[i845] Screen goes blank and flashes vertical stripes on 1s interval

[Takyoji]

Binary package hint: xorg

After at least 10-30 minutes of usage, the screen will go blank and then show a screen where the top half is of perfect vertical white stripes; evenly spaced. It will go blank again after a second, and repeat over again. Attempting to go to any virtual console (Ctrl+Alt+F5 combo, for example) will not work at all. However, when the power button is pressed, after a few seconds, it will properly show the Ubuntu boot screen (plymouth) as it shuts down and animate properly as well, and gracefully shutdown.

The most straightforward method of causing the screen issue is by simply going to System > Preferences > Screensaver, and randomly choosing a complex screensaver, which it will then reproduce the exact same behavior described above.

This error has not existed before at all, it is a regression. The system was recently upgraded to 10.04. The bug can also be reproduced easily on the 10.04 LiveCD as well. It has not been existent in 9.10 or 9.04 at all on the system (especially on the 9.10 or 9.04 LiveCDs as well).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-23.37-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-23-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Jul 11 01:27:07 2010
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
MachineType: System Manufacturer Product Name
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=bfa17a90-eef8-4f8e-a4ba-bceb8fb2a579 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 04/15/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: IEX421EM
dmi.board.name: VG33
dmi.board.vendor: First International Computer, Inc.
dmi.board.version: PCB 1.x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag Number xxxxxx
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Manufactory Name
dmi.chassis.version: Version xx
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvrIEX421EM:bd04/15/2004:svnSystemManufacturer:pnProductName:pvrSYS-xxxxxx:rvnFirstInternationalComputer,Inc.:rnVG33:rvrPCB1.x:cvnManufactoryName:ct3:cvrVersionxx:
dmi.product.name: Product Name
dmi.product.version: SYS-xxxxxx
dmi.sys.vendor: System Manufacturer
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.32-23-generic

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device [8086:2562] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: FIRST INTERNATIONAL Computer Inc Device [1509:9055]

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi, sorry you had trouble getting Ubuntu working on your 8xx chip. I'd like to have you re-test against natty and if it's still not working right, please file a bug upstream at bugs.freedesktop.org against Xorg / Intel.

The intel driver seems to not get tested well against the 8xx chips and we've seen lots of regressions and mis-features. Unfortunately the driver code seems to be rather fragile as well, so we've found we cannot effectively patch and maintain the driver at the distro level, and thus are no longer providing development support, nor will be backporting fixes to older Ubuntu releases. You may still be able to get some technical support from places like http://askubuntu.com and similar to work around problems.