Using 2 graphics cards causes X to lock up

[Match]

Binary package hint: xorg

I've just recently upgraded my Hardy box to Intrepid. Previously, this box had a working setup with 2 graphics cards in it - an AGP NVidia Geforce 2 MX 400, and an older PCI Nvidia TNT 64 card. The former drove my main desktop, the latter a projector for watching films etc.

Since the upgrade, X crashes when started and locks up with a blank screen (both screens go into 'standby') and CPU usage of the X process at 100% - the virtual terminals aren't accessible, and I have to 'kill -9' the X process via a remote ssh connection to recover.

There's nothing showing as an error in the X logs (even with -verbose and -logverbose set to 6 or above), X just seems to stop. There's nothing significant in syslog either.

I get the same problem (with different but equivalent X log messages) if I explicitly set both cards to use the vesa driver, or if I change any of the cards around (using an ATI Rage 128 on the AGP slot, and/or an S3 Vision 968 on the PCI slot).

However, with any two cards installed, and configured in xorg.conf, a single card will work if it is the only one referred to in the ServerLayout section (even if the other card has a Device, Screen and Monitor section).

My X config is as generated by dpkg-reconfigure -phigh, but with BusID options and a ServerLayout section.

I've tried standard things like removing all the compiz packages, reinstalling all the xserver packages and checking I'm fully up to date, but with no success.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Looks like a valid crash. Should be upstreamed. Please try jaunty too if possible.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

This is a good backtrace, but it's in the x86 emulation code layer, and it's not clear to me why it's crashing. However, there are a lot of zeros there and I'm betting at least one of them is invalid and needs a better check. I agree this should go upstream for analysis.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

See also bug #139990. It's a different bug but also involves a crash that occurs when trying to use two video cards.

Dual video card usage is not supported, but X should exit with an error in this case, not crash.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Hi Match,

This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
test if it still occurs on Lucid?

Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
normal support channels, please see:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:

  apport-collect 299444

If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
bug 299444 in your report if you think it may be related):

  ubuntu-bug xorg

If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/299444

[Match (xhosa)]

Afraid I no longer have access to the original hardware on which I reported the bug, so I can't re-test on Lucid, sorry.