fetching all the updates and running the hardware drivers application again, direct rendering is OK! I'm booting back to my main partition to see if I can fix the problem in this way or if it really is a bug.

[sem (semitones)]

I found the answer to this bug! I don't know what the fix is though

The reason the hardware drivers manager wasn't working was because I was running the wrong kernel -- 2.6.22-14-generic instead of 2.6.22-16-generic. My computer wasn't upgrading properly: even though it claimed to be up to date, it didn't have the latest kernel installed, but it had the -17 kernel installed from the proposed repos. Anyway, my menu.lst was screwed up by my custom edits where I wasn't supposed to edit, which seems to have prevented it from being updated either.

Anyway after I got synaptic and grub straightened out, as soon as I was booted into the -16 kernel, the hardware drivers manager worked like a charm. So I don't know what you'll be doing with this bug.

[sem (semitones)]

problem seems to be due to having -proposed repos enabled