[i915GM] Binary data added to Xorg.0.log.old and screen stays blank

[Jonathan Ernst]

My friend's laptop requires several boot sequences until the screen (after Ubuntu's splash screen) is not staying blank.

When it finally works, I noticed that her Xorg.0.log.old has some binary garbage in it...

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jaunty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.04"

Linux eloise-laptop 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller [8086:2590] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01af]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller [8086:2592] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01af]

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

I have the same problem on my ThinkPad X61 Tablet.

Also, the system has been crashing often (every 1-3 days), with the same symptom of binary data in Xorg.0.log.old. (In both cases, I’ll look for data in syslog, messages, etc., and there isn’t anything unusual there.) Next time I get a sudden crash I’ll save the Xorg.0.log.old and post it here.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Well, that didn’t take long. I didn’t find anything strange in the log, though.

[Jonathan Ernst (jonathan.ernst)]

FWIW after reinstalling Jaunty from scratch I hadn't be able to reproduce this bug (yet).

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Oh, and here are some specs for me from lspci. These are slightly different, so this bug is bigger than just 915GM... (could someone better versed in the customs here change the bug’s title?)

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

And from uname -a:

Linux may 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Okay, I just realize my symptoms differ significantly; if you look at my Xorg.0.log.old, you’ll see it opens just fine as a regular text file (if you explicitly open it with a text editor), it just has a mimetype that implies a binary file. I just opened Jonathan’s log and realized the extent of the binary junk... the log has a huge load of it right upfront. I couldn’t ever find any binary junk in my log, I just assumed it was there and the text editor ignored it (I assumed it was _there_ because of the odd change in mimetype).

So, maybe I have a different but similar problem. Gahhhh....

Here’s my xorg.conf and lspci -vv output, by the way.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

I’ve started using the 2.6.30 RC5 kernel (using the package available at the Ubuntu kernel PPA, though I installed the package manually) and the X-Updates PPA. Anyway, I still get these crashes, but now it won’t crash the whole system, it will merely crash X.org, which restarts after a bit. (The screen will still be frozen in place for something like half a minute, though.) And, the Xorg.0.log.old is now more useful, including a backtrace. (It’s still has the strange mimetype problem.)

(I still have the “screen blanks at login” problem, sometimes, but I haven’t had to restart as much so I haven’t been as aware.)

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Closing, as per Jonathan's last comment sounds like this bug is no longer occurring for him.

@Tina, sort of sounds like you have an unrelated bug - please file it separately.