Comment 8 for bug 528467

Originally reported by Gero Mudersbach at:
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/528467

[Problem]
Another GPU hang bug on 855GM with captured i915_error_state. I am not good enough at reading the output of intel_error_decode to tell if this a cache flushing problem like bug 26746.

[Original report]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel i915_

With the alpha 3 version of the Lucid Lynx live CD I get a GPU hung shortly after the splash screen of the the desktop (KDE) is shown.

the following messages are from dmesg:
[drm:i915_hangcheck_elapsed] * ERROR * Hangcheck timer elapsed... GPU hung
render error detected , EIR: 0x00000000
i915: waking up sleeping processes
reboot required

The loginmanager then tries to respawn the xserver several times until there is a non blinking cursor shown at the botton of the screen.

On some other boot tries with the live cd the xserver freezes completely and it is not possible to switch to another console.

Hardware info:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1712
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at feb80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        I/O ports at dc00 [size=8]
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 1
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1712
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at fea80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 1

BTW: using "vesa" in xorg.conf and "nomodeset" at the kernel command line seems to be a workaround until the bug is fixed in the intel driver.