XOrg / nouveau - hard lockups and does not draw to screen

[JXT]

Changing display settings hard locks the machine (no reisub save). Installing nouveau-firmware allows changes to be made without hard lock ups but the screen using nouveau draws the mouse cursor and will launch apps on it but does not draw anything on screen. Dmesg is flooded with nouveau and XOrg failure messages.

Description: Ubuntu 21.04
Release: 21.04

xorg:
  Installed: 1:7.7+22ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:7.7+22ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1:7.7+22ubuntu1 500
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

nouveau-firmware:
  Installed: 20091212-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 20091212-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 20091212-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/multiverse amd64 Packages
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/multiverse i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:
  Installed: 1:1.0.17-1
  Candidate: 1:1.0.17-1
  Version table:
 *** 1:1.0.17-1 500
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+22ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.11.0-31.33-generic 5.11.22
Uname: Linux 5.11.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu65.1
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Sun Sep 5 23:52:43 2021
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: hirsute
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation C61 [GeForce 6100 nForce 405] [10de:03d1] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Elitegroup Computer Systems C61 [GeForce 6100 nForce 405] [1019:2601]
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Oland XT [Radeon HD 8670 / R7 250/350] [1002:6610] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Diamond Multimedia Systems Oland XT [Radeon HD 8670 / R7 250/350] [1092:0250]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-04-07 (151 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo" - Release amd64 (20210420)
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 04d9:a0cd Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. USB Keyboard
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 093a:2510 Pixart Imaging, Inc. Optical Mouse
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Acer ASE380/AST180/APM8
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.11.0-31-generic root=UUID=cf6234fa-9047-4e3a-8931-f8f36bce86cf ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/29/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: R01-B1
dmi.board.name: EM61SM/EM61PM
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset tag number: at least 22 digits
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvrR01-B1:bd12/29/2006:svnAcer:pnASE380/AST180/APM8:pvrR01-B1:rvnAcer:rnEM61SM/EM61PM:rvr:cvn:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: ASE380/AST180/APM8
dmi.product.version: R01-B1
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.105-3~21.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.11-1ubuntu1.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200714-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.17-1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for the bug report.

You seem to be using the old (not recommended) Xorg graphics drivers called 'nouveau' and 'radeon'. They have been replaced by the newer driver 'modesetting'. So if you are writing a Xorg config file be sure to use the latter.

Please also note the nouveau kernel driver is often unreliable. Unfortunately your Nvidia GPU appears to be a little too old to be supported by the official proprietary Nvidia drivers so you don't have much choice. If you can disable the Nvidia GPU in your BIOS and use the Radeon instead then you might have more luck.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This change was made by a bot.

[JXT (jtipton-x-deactivatedaccount)]

Disabling GPU's/Screens isn't an option. The point is to get things working so I don't lose hundreds of dollars in hardware because something is broken in software. These things all work in 16.04/18.04 - broken in 20.04/21.04. This is a test setup to debug this stuff rather than butchering my dual GPU workstation trying to get 21.04 to work.

As for using the old nouveau and amdgpu drivers that's what the system chooses. There is no option to change that without making an xorg.conf (that I know of) but I'm out of touch with how systems are trying to save/store configs these days since they don't use xorg.conf.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I also wish older GPUs were still supported but Nvidia makes it tricky. The open source "nouveau" driver is almost always buggy and the closed source drivers only ever support GPUs for a limited number of years (admittedly the Linux kernel driver model is to blame for that rather than Nvidia but being closed source is part of it).

If there was anything we (Canonical) could do to improve the situation then we would.

[JXT (jtipton-x-deactivatedaccount)]

Well I'm less concerned with getting the old GPU to work (again just a test system trying to debug dual GPU in general) as I am getting my NEW GPU's on my workstation working in 21.04 and future releases. Right now Dual GPU is horribly broken and it's spans tons huge swathes of the system. My set up has been fine for years...though updates have slowly broken more and more. However 20.04 and newer completely break things. I'm not really down with having to buy a new computers to run my other GPU's or just ripping my GPU's out and tossing them and my screens aside because something / someone decided to break everything moving forward. I will say after some updates and tinkering I got 21.04 (XFCE) stable but lots of things are just broken/unusable. On a normal Ubuntu install for example launching anything on the other GPU's/Xscreens results in ignored theming, broken input and Win95 like Window smearing just to name a few problems.