Google earth causing screen shutdown with unity desktop on inspiron 1520

[Jeff]

After updating precise to 4/17/12 on my dell inspiron 1520, Google earth began again killing the screen backlight, and may the gpu itself. This problem seemed to have gone away with an update on 4/16/12, but has returned, occurring during the startup phase of Google Earth When I switched to the unity-2d desktop, Google earth started normally, but I found a problem with the phote pop-up feature. After clicking on a picture icon successfly, any further usage resulted in an empty frame with a transparent or white background, however right-clicking in the frame allowed me to open the photo in a browser window.

Prior instances of this bug were indicated as a GPU hang detection, although I don't know why that would kill the backlight. The 4/16 update had a new version of xdiagnose, which needs to run as root since one option is to modify /etc/default/grub, but it doesn't say so, possibly screwing up your linux args ( which it did to me).

I have switched from unity to unity-2d and back several times, and now Google earth is fully functional in Unity. Fingers crossed

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+12ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic i686
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,snap,compiztoolbox,mousepoll,move,wall,imgpng,regex,gnomecompat,grid,resize,place,vpswitch,session,unitymtgrabhandles,animation,fade,workarounds,expo,scale,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Tue Apr 17 22:52:30 2012
DistUpgraded: 2012-04-11 15:49:12,348 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, whatever it takes to get this fixed in Ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) [8086:2a02] (rev 0c) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01f1]
   Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01f1]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427.1)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 1520
PlymouthDebug: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/plymouth-debug.log'
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic root=UUID=62a231e4-5228-4db1-8e9e-15fef403d6e0 ro splash quiet plymouth
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-11 (6 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 02/03/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A07
dmi.board.name: 0KY767
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA07:bd02/03/2008:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron1520:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0KY767:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 1520
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.6-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.32-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.2-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.2-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu10
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2