[Geforce4 MX440 / nForce2 / NV18] Screen flickering during start-up and while logged in

[simon panay]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Release: 10.04

Expected behavior :
System should start up without any screen flickering with nouveau driver

What is actually happening :
First during the boot process, i'm able to see the ubuntu logo, but it is displayed only on the half of the screen. Furthermore, weird horizontal lines appears randomly
When gdm comes, the screen is set to the right resolution, but the weird flickering continues
When i'm logged in, the screen is set to the right resolution, but the weird flickering continues. Furthermore, the bottom panel is not entirely displayed, and there is an extra area above the top panel. Endly, the mouse pointer is "misplaced" : for example, if I want to close an application, i need to point the cursor a few pixels above the close button.

All of this makes my desktop unusable

Proprietary nvidia driver works fine

I have exactly the same problem with another computer (nForce2 chipset, but with an lcd screen). But on this one, i can't have the right resolution (1024*768 instead of 1280*1024)

PS : This is a all new up-to-date install from final lucid live-cd

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.15+git20100219+9b4118d-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue May 4 14:05:02 2010
DkmsStatus:

InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
Lsusb:
 Bus 003 Device 003: ID 046d:c503 Logitech, Inc. Cordless Mouse+Keyboard Receiver
 Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c501 Logitech, Inc. Cordless Mouse Receiver
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=4994959c-9cf7-4536-a423-ccbe742a5d01 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=fr_FR.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
dmi.bios.date: 01/16/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: 6.00 PG
dmi.board.name: FN41SP
dmi.board.vendor: Shuttle Inc
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvr6.00PG:bd01/16/2004:svn:pn:pvr:rvnShuttleInc:rnFN41SP:rvr:cvn:ct3:cvr:
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.32-22-generic

[lirel (m8r-lcodw5)]

Same behaviour as bug 575227 except that 575227 doesn't show corruptions while booting.

[simon panay (simon.panay-deactivatedaccount)]

Yes, your screenshots describe exactly what's happening to me

[lirel (m8r-lcodw5)]

marked 575227 as duplicate.
here is the other description:
with a clean installed lucid on a hp dx 6050 desktop computer i get a somehow shifted screen:
with a resolution of 1024x768 the left part of the display area is missing and gets displayed at the right corner.
also the bottom parts is missing, but this doesn't get displayed at the top. instead the first pixel from the top seem to be repeated ~30times. (see photo).

making screenshots doesn't show this behaviour.
anyway this doesn't seem to be related to a misconfigured monitor because the mouse has it's "active" point in the vertical middle and horizontal left of the mouse-icon.

when running xrandx the screen gets blanked for a short time.

[Tony Parry (tonyparry007)]

I am seeing exactly this behaviour after upgrading from 9.10 to 10.04. Was all working fine on 9.10.

[Tony Parry (tonyparry007)]

After installing the nVidia driver the only outstanding issue is that the screen is off centre. It is shifted left by about 1/4 inch so that some display is missing on the left hand side and there is a black line down the right hand side 1/4 inch wide.

[lirel (m8r-lcodw5)]

still happening on natty narwal
see attachment for dmesg| grep drm

[lirel (m8r-lcodw5)]

dmesg also reports the following multiple times after a while:
[ 960.024575] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: fail ttm_validate
[ 960.024583] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: validate vram_list
[ 960.024588] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: validate: -12

[Walter Ribeiro (wribeirojr)]

The problem is still present in all Ubuntu following versions, including 12.04 (LTS) and 12.10.
With the new 3.7 kernel the problem became worse because the proprietary drivers stopped working.

[Walter Ribeiro (wribeirojr)]

Probably duplicate of bug 597476

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Original reporter = https://launchpad.net/~simon.panay-deactivatedaccount