Blank screen with only mouse pointer after 7.10 radeon driver update; display does not switch to tty7 upon lightdm start; Xorg.0.log quickly grows

[Jamie C.]

I get a blank screen with only mouse pointer upon boot, after the splash. This started after the mesa driver update on 2/15/18. The display does not appear to switch to tty7 upon lightdm start.
 Xorg.0.log quickly grows and continues to grow.

I believe `lightdm` is not starting `Xorg` on the correct display, but, I don't know how to determine this from the logs.

Here is the command line `lightdm` uses to launch `Xorg`:

    ~$ ps -ef | grep lightdm
    root 1261 1 0 18:23 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/lightdm
    root 1316 1261 6 18:23 tty7 00:00:03 /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg -core :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch
    root 1350 1261 0 18:23 ? 00:00:00 lightdm --session-child 12 15

*OCCURRENCE ON 2/15/18:*

I performed a normal upgrade on 2/15/18 through the software manager in 16.04LTS.

It upgraded the following libraries (`/var/log/dpkg.log [pkg][old ver][new ver]`):

    libegl1-mesa-dev:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libwayland-egl1-mesa:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libegl1-mesa:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libegl1-mesa:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libgbm1:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libgbm1:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libosmesa6:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libosmesa6:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libgles2-mesa:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libgl1-mesa-glx:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libglapi-mesa:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libglapi-mesa:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    libxatracker2:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    linux-firmware:all 1.157.15 1.157.16
    mesa-vdpau-drivers:i386 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    mesa-vdpau-drivers:amd64 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.4 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~16.04.1
    xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-16.04:amd64 1:7.9.0-0ubuntu1~16.04.1 1:7.10.0-1~16.04.1
    xserver-xorg-video-ati-hwe-16.04:amd64 1:7.9.0-0ubuntu1~16.04.1 1:7.10.0-1~16.04.1

I should note, this is *not* the compiz/unity update package list. It is the mesa drivers.

Upon reboot, I started getting a blank screen with only a mouse pointer when the display manager started.

I press <kbd>CTRL</kbd>+<kbd>ALT</kbd>+<kbd>F1</kbd> to go into console, and I can find the following in the `Xorg.0.log`:

    [ 4800.851] (WW) RADEON(0): flip queue failed: Invalid argument
    [ 4800.851] (WW) RADEON(0): Page flip failed: Invalid argument

These warning messages are *constantly* streaming into the log file, and it *keeps growing*. This wasn't present before the library update. I will be happy to provide a logfile upon request.

Video h/w on my laptop:

     *-display

       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: RV516/M64-S [Mobility Radeon X2300]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 00
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=radeon latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:d0000000-d3ffffff ioport:4000(size=256) memory:d8300000-d830ffff memory:c0000-dffff

1st lines of modinfo output:

    filename: /lib/modules/4.13.0-26-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon.ko
    license: GPL and additional rights
    description: ATI Radeon

*UPDATE 2/16/18:*

I appear to be booting to the wrong VT display. All of the symptoms above are true; however, if I perform a <kbd>CTRL</kbd>+<kbd>ALT</kbd>+<kbd>F1</kbd> (up to <kbd>F6</kbd>) at startup and then immediately perform a <kbd>CTRL</kbd>+<kbd>ALT</kbd>+<kbd>F7</kbd>, which switches the VT, I go to my normal desktop as if it had booted correctly. <kbd>CTRL</kbd>+<kbd>ALT</kbd>+<kbd>F7</kbd> without first going to console does not do anything. So, this simplifies things somewhat as it now looks to be a config issue. Lightdm seems to start Xorg on the wrong display. I tried a vt.handoff=7 on the linux kernel command line, and this did not help.

Here is the output of `w` immediately after pressing <kbd>CTRL</kbd>+<kbd>ALT</kbd>+<kbd>F7</kbd> and going to the normal desktop:

     09:38:01 up 44 min, 1 user, load average: 0.60, 0.67, 0.82
    USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
    user1 tty7 :0 08:53 44:14 6:16 0.29s /sbin/upstart -

This display listing appears normal.

I should note that compiz and unity still seem to function. The desktop is fully available and already loaded when I switch to tty7.

*UPDATE 2/19/18:*

I don't believe this to be a duplicate of the compiz/unity issue. The issue I observed resulted from the mesa driver update on the morning of 2/15/18. The compiz/unity update has yet to be applied to my system. In fact, there is one other post that looks to be the same issue as I am seeing, it is: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1006264/var-log-xorg-0-log-file-growing-fast

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-16.04 1:7.10.0-1~16.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-26.29~16.04.2-generic 4.13.13
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-26-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Mon Feb 19 10:22:52 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-04-05 (319 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170215.2)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati-hwe-16.04
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

I think something is hosed with the radeon driver in mesa 17.2.8, but I can't find the 17.2.4 pkgs to roll back and test the theory. The 17.2.4 was pulled from updates and proposed lines. I'm hesitant to rollback to 11.2.

I can get you anything you need (logs, etc...) look at the issue. I'm a longtime, old school developer. Lived in the 'nix env for about 20 yrs, mostly Solaris. Love Ubuntu and Debian.

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

The warning string in the Xorg.0.log, "flip queue failed", is found in the following driver:
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so
found in package: xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-16.04

This module is loaded in Xorg on my machine. I'll download the source and start looking through the code.

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

Source of warning message from radeon_drv.so:
./src/drmmode_display.c: xf86DrvMsg(scrn->scrnIndex, X_WARNING, "flip queue failed: %s\n",
./src/radeon_kms.c: xf86DrvMsg(scrn->scrnIndex, X_WARNING, "flip queue failed in %s: %s\n",
./src/radeon_kms.c: xf86DrvMsg(scrn->scrnIndex, X_WARNING, "flip queue failed in %s: %s, "

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

Specifically, the source file:

    ./src/drmmode_display.c: xf86DrvMsg(scrn->scrnIndex, X_WARNING, "flip queue failed: %s\n",

Line 3093 in the source code of `drmmode_display.c`:

    flip_error:
     xf86DrvMsg(scrn->scrnIndex, X_WARNING, "flip queue failed: %s\n",
         strerror(errno));

    error:
     if (drm_queue_seq)
      radeon_drm_abort_entry(drm_queue_seq);
     else if (crtc)
      drmmode_flip_abort(crtc, flipdata);
     else {
      abort(NULL, data);
      drmmode_fb_reference(pRADEONEnt->fd, &flipdata->fb, NULL);
      free(flipdata);
     }

     xf86DrvMsg(scrn->scrnIndex, X_WARNING, "Page flip failed: %s\n",
         strerror(errno));

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

I'll "gdb attach" the Xorg process next and see if I can't get some runtime data.

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

Okay, a little code inspection leads to one of these two function calls failing at line 3062:

  if (crtc == ref_crtc) {
   if (drmmode_page_flip_target_absolute(pRADEONEnt,
             drmmode_crtc,
             fb->handle,
             flip_flags,
             drm_queue_seq,
             target_msc) != 0)
    goto flip_error;
  } else {
   if (drmmode_page_flip_target_relative(pRADEONEnt,
             drmmode_crtc,
             fb->handle,
             flip_flags,
             drm_queue_seq, 0) != 0)
    goto flip_error;
  }

Next step is gdb attach and setting a break point.

Now, I'm *not* a video driver guru, so, at some point, I'll need somebody that's in this code regularly to take a look. Thanks. (Or, maybe I'll get luckly and find a simply error... ;-) )

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

Line 3039 in the source can also cause the message:

   if (flip_sync == FLIP_ASYNC) {
    if (!drmmode_wait_vblank(crtc,
        DRM_VBLANK_RELATIVE |
        DRM_VBLANK_EVENT,
        0, drm_queue_seq,
        NULL, NULL))
     goto flip_error;
    goto next;
   }

[Jamie C. (coolmott)]

This issue has a workaround:

Download 7.9 radeon driver Ubuntu package (xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-16.04_7.9.0-0ubuntu1~16.04.1_amd64.deb) from:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/xenial/amd64/xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-16.04/1:7.9.0-0ubuntu1~16.04.1

Execute the following on the downloaded .deb file:

> sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-16.04_7.9.0-0ubuntu1_16.04.1_amd64.deb

> sudo apt-get -f install

> sudo apt-mark hold xserver-xorg-video-radeon-hwe-16.04

This downgrades the radeon driver package to version 7.9, fixes dependencies, and holds the driver pkg from further updates.

Upon rebooted, issue is resolved.

A bug has been reported to Freedesktop at:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105217

[tachiorz (tachiorz)]

I filed similar bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compton/+bug/1756354

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

16.04 is EOL