display freezes just before Ubuntu login window; shows nothing but vertical bars [i845g]

[Eric]

I'm using Ubuntu 7.10 on a Compaq Proteva PC. All software updates have been applied as of 10-26-2007 12:00 UTC.

I have an intermittent gdm freeze-up which occurs unpredictably. Everything during the boot proceeds normally until just before the moment where the main Ubuntu login window would appear, after which the swirling 'busy' icon freezes, the screen goes bank momentarily, followed by a screen full of alternating blue, green, and black vertical bars.

The system hangs in this state and never recovers. No Ubuntu login bongo sounds are heard, and it is impossible to drop down to a command prompt via Ctrl+Alt+F*. The only remedy I've found so far is to to a hard reboot, switch to recovery mode for kernel 2.6.22-14, type "sudo shutdown -r now", reboot again, which always results in a successful loading of gdm.

On the Ubuntu forums someone mentined I should post the output of /var/gdm/0:.log. Here is the output from that file immediately following the crash:

********************************************************************************
X Window System Version 1.3.0
Release Date: 19 April 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 1.3
Build Operating System: Linux Ubuntu (xorg-server 2:1.3.0.0.dfsg-12ubuntu8)
Current Operating System: Linux El-Computorb 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 i686
Build Date: 29 September 2007
 Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
 to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
 (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
 (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Oct 26 21:47:07 2007
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(II) Module already built-in
(II) Module already built-in
(II) Module already built-in
(EE) intel(0): detecting sil164
(EE) intel(0): Unable to read from DVOI2C_E Slave 112.
(EE) intel(0): Unable to read from DVOI2C_E Slave 236.
(EE) intel(0): ivch: Unable to read register 0x00 from DVOI2C_B:04.
(EE) intel(0): Unable to read from DVOI2C_E Slave 112.
(EE) intel(0): tfp410 not detected got VID FFFFFFFF: from DVOI2C_E Slave 112.
(II) Module already built-in
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom
 No such file or directory.
Error opening /dev/input/wacom : Success
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom
 No such file or directory.
Error opening /dev/input/wacom : Success
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/input/wacom
 No such file or directory.
Error opening /dev/input/wacom : Success
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic, removing from list!
Error in I830WaitLpRing(), timeout for 2 seconds
pgetbl_ctl: 0x1ffe0001 pgetbl_err: 0x0
ipeir: 0 iphdr: 50300003
LP ring tail: 1290 head: ac len: 1f001 start 0
eir: 0 esr: 0 emr: ff7b
instdone: ffc1 instpm: 0
memmode: 0 instps: 24
hwstam: fffe ier: 2 imr: 53c iir: c0
Ring at virtual 0xaf976000 head 0xac tail 0x1290 count 1145
 0000002c: 00000000
 00000030: 7d890002
 00000034: 89800000
 00000038: 00000000
 0000003c: 00000000
 00000040: 7c281088
 00000044: 7c291099
 00000048: 7c2a10aa
 0000004c: 7c2b10bb
 00000050: 7d8c0000
 00000054: 10000000
 00000058: 7d8c0000
 0000005c: 30000000
 00000060: 7d8c0000
 00000064: 50000000
 00000068: 7d8c0000
 0000006c: 70000000
 00000070: 7d020000
 00000074: 0000ba98
 00000078: 6700a176
 0000007c: 7c800002
 00000080: 7d810001
 00000084: 00000000
 00000088: 00000000
 0000008c: 7d8b0000
 00000090: a0000000
 00000094: 7d8d0001
 00000098: 00000008
 0000009c: 3f800000
 000000a0: 7d010000
 000000a4: 80808080
 000000a8: 50300003
 000000ac: 03f02000
Ring end
space: 126484 wanted 131064

Fatal server error:
lockup
*************************************************************************

Thanks for any help you can provide,

~ Eric.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

Could you please attach the files '/var/log/Xorg.0.log', '/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old' and '~/.xsession-errors' and the output of 'of
lspci -vvnn '?

[Peter Clifton (pcjc2)]

Additionally, if you have a digital camera, could you take a picture of the screen corruption next time it happens. This may help identify if the bug is one we've seen before or not.

[Peter Clifton (pcjc2)]

Can you see if the corruption looks like that in this comment:

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/114331/comments/12

[Eric (epatton)]

The corruption look exactly like the image you provided in the link above. I have just now rebooted successfully after another one of these crashes, and I'm attaching the output from the files you requested.

[Peter Clifton (pcjc2)]

Can you post the config file from /etc/X11/xorg.conf please. At least one comment in the Xorg.0.log file:

(WW) intel(0): Option "UseFBDev" is not used

Suggests that you have an old configuration file from a previous install we might want to take a look at.

[Eric (epatton)]

Here it is...

[Peter Clifton (pcjc2)]

It looks ok to me (quickly scanning it) appart from the UseFBDev option.

You might try making a backup and running: sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
I doubt this would have any effect on the bug your seeing though.

PS.. I'm not marking this a duplicate of bug 114331 at this stage, as the crash logs don't match. Since the display looks the same with both, there may be some link though.

[Eric (epatton)]

I guess I'll wait until the crash happens again, then do the dpkg-reconfigure as you suggest. About 95% of the time, Ubuntu boots normally, so I wonder if it may only be induced by some kind of system state that exists when I logout.

If I notice any other patterns I'll post here.

~ Eric.

[Eric (epatton)]

This maybe be helpful, I don't know; the crash happened again this morning, and when I rebooted into 2-6-22.14 safe mode and started gdm on the command line, I received a pop-up window saying "Internal error - Unable to start HAL" or something to that affect. Is there a log file that I could post that could show this error?

[unggnu (unggnu)]

The Hal-Error always happens in Recovery Mode afaik since not all services are started.
Isn't this bug connected with Bug #135093?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I've collected the reports about failures during mode switching (e.g. suspend/resume), such as bugs 138256 and 150109:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/ScreenModeChange

I'd encourage anyone with Intel graphics having problems with blank, black, or frozen screens after resume from suspend, hibernate, tty switch, and so on, to add data to that page, so we can get a more complete feel for what the bugs are.

I've also created a page summarizing how to analyze and work around these issues. It would be worthwhile for anyone experiencing these issues to review and try these steps, and then report their findings on the appropriate bug

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Debugging#head-0b6e9c6b60fa07cda4013a1c51239f1c14c4f89d

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Please try Hardy alpha4 livecd, it has a much improved driver which should fix issues with 845G according to upstream.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Closing as out of date. We suspect this may be fixed in newer Ubuntu Hardy -beta. Please test this release, and feel free to reopen the bug if it still occurs.