[arrandale] Display flickers or blank on login (x86_64)

[Stefan Stasik]

Binary package hint: x11-xserver-utils

I upgraded my system from Maverick to Natty Beta. I take daily updates every day.

Since then, When you boot the system, with the external monitor attached, the external display flickers badly and the screen is unreadable. I hit <FN> - <F7> (Monitor Toggle) on my Thinkpad X201 to reset the display, and then I see the login screen correctly, on both internal, and external.

After I log in, the same thing happens, screen flikers and unreadable on external monitor. I hit <FN> <F7> again, and I get the 800x1024 default screen, which I then have to use 'Monitors' to increase the Resolution to the mode I like on my external monitor.

This happens everytime I boot or login.

Regards, Stefan Stasik

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: x11-xserver-utils 7.6+2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: None
DRM.card0.DP.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.HDMI.A.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: Off
 modes: 1280x800 1280x800
 edid-base64: AP///////wAwrhFAAAAAAAATAQOAGhB46lzVk1xejiccUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEB7hoAgFAgEDAQMBMABaMQAAAZ0BcAxlAgGTAwIDYABaMQAAAZAAAADwCBCjyBCjIWCQBMo0FUAAAA/gBMVE4xMjFBVDA3TDAyADg=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: Off
 modes: 1280x1024 1280x1024 1280x1024 1152x864 1024x768 1024x768 1024x768 832x624 800x600 800x600 800x600 640x480 640x480 640x480 640x480 720x400 640x350
 edid-base64: AP///////wAJ0dR2qGYAACUQAQNsJh546sXGo1dKnCMST1S974BxT4GAgYwBAQEBAQEBAQEBMCoAmFEAKkAwcBMAeC0RAAAe1QmAoCBeYxAQYFIIeC0RAAAaAAAA/QA4TB9TDgAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABCZW5RIEZQOTNHWAogAG0=
Date: Tue Apr 12 09:49:37 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-03-31 19:58:22.080759
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 vboxhost, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-7-generic, x86_64: installed
 vboxhost, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-8-generic, x86_64: installed
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:215a]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
MachineType: LENOVO 3249CTO
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=b230e952-8346-4b6c-9dc9-412c005125a5 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: x11-xserver-utils
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-01 (11 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/26/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 6QET61WW (1.31 )
dmi.board.name: 3249CTO
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr6QET61WW(1.31):bd10/26/2010:svnLENOVO:pn3249CTO:pvrThinkPadX201:rvnLENOVO:rn3249CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 3249CTO
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X201
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110411-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu11
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller [8086:0044] (rev 02)
     Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:2193]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
     Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:215a]

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Try deleting your ~/.config/monitors.xml, and see if you can reproduce it. If not, might be a bug in gnome-settings-daemon.

I'm not spotting any other error messages in the log files to suggest what is going wrong.

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

Hi Bryce, I tried to delete my monitors.xml as you suggested, and when I logged out and back in, it recreated the file almost exactly the same as the one I moved. I am seeing the same flickering behavior on login, and not saving my settings at all.

Bug in settings-daemon? should I try to submit a bug there?

Regards, and thanks for the help.

- Stefan

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Well, let's see if we can narrow down the component first.

I think that gnome-settings-daemon may save what's in memory to file when you log out. So you might try logging out (or stopping g-s-d) and then removing the monitors.xml file, and then log in.

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

OK, so I tried these steps:

- Logged out
- logged into a text-mode console window
- killed g-s-d process
- removed ~/.config/monitors.xml file
- killed X server ('X') (since when I tried to switch to X-window console, I was then just getting text mode only)
- x-server and login session restarted, and external monitor started flickering again, and unreadable.
- went thru same steps as above as I am doing to get the display to fix itself, and then login.

Thoughts?

Thanks again, Bryce.

- Stefan

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

So, same problem even with no monitors.xml? Hmm.

In your description you mentioned that the monitor was at 800x1024 resolution. However, looking at your logs I don't see any indication that this is even a possible resolution for your hardware. Can you clarify how you are determining that resolution is what is coming up?

Please also repeat the process but where you hit the fn+f7 key, can you instead run the command 'xrandr --auto', to see if that is also sufficient to restore the external monitor.

Finally, please attach a photo of the screen when it is showing the corruption during boot.

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

Bryce: yes, I believe there was no monitors.xml file. when does that file get re-created?

So, the default resolution my monitors keep switching back to is 1024x768. This is after I press <Fn>-<F7> keys.
How can I run that command before I press those keys? My monitor is flickering and unreadable, only on the external. If I hit Fn-F4, and switch to a console, when I run 'xrandr --auto' there it says 'no such display'.

I am attaching a pic of what my external monitor looks like when it is flickering and unreadable.

Thanks, Stefan

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hmm. I've been looking at a number of other bug reports with Arrandale and external monitor troubles. There definitely seems to be a modesetting bug that _appears_ to be particular to arrandale (at least, the reports I've looked at are mostly all arrandale systems). However, the symptoms in those cases are quite different from yours - the screen becomes blank in one set of cases, or the X server locks up unrecoverably in the other set. I'm going to treat your bug as unrelated to those, although it couldn't hurt for you to run some of the same tests I'm having those others do, just to see if it turns up anything interesting.

As to your question, monitors.xml gets generated by the gnome-display-properties applet when you Apply your settings. That applet is backed by a daemon process, gnome-settings-daemon, which I suspect may also write out the current monitor settings to monitors.xml during shut down (I'm not certain, but I think it does).

The Fn+F7 key I believe is also tied into the above and handled by gnome-settings-daemon. However, historically there's been a lot of different services that have handled that hotkey, so it would probably be clearer if we could focus on a test case for reproducing the issue that didn't involve key hits. This is why I suggest trying to repro it with just the xrandr command. If you run it from console you may have to do it like "DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --auto" or even specify the outputs (see man xrandr for some examples).

Here are some other things to test, sorry this is kind of a grab bag of random ideas:

* After reproducing the issue, run `xset dpms force on`. (If this works, it suggests a DPMS issue)

* Install xdiagnose and use that to turn on Debug Messages (the first checkbox). Reboot, reproduce the bug, and then (from an ssh session or console) collect the output of the command 'dmesg > dmesg.txt' and attach dmesg.txt here.

* Disable the VESA framebuffer from loading. This can also be done via the xdiagnose tool.

* Can you describe the flicker in more detail? Can you approximate the frequency it is running at? If it is flickering at a regular rate it can suggest some other process (e.g. upowerd) may be polling the monitor; if so, killing that process may stop the flickering. (I'm doubtful of this because simply doing Fn+F7 wouldn't be enough to stop the polling; still, may be worth checking.)

* You indicated this did not occur with your maverick installation. This suggests testing if you can boot on the old maverick kernel (go into grub during boot by holding down the left shift key; if it's still installed you can select the 2.6.35 kernel, if not you'll need to install it manually) and test if the issue is reproducible. (If this works, then a git bisection effort might be able to isolate what kernel change introduced the problem.)

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Also, bug #761236 sounds roughly similar (flickering, but doesn't occur during boot). Please review the video attached to that bug and let me know if that is identical to what you see.

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

Bryce: Yes! Thats exactly what is happening with the flicker on my external monitor, too.

I appreciate your last write-up, and was just about to give up, and do a clean reinstall of the official Natty release, because the support team here in Montreal did a clean install on exactly my machine (Lenovo X201); hooked an external monitor to the laptop, and he had no issues with switching back and forth on the internal to external monitor. I am also having other instability issues with the machine (randomly kernel-crashing on me now) so I think this would be the best option for me.

Let me know if you still want me to proceed with your steps, otherwise I will just do a clean re-install in the next couple of days.

I really appreciate your time and effort on this issue.

Regards, Stefan

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

Hello Bryce, so after spending the past 12 hours doing fresh installs of Natty on my X201, thinking it was my corrupted install initially, and then still having the issue on a freshly installed system, and pulling my hair out trying to see what was wrong, I installed the special rolled linux-kernel that you posted in bug #761236 ( linux-image-2.6.39-994-generic 2.6.39-994.201104200727 ) and it has *fixed* my external display problem. I have tested it a few times, rebooting, and coming in and out of hibernate, from internal to external display, and it works perfect.

Thank you so very much for thinking of the connection to that other bug that you saw.

Regards, Stefan

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi Stefan,

Just wanted to check in with you again regarding this bug. It's great that you've been able to work around the problem by using the newer kernel. Talking with Jesse Barnes (Intel upstream), a number of fixes went in to the kernel for this generation of hardware subsequent to what was pulled for Ubuntu's kernel in natty, so it sounds like we're just missing a key patch or two. [@Kernel team - might want to pick jbarnes' brain for patches worth pulling.]

I think the next logical step would be to do a git bisect search on the kernel to identify what the fix was. The kernel team may have some better suggestions, but if you want to go forward with the bisection search, they've documented the procedure pretty well here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection.

Since it appears this is pinpointed to the kernel rather than X, I'm going to go ahead and close out the X task at this time. I'll try to set the kernel tasks tags and such to hopefully get it on that team's radar, but you may want to ping them if you don't hear from them within a few weeks.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[@Steve, not sure what the best process is for bugs like this, if they should go through JFo or directly to you. Please re-route accordingly if this is wrong.]

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Stefan located this patch as perhaps the fix. Next step is testing to verify it.

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/ickle/drm-intel.git;a=commitdiff;h=ccacfec6cc22157971bd970486fd3fd4972b8e2e;hp=89ea42d716e1ee94f643ecdc516d90a4111ec135

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The patch Bryce noted in comment #14 should have been included upstream as of v2.6.39-rc5. That being said, just curious if you've been able to test with a newer Oneiric 3.0 kernel to confirm this is at least fixed in the actively developed kernel. We can then investigate SRU possibilities for Natty.

[dino99 (9d9)]

eol reached https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases