Display corruption in Firefox with GMA500 Poulsbo video chipset

[Brandon]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-psb

I am experiencing screen corruption in Firefox and xulrunning based applications such as Miro on my Dell Mini 12 which uses the Intel GMA500 (Poulsbo) video chipset. The issue only surfaces on certain web sites such as Plaxo.com and many Drupal themes where there appear to be some layered DIVs. I have seen it crop up on other sites as well, but have not cataloged them yet. It appears to be related to pages with complex CSS layouts. Moving another window over Firefox disrupts Firefox's rendering further.

Many of the affected web sites only show minor cosmetic glitches, but others such as Plaxo display mangled navigation menus making the site unnavigable.

I believe this issue surfaced after the last system update for the Dell Mini 12. Everything looks correct when running Firefox on a virtual desktop through Xephyr/Xnest. I also found the same issue when testing the latest Firefox v3.5 b4.

I am running the Dell packaged version of Ubuntu 8.04. lsb_release -rd displays 804.1, but the 8.04.2 updates that were released a few weeks ago are installed:

lsb_release -rd:
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.1
Release: 8.04

apt-cache policy xerver-xorg-video-psb:
xserver-xorg-video-psb:
  Installed: 0.27.0+repack-0netbook2
  Candidate: 0.27.0+repack-0netbook2
  Version table:
 *** 0.27.0+repack-0netbook2 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/public Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.16.0+repack-0ubuntu1~804um5netbook1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     0.16.0+repack-0ubuntu1~804um4netbook1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     0.15.0-0ubuntu1~804um2 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-netbook-base/main Packages
     0.2.1-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy/main Packages

apt-cache policy firefox:
firefox:
  Installed: 3.0.10+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1netbook0belmont1
  Candidate: 3.0.10+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1netbook0belmont1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.10+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1netbook0belmont1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/public Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.8+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.2netbook0belmont1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0.5+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1netbook4.4 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0.5+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1netbook2 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0.5+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1netbook1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0.3+build1+nobinonly+nb1-0ubuntu0.8.04.1netbook1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0.3+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.3 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-updates/main Packages
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-security/main Packages
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-netbook-base/main Packages
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-netbook-base/main Packages
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     3.0~b5+nobinonly-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy/main Packages

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: lpia
Date: Tue May 12 22:04:10 2009
Dependencies:
 libgcc1 1:4.2.3-2ubuntu7
 libdrm2 2.3.0.23+repack-0netbook4
 gcc-4.2-base 4.2.3-2ubuntu7
 libc6 2.7-10ubuntu3
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: xserver-xorg-video-psb 0.27.0+repack-0netbook2
PackageArchitecture: lpia
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-psb
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-22-lpia i686
UnreportableReason: This is not a genuine Ubuntu package

[Brandon (brandon-2i)]

I realized that I had taken the first screen shot of Firefox 3.5 b4. Here is another screen shot from the version of Firefox bundled with Ubuntu.

[Brandon (brandon-2i)]

Well, my computer prompted me for updates and this bug now appears to be fixed.

While I did not see any similar bugs reported, this must have been on somebody's list. Thank you.

~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.2
Release: 8.04
~$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-psb
xserver-xorg-video-psb:
  Installed: 0.30.0+repack-0netbook2
  Candidate: 0.30.0+repack-0netbook2
  Version table:
 *** 0.30.0+repack-0netbook2 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/public Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.27.0+repack-0netbook2 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     0.16.0+repack-0ubuntu1~804um5netbook1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     0.16.0+repack-0ubuntu1~804um4netbook1 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-dell-mini/main Packages
     0.15.0-0ubuntu1~804um2 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy-netbook-base/main Packages
     0.2.1-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com hardy/main Packages
~$

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi brandon-2i,

Thanks for including an image to demonstrate the issue. Could you also please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log or Xorg.0.log.old file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Brandon (brandon-2i)]

The problem was fixed by the latest update that was just released.

I am not sure what changed, but Firefox is rendering everything correctly. apt-cache shows 0.30.0+repack-0netbook2 was upgraded from 0.27.0+repack-0netbook2

Let me know if you would still like the additional information. I am happy to continue to help even though my problem has been resolved.