Intrepid - SIS video snow/fuzz

[clickwir]

Just upgraded from Kubuntu Hardy 64bit to Kubuntu Intrepid 64bit last night. System starts up ok and I can login to KDM. But certian colors cause a "snow" or "fuzzy" look about them. Screen shots don't have it. I did not have this issue with Hardy or with XP on the same system.

I'm assuming this is a display driver/module problem. I see this on the background, in Firefox, in Dolphin.

clickwir@lappy:~$ uname -a
Linux lappy 2.6.27-2-generic #1 SMP Thu Aug 28 17:18:43 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
clickwir@lappy:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Modem Controller (rev a0)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
00:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
00:0b.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter
clickwir@lappy:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu intrepid (development branch)
Release: 8.10

[Tom Kalvoda (kalvotom)]

Same problem here (no problem with Hardy). In addition: if you move a window around your desktop, then there are small flickering horizontal lines (about 3 cm long) appearing at the left edge of the monitor.

I suppose that this is some problem with the new xserver/driver?

If someone needs more info, i will be glad to provide it.

kalvin@bombadil:~$ uname -a
Linux bombadil 2.6.27-3-generic #1 SMP Wed Sep 10 16:02:00 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
kalvin@bombadil:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Modem Controller (rev a0)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
00:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
00:0b.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter
kalvin@bombadil:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu intrepid (development branch)
Release: 8.10

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Please attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of `lspci -vvnn`. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[Tom Kalvoda (kalvotom)]

Hi Bryce, I attached the files you required. Hope it helps.

[clickwir (clickwir)]

clickwir@lappy:~$ lspci -vvnn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host [1039:0760] (rev 03)
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 64
        Region 0: Memory at <ignored> (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: agpgart-amd64
        Kernel modules: sis-agp

00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202 [1039:0002]
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 99
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=68
        I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
        Memory behind bridge: e2100000-e21fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e8000000-efffffff
        Secondary status: 66MHz+ FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- <SERR- <PERR-
        BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
                PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
        Kernel modules: shpchp

00:02.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] [1039:0963] (rev 25)
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0

00:02.1 SMBus [0c05]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller [1039:0016]
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 0
        Region 4: I/O ports at 8100 [size=32] ...

[bluesurfer (mail-bspire)]

Same problem here.
I'm using Ubuntu Inteprid 32-Bit. If I move any window around on the desktop there a flickering horizontal white lines on the left of the screen.
Attached the output of "lspci -vvnn".

[bluesurfer (mail-bspire)]

Here my Xorg.0.log

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

Confirmed. I consider this as a problem of HIGH importance. One simply cannot work with all these graphical problems...

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

In the ubuntuforums.org thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6080109& one proposed putting sisfb into /etc/modules, but it didn't help me.

I attach lsci -vvnn output...

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

... and Xorg.0.log file.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

I've forgotten - I use 32-bit Intrepid, so it doesn't matter wheter one has 32 or 64-bit OS.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

I switched to vesa driver for a while, but it seems it supports only 1280x768, not 1280x800... :/

[Gabriel Mazetto (brodock)]

Michal, if you do a
sudo modprobe sisfb
AND
edit your xorg.conf
at:
Section "Device"
...
EndSection

and add there an:

Option "UseFBDev" "true" it's gonna work well

i tested with an Aspire 5003WLCi that has an SiSM760GX

[Gabriel Mazetto (brodock)]

This is the aditional information for reference:

 uname -a
Linux nika-laptop 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Thu Oct 30 04:18:38 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

 lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Modem Controller (rev a0)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
00:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
00:0b.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter

 lspci -vvnn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host [1039:0760] (rev 03)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64
 Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: agpgart-sis
 Kernel modules: amd64-agp, sis-agp

00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202 [1039:0002]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 99
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=68
 I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
 Memory behind bridge: e2100000-e21fffff
 Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e8000000-efffffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz+ FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:02.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] [1039:0963] (rev 25)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: C...

[Gabriel Mazetto (brodock)]

status should be changed from incomplete to something else...
as it`s confirmed and there is a potential solution (modprobe sisfb plus UseFBDev True on xorg)

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@ BrodocK:
Unfortunately, it didn't help. Screen still is snowing... (could sb change the status into confirmed?)

my /etc/modules:
fuse
lp
sbp2
# !!!MOJE!!!
sisfb
# !!!MOJE!!! /* end */

My /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

Sorry, You can remove those '# !!!MOJE!!!' lines, these were only my comments. :)

So, I switch back to vesa... I'd appreciate if You knew any working solution...

[Tom Kalvoda (kalvotom)]

BrodocK> Your tip does not help me either. Can you please attach your xorg.conf?

[marcogoni (cogoni)]

I also tried to add the sisfb module and the xorg.conf option but nothing has changed using the Sis 662 on Intel D201GLY2. I could take some pics of the screen corruption if it's useful...

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@ marcogoni
I don't know if You could. As far as I know, this isuue does not affect screenshots.

[marcogoni (cogoni)]

of course i am speaking about taking pictures not screenshots.

[Bokkie (thorwald)]

Hello,

I have a similar effect, where instead of the clear graphics I see graphics interlaced with red or green patches/stripes.
This is already from the login screen.
I have actually got a screenshot where it seems to show up as well... Which is strange, as the lines "move", even in the screenshot...

This is the released Intrepid on a c-brand laptop (32-bit) with an integrated SIS chip.

The two files requested above are attached, and here is some extra info:

thorwald@monodactylus:~$ uname -a
Linux monodactylus 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Tue Nov 4 19:33:20 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
thorwald@monodactylus:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10
thorwald@monodactylus:~$

Just for the heck of it, I have attached the screenshot too...

[clickwir (clickwir)]

What I'm seeing on my laptop, I do not see in the screen shot. You'll see it in the screen shot if you look at the same image on your laptop. It's a problem displaying certain colors, so it doesn't matter if those colors are the actual desktop or a screenshot of the desktop, it's still the same colors and that's what's causing the problem. Someone would need to take a picture (camera) to see what our eyes see.

I tried, but I suck at photography.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

One question - why status is still "Incomplete"? If there is any information, we can give, we'll give it. If not, just change status to "Confirmed". I can't understand, what is going on about this issue.

[Bokkie (thorwald)]

I've grabbed my digital camera, and made two photos.
I think these should make the issue pretty clear...

[Bokkie (thorwald)]

Please compare the above picture from my camera with the previously uploaded screenshot (which I used to create the picture).
I'm adding another picture of the login screen. I use random screens, but I've seen different patches wrong on different screens.

[Gabriel Mazetto (brodock)]

I've just experienced the same issue with a clean installation, this bug EXIST!

[Bokkie (thorwald)]

I've tried the modprobe thing, but didn't find anything.

thorwald@monodactylus:~$ sudo modprobe sisfb
[sudo] password for thorwald:
thorwald@monodactylus:~$

I checked the lspci -vvnn output, and did find the sisfb kernel module mentioned under the "Display Adapter" heading.

Against better judgement, I edited my otherwise pristine xorg.conf, rebooted and found the same error still.

Now the only question that remains me is why Mr. Harrington has declined it for Intrepid...
As mentioned by others: The problem did not exist before upgrading to or, (thanks to Brodock) installing Ubuntu 8.10 aka Intrepid Ibex...

Care to comment, Mr. Harrington?

[marcogoni (cogoni)]

wow,
i don't understand if Bokkie is just having fun or what?
posting an incredibly out of focus picture is really not helpful
to solve this annoying bug.
and of course the problem does not show up on his screenshot...
so Mr Bokkie, are you serious AND just incompetent or what?
so i'll stick to Napoleon adage: never attribute to malice...

in the next hours i'll post the pictures i've taken myself.

and btw, the problem has always existed in every version of ubuntu
when you go over 1024x768.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@ marcogoni
> and btw, the problem has always existed in every
> version of ubuntu when you go over 1024x768.
Which problem? I used to use Gutsy and Hardy and 'sis' driver worked ok with them. I had 1280x800 set (which is far higher than 1024x768), and it has been set automatically. So I don't see what is the problem You are talking about.

[Pierre Equoy (pieq)]

I'm experimenting the same issue on my Asus A6U since I've installed Ibex (I was previously running Hardy with no problem).

I also have white lines at the left of the screen when playing a video or resizing/moving a window...

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@ ePierre
I also can see thes white lines. Probably because I also have ASUS A6U notebook :) (more concretely, A6B00U).

[vlio (zevlio)]

Same problem here, with an Acer Aspire 3000. The xorg.conf thing didn't change anything, nor did sisfb. Only using the vesa driver gives me a normal display, but in a bad resolution...

[Pierre Equoy (pieq)]

So this is what we could call a regression, right?

Where does it come from? Is it only a Ubuntu issue, or does it come from X.org? Is X.org dev team aware of this? If not, how do we tell them? If they are, will it be fixed soon?

[Tom Kalvoda (kalvotom)]

ePierre> These are very good questions!

Well, I am new to this bug reporting bussiness, but I do not understand why at the top of this page it says "Declined for Intrepid by Bryce Harrington". This is obviously Intrepid problem, or is there somebody with other version of Ubuntu or other distro??? Furthermore, this bug is assigned to nobody, so there is no research/progress....

Maybe we should ask some of the maintainers of this package (xserver-xorg-video-sis (Ubuntu), http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/x11/xserver-xorg-video-sis)???

As I said, I am confused and this type of problem (driver related) is far beyond my skills...

[Pierre Equoy (pieq)]

I can't really help you on that, since I'm like you: a complete beginner at bug reporting :)

I don't know what to do in this kind of situation... Does anybody know?

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

You can try filing a bug upstream (X.org) on bugs.freedesktop.org

The bug is marked "Declined for Intrepid" because someone had marked it "Nominate for Intrepid" and there's no other way to undo this. It is pointless to nominate a bug for a release if there's no fix yet. Once it's fixed in a development version (now Jaunty) the fix can possibly be backported to the earlier versions.

Also, this bug report has comments from many persons, but I am not sure it's all the same bug since a given workaround works for some people and not for others. This bug report should only deal with clickwir's issue.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

I filled a bug report at bugs.freedesktop.org:
http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19104

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

OK... Is it probable that somebody takes care of this bug or do I have to switch back to Hardy? This bug connected with that one:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/309440
makes even watching videos with 'vesa' driver uncomfortable...

[Pierre Equoy (pieq)]

@Michał Gołębiowski:
Are you positive with this working in Intrepid? What do you exactly mean by "original one" xorg.conf file?

I went back to Hardy, but if this works, I may try to update my Hardy install... But I would like to make sure it will work after that!

Maybe some packages have been updated that solved the problem? Maybe it's something inside Linux Kernel?

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@ePierre:
X.org version 7.3 and earlier (that is, ones included in Ubuntu before Intrepid) has somewhat explanatory xorg.conf files. However, the 7.4 version implements some kind of autoconfiguration; that is, it guesses proper settings without setting them in xorg.conf file. Of course, if You want, You can write to that file what You want, but often it's not necessary. So default xorg.conf file is close to empty in size. Here it is:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

I've just rebooted into Intrepid, just to check it in order to make sure I'm not talking rubbish, but it rebooted OK. It seems that really adding sisfb to /etc/modules is enough. You won't be able to test it with LiveCD, though (unless You use persistency, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence), as rebooting is necessary for this to work.

I'll remain with Hardy, though - it works without any hacks. Besides, my computer is now 3.5 years old, so I'll probably change it before 2011, when Hardy's support will be ceased. If there's any problem and a need to test sth, I'll try - I keep a separate Intrepid partition, just for testing purposes.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

Of course, I'm not sure if this fix applies to ALL SiS cards, I just know it works for my SiS M760GX one. I tried it with fully upgraded Intrepid.

[clickwir (clickwir)]

I think adding sisfb to /etc/modules did it.

I didn't spend too much time on the laptop today, but I was on just long enough to upgrade it from intrepid to jaunty and still saw the video artifacts.

After rebooting with sisfb added, video looks much better. I'll do further testing as time allows, and report back... but for right now it looks like it might be a possible fix.

[Pierre Equoy (pieq)]

@Michał Gołębiowski: Thanks for information. I think I have a SiS MX600 or something, and anyways I don't really dare updating to Ibex. As you, I'll probably wait a dew more months before buying a new computer! And in the meantime, Hardy will be good enough for my daily needs :)

[lxop (lxop)]

I'll also confirm that on a 760, adding sisfb to /etc/modules and rebooting (very important part, won't do anything otherwise) fixes the colour fuzz issue. But I still get wee white lines down the left hand side of the screen quite often.
I'll also confirm that Jaunty Alpha3 still has the problem, and Hardy didn't have it.

[Cody A.W. Somerville (cody-somerville)]

Adding sisfb to /etc/modules worked perfectly for me.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter

[dennis1200 (dennis-fiser)]

I had added sisfb to /etc/modules, and it worked for a while, but lately it's back to the old color distortion plus white lines (sisfb still in /etc/modules). Any ideas?

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@dennis1200
What do You mean by "for a while"? Did it work for a few reboots and stopped working after one of them? If so, have You installed any specific packages recently? If not, it looks like a kind of race condition...

Logs from X.org (file /var/log/Xorg.0.log) could be also explanatory for some people.

[Tiede (marcarthur)]

Hmmm. I am a little perturbed by your saying Dennis...

Are you sure it was working when you did that? and how long is "a
while"?
in my laptop, it doesn't work. Now it "looks" like it does for the first
few minutes or so sometimes, but whenever the laptop gets hot, the lines
start appearing. And the hotter the laptop, the more lines/fuzzy snow
are on the display...
Is that what happened to you maybe and your laptop was not hot and
therefore you did not notice it, or was it genuinely working for a
while?

[dennis1200 (dennis-fiser)]

I had been using it for several weeks with the sisfb module in /etc/modules with no adverse effects, save a slightly distorted image of the ubuntu logo and loader bar on shutdown (but it's a framebuffer on a widescreen, so I wasn't worried about that). Now it is back to the original symptoms, even with sisfb in /etc/modules. It isn't on my personal computer, but a friends, so I unfortunately don't have consistent access to test things. However, the distortion on shutdown no longer occurs, leading me to think that something is keeping sisfb from being properly loaded.

No new installed programs, just the usual updates. I am planning on doing a major backup of the whole system and installing 8.04.2, unless Jaunty manages to address it in the final release - so I'll wait for that and see.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

I would recommend someone ask upstream (xorg IRC or ML) if any developer has a clue about this issue. The upstream bugs seems forgotten, maybe because it is assigned to Thomas W who is not active any longer. It is not sure anyone upstream has access to this hardware, so good communication with someone who has got the hardware would be needed.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@Tormod Volden
I asked about it at #xorg IRC channel a few hours ago, but nobody responded to me.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Yeah, for IRC you will need some luck, that the right people are around and are in the right mood. Maybe #xorg-devel is better, or the xorg@ mailing list.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@Tormod Volden
I wrote to the X.org mailing list some time ago; I mentioned it here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-sis/+bug/264769/comments/47

I'd ask at #xorg-devel, but I don't know if it's not considered rude to ask the same question here and here (X.org FAQ clearly says NOT to do that...).

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Ask on #xorg-devel tomorrow :) Looking at the changelog it looks like Dave Airlie did the most recent bunch of sis-specific changes. You could try to address him directly.

[marcogoni (cogoni)]

Hi,
bad news... i went to the IRC #xorg-devel as suggested and asked to airlied (Dave Airlie):

18:19 < mcogoni> i have a Intel D201GLY2 / D201GLY2A Mini-ITX motherboard
18:19 < mcogoni> and it displays a lot of noisy vertical bands
18:19 < mcogoni> when the resolution is over 1024x768
18:20 < mcogoni> the integrated graphics is a Sis Mirage 1 or Sis 662 I think
18:20 < mharris> Good chance a given expert may be counting sheep right now mind you... ;o)
18:20 < mcogoni> bah...
18:21 < mcogoni> the point is that a driver solving this problem exists from sis
18:22 < mcogoni> but apparently nobody upstream is including this fix
18:22 < airlied> yeah nobody has taken the time to merge the SiS stuff into the Xorg stuff
18:22 < mcogoni> exactly airlied, is there any hope for the future?
18:23 < airlied> not unless someone does it, nobody maintains SiS
18:23 < airlied> and SiS don't seem interested in updating it
18:23 < mcogoni> uhm, ok...
18:23 < airlied> I started playing with diffs last year
18:24 < airlied> the diff is quite large though.
18:25 < mcogoni> so very few chances
18:26 < airlied> if someone identified the fix it would be easy
18:26 < airlied> the problem is we just have a full code tree from SiS.

marco

[AzagotH (azagoth)]

Hello.
My shot default Kubintu 9.04 on Acer Aspire 3000. Adding sisfb to /etc/modules solved this issue.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

If for most of us adding sisfb to /etc/modules fixes it, maybe Ubuntu should load this module automatically when it detects a SiS card?

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Hi everybody.
Same problem here (see attached image): Asus laptop model L400L, VGA compatible controller: SiS 65x/M650/740.
Unfortunately the proposed fix (adding sisfb to /etc/modules) doesn't help. However I think I found a working fix for my hardware so please read on.
Comparing Xorg logs generated by Hardy (not affected by this bug) and the ones from Jaunty (see attachments) I found this important difference in the output:

Hardy:

(--) SIS(0): Video BIOS version "1.15.01" found (old SiS data layout)

Jaunty (this line is also present in every log you posted):

(WW) SIS(0): Could not find/read video BIOS

Inspecting the driver source I discovered that in the transition from version 0.9.3 to 0.10.1 a substantial amount of code gets bypassed if Xorg 7.4 is detected. This is so because that piece of code is not compatible with Xorg 7.4 pci rework (http://www.x.org/wiki/PciReworkHowto). Let's get straight to point: that bypassed code is (guess what) part of the bios detection routine: it is the last attempt made by the driver to load the card bios and gets called if all previous "standard" attempts have failed. That was the problem.

The solution: instead of rewriting the bypassed code I just forced the driver to read the card bios using one of the aforementioned "standard" attempts. Luck was on my side, It worked!

You will find the logs, the patch and the patched i386 deb in a tar.gz attached to this message. The fix should work with SIS_650 (tested - see attached image) and SIS_660 (not tested). Could you please test it?

Best regards,
Matteo

[Pierre Equoy (pieq)]

Thanks a lot Matteo!

Could you provide a similar .deb for the new Ubuntu as well (9.10)?
I tried the one you provided and it says the currently installed version is higher than the one I want to install (your patch).

Thanks a lot!

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Hello ePierre,
here you are. You can re-install this package using gdebi or by executing:

sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-sis_0.10.1-2_i386.deb

Let me ask you just a few questions:

1) Have you tried the previous fix in jaunty? Did it work?

2) I suppose this bug is still present in karmic (al least for you), does this last fix work?

Best regards,
Matteo

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@kendatsuba
I checked it with today's karmic daily image and it doesn't work. (I hope it's not because I run it from pendrive - but I created a persistent file and I saw the package version was the same after reboot so it had to install properly).

Small thing - could You (as long as the issue remains unsolved) provide packages with strongly bumped versions so that apt doesn't complain it has sth newer to offer? :) (now in Karmic Your version is not the latest one according to apt).

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

I will have my ASUS with SiS M760GX on board only till Tuesday (I switched laptops) so later I won't be able to test newer versions.

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Hello Michal,
I've bumped up (a lot) the package version. Today I'll test my hardware (SIS_650) with karmic beta and see if the bug is still present. I'll report my results as soon as possible.

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Install the package:

gdebi-gtk seems to be broken in karmic so install the package using this command:

sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-sis_0.10.1-23_i386.deb

2) Check sis_drv.so md5 sum:

md5sum /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/sis_drv.so

karmic version: c831d4b3e9bdf8269f1c9876eb5a0d46
patched version: dd939e0e7e2f42703f5afa10400b01df (<--- You should expect this result)

3) Restart X11 / gdm:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Best regards,
Matteo

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Hello Michal,
I've bumped up (a lot) the package version. Today I'll test my hardware (SIS_650) with karmic beta and see if the bug is still present. I'll report my results as soon as possible.

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Install the package:

gdebi-gtk seems to be broken in karmic so install the package using this command:

sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-sis_0.10.1-23_i386.deb

2) Check sis_drv.so md5 sum:

md5sum /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/sis_drv.so

karmic version: c831d4b3e9bdf8269f1c9876eb5a0d46
patched version: dd939e0e7e2f42703f5afa10400b01df (<--- You should expect this result)

3) Restart X11 / gdm:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Best regards,
Matteo

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Hello everybody,
I confirm this bug is still present (al least for me, SIS_650) in karmic, my proposed fix still works (for me). Please excuse my previous double post.

Best regards,
Matteo

[klogg (joculator-gmail)]

On my Acer Aspire 5002 WLMi with SiSM760GX the xserver-xorg-video-sis_0.10.1-23_i386.deb does not helps. Somehow the sisfb is used for the card.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA Display Adapter

01:00.0 0300: 1039:6330
 Subsystem: 1025:0083
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 7
 BIST result: 00
 Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
 Region 1: Memory at e2100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
 Region 2: I/O ports at a000 [size=128]
 Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
  Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
  Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
 Capabilities: [50] AGP version 3.0
  Status: RQ=256 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW- AGP3+ Rate=x4,x8
  Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=<none>
 Kernel modules: sisfb

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@kendatsuba
I followed Your steps, display is still broken, though. I assume this is not a proper fix for M760GX.

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Hello Michal and klogg,
I do not know if this fix is can work for you as id does for me, anyway I just realized that maybe I've made the wrong assumption on you adapter's name (I mean the identifier used in the source code of sis_drv.so). This is my last guess, I've run out of ideas. Could you please test this last version of the fix?
Same instructions as the previous one, md5 sum: fe62b45f152896b4e330bb5db2c2a98e

Thanks in advance,
Matteo

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

@kendatsuba
Great job! Now it works! :)

BTW, You provided incorrect md5 sum, the real one for this file is 796b271d2c9a7bf9e5403e52f2c1a05e.

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Wonderful! I'm glad it works.
You're right about the package md5 sum, the one I posted belongs to sis_drv.so (the actual driver included in the package):

fe62b45f152896b4e330bb5db2c2a98e usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/sis_drv.so

Best regards,
Matteo

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

This is the patch against xserver-xorg-video-sis_0.10.1 sources (sis_driver.c) from which xserver-xorg-video-sis_0.10.1-24_i386.deb was created.

Best regrds,
Matteo

[klogg (joculator-gmail)]

@kendatsuba
Great job, the fix works for me as well, thanks! Are you going to submit the patch?

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Matteo, please suggest this patch on <email address hidden> ideally reading http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/SubmittingPatches first.

[kendatsuba (kendatsuba)]

Hello everybody,
I submitted the patch for SIS_650 and SIS_760 to <email address hidden> and it has been applied upstream.

Best regards,
Matteo

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Matteo, that's great! Thanks for your work!

The newest upstream version, packaged for Jaunty, can be found in my PPA as xserver-xorg-video-sis 1:0.10.2~git20091022.8370499d-0ubuntu0tormod (https://launchpad.net/~tormodvolden/+archive/ppa)

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

And for Karmic: https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/drivers-only

[AzagotH (azagoth)]

kendatsuba, Tormod Volden,
Thanks! It work on Kubuntu 9.10.

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

This should be fixed in Debian now, and I have filed a separate sync request in bug 544904 to get it into Ubuntu.