[rv280] X fails to start under Hardy amd64

[fuzzyBSc]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

G'day,

I get a complete console lock-up when gdm starts with the default xorg.conf under amd64 Hardy Herron with version 1:6.8.0-1 of xserver-xorg-video-ati. The keyboard is unresponsive, including Caps Lock. I am unable to change to a text terminal. The normal xfix behaviour does not kick in, and cannot be initiated. I have a work-around in place to put a Driver "vesa" option under Device in my xorg.conf. To insert this workaround, I performed a hard shut-down of the machine and booted to single user mode. I then modified /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

I have rebuilt most of the system (including motherboard) without replacing the video card around the time of the Hardy Herron release. Before the rebuild and under 32-bit gutsy the card appeared to function correctly. After the rebuild and under 64-bit hardy I get nowhere. My symptoms appear similar to those of Bug 67487. From a remote machine I have managed to log in and observe Xorg sitting at 100% load on one of my cores (I didn't think to check what the Xorg process was doing exactly), and the remote access is slow during the console lockup. I have tried adding Option "DefaultConnectorTable" "on", hoping this was a dupe of Bug 157408, but with no success.

From lspci:
04:01.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)
04:01.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (Secondary) (rev 01)

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jun 16 00:08:56 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.8.0-1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-18-generic x86_64

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Thanks for your report. Can you please try to debug it remotely, with help from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Backtracing ? Would be good to know what Xorg is doing.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Based on the description of the symptoms, it sort of sounds like this might be caused by an incorrect AGPMode setting, which is relevant when DRI is enabled. You should test if changing this makes the issue go away. In your /etc/X11/xorg.conf set AGPMode to various values like this:

Section "Device"
   ...
   Option "AGPMode" "2"
EndSection

Possible values include 1, 2, 4, 8. You can see what it's currently set to by looking in /var/log/Xorg.0.log. It's worthwhile to test all four values even once you find one that works. If this takes care of it for you, we may be able to establish a quirk to set it for your hardware combo, if you can provide the following data:

  * AGPMode value(s) that work
  * Make/Model of laptop or motherboard
  * Output of lspci -vvnn
  * Is the system all factory hardware, or have any parts been replaced?
  * Is there an AGP Mode in the system BIOS?
    - If so, is it set to the factory default?

For more details on this, please see the "ATI AGP Mode Quirk" section at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Quirks

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi fuzzy, it's been some time since we last heard from you - are you still interested in this bug? If so, it'd be great if you could re-test it against intrepid, and provide the info mentioned above. Otherwise, we'll close this as expired.

[fuzzyBSc (benjamincarlyle-soundadvice)]

Sorry about the delay. It's no dice on Hardy at this stage.

I tested the aforementioned modes: 1, 2, 4, and 8. All produced the same result. My PW191 monitor indicates no signal. My keyboard number lock and other lights are still working, but attempting to Ctrl+Alt+1 to a console and reboot yields no discernible response.

The motherboard is Asus P5K PRO.

lspci -vvnn reports the following:
04:01.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] [1002:5964] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited Unknown device [174b:7c25]
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
        Region 0: Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Region 1: I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
        Region 2: Memory at fea00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Expansion ROM at fea20000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

04:01.1 Display controller [0380]: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (Secondary) [1002:5d44] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited Unknown device [174b:7c24]
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
        Region 0: Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Region 1: Memory at febf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

The system is a home rebuild. The graphics card I am using was present in the original machine configuration on an older Ubuntu, and worked in that setting.

I haven't looked at the AGP Mode settings in the bios, but I remember searching for settings when I first investigated this problem. My recollection is that the settings were not available.

The card still works if I use the vesa driver. Does this rule out an AGP-specific problem by any chance?

I'll give Intrepid a go.

[fuzzyBSc (benjamincarlyle-soundadvice)]

I upgraded to Intrepid today, and can report success. I removed the driver=vesa line from my xorg.conf file after the upgrade, and it came up ok both after an X restart and after a restart of the whole machine. I have reviewed the X log and can see the radeon driver being loded.

I am happy for this bug to be closed as fixed in Intrepid.