[RV200 QW 7500] video comes up garbled - monitor edid not 1.2 compliant, and X picks wrong preferred mode

[Benjamin Otte (Company)]

When starting X, the server fails to show up a proper image.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Note that he tried using the driver snapshot by Tormod Volden (xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.7.197+git20080201.b.a38a903d-0ubuntu0tormod), which was pretty recent :)

[agd5f (agd5f)]

This is an xserver bug. Since your monitor's edid is not specifying a perferrred mode, the xserver is picking one that just happens to be one the monitor doesn't like. you can work around this by adding a PerferredMode line to your monitor section and associating that monitor section with VGA-0. See this page for more info:
http://www.intellinuxgraphics.com/dualhead.html

[Benjamin Otte (Company) (otte)]

When starting X, the server fails to show up a proper image.

[Benjamin Otte (Company) (otte)]

This server runs without xorg.conf

[Benjamin Otte (Company) (otte)]

Yeah, my GNOME tends to xrandr into my preferred resolution on startup, so I didn't notice this bug until GNOME broke so there's enough workarounds. But I want it fixed right now, as the problem I'm seeing with this is that it's pretty critical for newly installed machines of average users who just get a broken screen.

It also looks like the code is either very dumb or deliberately stupid, because it seems to pick the most braindead resolution it can find.

So who do I need to poke to get that fixed?

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> It also looks like the code is either very dumb or deliberately stupid, because
> it seems to pick the most braindead resolution it can find.

Given that your monitor has indicated it can support all these resolutions -- including the ones that it doesn't -- and that it hasn't marked any particular mode as being its preferred/native mode, despite it being standard practice to do so, what would you recommend?

[Benjamin Otte (Company) (otte)]

Two ideas come to mind from how I'd figure out a sane resolution:
1) ask the graphics card for its preferred resolution(s). This idea comes from looking at the supported frequencies per resolution in the xrandr output. More frequencies/higher frequency per resolution means better chance that it works.
2) Hardcode a list of resolutions that old/stupid monitors are likely to support and use them preferrably. That's what I do if something doesn't work: Try 1024x768 or 640x480 before trying 1600x1024.

I'd even prefer coming up in 640x480 to not coming up at all.

[agd5f (agd5f)]

we should probably just pick the first detailed timing block as the preferred mode if the edid doesn't specify one. I've seen quite a few similar bugs. In the case of this bug that mode would be:

(II) RADEON(0): Supported additional Video Mode:
(II) RADEON(0): clock: 229.5 MHz Image Size: 354 x 265 mm
(II) RADEON(0): h_active: 1600 h_sync: 1664 h_sync_end 1856 h_blank_end 2160 h_border: 0
(II) RADEON(0): v_active: 1200 v_sync: 1201 v_sync_end 1204 v_blanking: 1250 v_border: 0

This edid is also not 1.2 compliant despite what it reports.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I don't know if this will fix this specific issue, but I've backported a bunch of high importance patches that upstream recommended, that fix problems sort of like this one, so I think it would be worth the time to test. Please try this .deb and report what you find:

http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/ati/

If we can determine that the patches in this deb fix this bug, they may be candidates for backporting to Hardy.

[Benjamin Otte (Company) (otte)]

I just tried it, and no change - the video still comes up in the broken 1680x1050 resolution.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Okay, thanks.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. In the development cycle for Intrepid there have been some vast improvements in the open source ati video driver and we could use your help testing them. Could you please download the latest Alpha CD image of Intrepid and test this particular bug just using the Live CD? You can find the latest image at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Your testing can help make Ubuntu and the open source ati driver even better! Thanks in advance.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Hi Benjamin,

This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
test if it still occurs on Lucid?

Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
normal support channels, please see:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:

  apport-collect 189198

If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
bug 189198 in your report if you think it may be related):

  ubuntu-bug xorg

If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/189198

[Alex - Microsmeta (microsmeta)]

Similar bug still happens to me occasionally. Question #118449 is NOT SOLVED, but I don't know how to change
the "state" and reopen the bug. So I repost here my question:

SCREENSHOT: http://www.microsmeta.com/dblog/graficaimpazzita.png
HARDWARE:
Notebook Acer Aspire 1356 LMI (2004)
Athlon XP Mobile 2800+
1,25 GB (expanded)
ATI RADEON MOBILITY 9200 64M

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx starts normally with 3D acceleration / Desktop Effects (Compiz) activated. After a while (10 -> 30 MINS ) the desktop is full of big lines of random pixels . Restarting single applications do not solve, and soon Ubuntu becomes unstable and crashes. I can only close & restart the session as quick as possible as a workaround.

It happens with both latest GNOME / LXDE desktop environments

XORG VERSION: 16 June 2010 09:31:32AM
GCC VERSION: 4.4.3 (i486-linux-gnu)
GNOME 2.30.2 (Ubuntu 2010-06-25)
KERNEL 2.6.32-23-generic (#37-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 11 07:54:58 UTC 2010)

I SUSPECT SOME BUGS ON MESA DRIVERS... NB WAS WORKING WELL USING UBUNTU 9.10

GLX version: 1.2
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 7.7.1
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R200 (RV280 5C61) 20090101 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL DRI2

NO HARDWARE PROBLEMS USING WINDOWS XP

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original bug reporter. However, if the issue still exists in the latest development version of Ubuntu and you are the original reporter please feel free to reopen with the requested information. If you are not the original reporter, please don't reopen this one but instead file a new bug and reference this one.

[Gitlab-migration (gitlab-migration)]

-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message --

This bug has been migrated to freedesktop.org's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity.

You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/issues/360.