[i945gme] 2.6.37-10.24: Black Screen on Boot

Bug #693093 reported by Marjo F. Mercado
64
This bug affects 10 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
grub2 (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Colin Watson
linux (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

kernel 2.6.37-10-generic
problem started after upgrading natty on 17 December 2010
previous kernel 2.6.37-9 was OK
Steps to reproduce
1. Restart system
2. Drum is heard; disk activity light stops blinking
3. Screen goes to blank screen
4. Can ping and ssh into system

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.37-10-generic 2.6.37-10.24
Regression: Yes
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.37-10.24-generic 2.6.37-rc6
Uname: Linux 2.6.37-10-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
AplayDevices: aplay: device_list:235: no soundcards found...
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices: arecord: device_list:235: no soundcards found...
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with exit code 1:
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Tue Dec 21 11:51:13 2010
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=175c6736-c8c1-45f5-bd47-0d7b33415a29
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha i386 (20101220)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer INC. 1008HA
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37-10-generic root=UUID=7a480c2c-0ce9-4645-98af-9a8b43e84f1e ro vt.handoff=7 quiet splash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.44
SourcePackage: linux
dmi.bios.date: 04/27/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0302
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: 1008HA
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: x.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0x00000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.chassis.version: x.x
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0302:bd04/27/2009:svnASUSTeKComputerINC.:pn1008HA:pvrx.x:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rn1008HA:rvrx.xx:cvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:ct10:cvrx.x:
dmi.product.name: 1008HA
dmi.product.version: x.x
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

Xorg.0.log attached.

Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

Thank you for such a complete bug report! There's nothing in any of the logs which show any sort of bug happening in the graphics drivers, but there are still some things you can try:

1) I noticed you have vt.handoff=7 in the kernel command line. Have you had problems with VT switching? Does it work if you remove that parameter? Can you switch to a different TTY and run 'startx' and get a graphical desktop?

2) 2.6.37-10 is a rebase to the mainline 2.6.37-rc6, so it would be helpful if you could test both the 37-rc5 and 37-rc6 mainline kernels to check if it's a problem with the upstream mainline kernel or the Ubuntu-specific changes/patches. The kernels are located at [1], with installation instructions at [2]. (Just install the i386 headers, _all headers, and i386 image.) If you encounter the bug in either kernel, please upload dmesg and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

Thank you for your time in making Ubuntu better, and let me know if you have any questions.

[1]: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/
[2]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
summary: - Blank screen with latest natty on intel atom GPU
+ [i945gme] 2.6.37-10.24: Black Screen on Boot
Stenten (stenten)
tags: added: 945gme black-screen regression-potential
removed: regression-update
Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

Mainline 2.6.37-020637rc6-generic has same problem. Attached dmesg.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

Mainline 2.6.37-020637rc6-generic has same problem. Attached Xorg.0.log.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

Mainline 2.6.37-020637rc5-generic has same problem. Attached dmesg.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

Mainline 2.6.37-020637rc5-generic has same problem. Attached Xorg.0.log.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

RE: 1) I noticed you have vt.handoff=7 in the kernel command line. Have you had problems with VT switching? Does it work if you remove that parameter? Can you switch to a different TTY and run 'startx' and get a graphical desktop?

vt.handoff=7 was already there. I did not add it.
Have never had problems with VT switching.
Removing that parameter does not solve the problem.
Neither does removing 'splash quiet'
Can not switch to any TTY.

Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

Well I can't figure it out. There's an Oops in the rc6 kernel in plymouth, but that's not in the -10 kernel, and there's also no good reason (that I can find) that rc5 would also be affected if -9 wasn't.

Either way, all the information has been provided, so I'll mark it ready for a member of the Kernel Team to look at, and hopefully they can find the problem.

Also, the 2.6.37-11.25 kernel was just released, so please upload the dmesg for that as well if it's still affected by the bug.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
tags: added: kernel-needs-review
removed: needs-upstream-testing
Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

Can you still boot into the 2.6.37-9 kernel if you select it in grub?

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

RE: Can you still boot into the 2.6.37-9 kernel if you select it in grub?

Yes.

tags: added: regression-release
removed: regression-potential
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
Revision history for this message
Stenten (stenten) wrote :

Could you please try editing /etc/default/grub [1] and add the line "GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text"? Then run sudo update-grub in a terminal and reboot. Thank you.

[1] gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

@Stenten: done and it doesn't fix the problem. I've also tried the following with no success:
1. Remove splash
2. Remove quiet
3. Remove vt.handoff=7
4. Remove set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
5. Added vesafb.sucks=1 (per Sarvatt)

I'm going to install natty Alpha-1 and see how it breaks from there.

Revision history for this message
sojourner (itsmealso2) wrote :

I have had this for awhile also,with Nvidia 7600gs and repo nvidia-current driver , what I found is if I edit the line in /boot/grub/grub.cfg that reads set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode to set gfxpayload=1920x1080 (my normal res ) I can boot normally . this has persisted for the last several kernel updates .

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

kern.log with 2.6.37-7 working system

Here are the other results:
2.6.37-3-generic: login screen, no high res
2.6.37-5-generic: login screen, no high res
2.6.37-7-generic: works! Classic Desktop works; 1024x600, 800x600, 640x480 all recognized by system.

Revision history for this message
Robert Hooker (sarvatt) wrote :

So i915 didn't load on 2.6.37-3, on 2.6.35-5.13 you got a crash which is bug #676963 and was fixed on 2.6.37-5.14 and 2.6.37-7 appears to work. One thing all 3 had in common is that vesafb did not get loaded at all. One small thing I noticed in the earlier dmesg's was that vesafb was trying to use 1024x768x32 on that machine's 1024x600 panel which was a problem corrected in the 0602 bios release for this machine. It would be interesting to know the results of booting 2.6.37-11-generic on your alpha 1 userspace if possible so we can rule some more potential causes out, I'm not seeing anything obvious from these logs but hopefully someone else might.

Revision history for this message
Robert Hooker (sarvatt) wrote :

He narrowed it down to grub being updated where the problems started by starting with a stock alpha 1 install, installing 2.6.37-11-generic and verifying it worked correctly, then just updating grub.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

kernel-2.6.37-11 also works
but after upgrading only grub2, the system hits the original problem (drum heard, dark screen)

Revision history for this message
Kalle Persson (aabbqrstp) wrote :

I am also getting a black screen with i945gme since yesterday morning. Though for me it affects all kernels I have installed (so not sure if it is the same problem). Only way to get to KDM is to add "nomodeset" or "acpi=off" to grub, but then I can only use the screen in 800x600.

Revision history for this message
CharlesR (steincr) wrote :

Bug description at top of page lists an order of events. Mine is slightly different:

1. Boot process starts
2. Display turns off -- goes to power down state as if computer is off
3. Drum sounds are heard -- boot has ended
4. Keyboard is operational as NUMLOCK key toggles the light
5. Can't entice the display to turn on again.

CRS

Revision history for this message
Kalle Persson (aabbqrstp) wrote :

Grub was the problem for me as well.
Downgrading grub-common and grub-pc from 1.99~20101221-1ubuntu2 to 1.98-1ubuntu9 solved it for me.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

No need to go back to 1.98-1ubuntu9.
Downgrading grub2, grub-common, grub-pc to 1.99~20101126-1ubuntu2 is sufficient. pre Alpha1

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Downgrading GRUB may help, but GRUB is deliberately doing more work with video than it used to be - it doesn't necessarily mean it's actually a GRUB bug.

affects: grub (Ubuntu) → grub2 (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Andy Whitcroft (apw) wrote :

If your issue is that you get normal just a black screen, and if downgrading just grub restores your graphics (as per comment #22) this implies that grub is leaving the graphics card in a state that the kernel cannot recover from. To diagnose this we need to get the output of intel_reg_dumper in both cases, ie changing only grub. Please attach both dumps here.

Revision history for this message
Andy Whitcroft (apw) wrote :

Also can anyone who has not yet tested with 2.6.37-12 kernels please retest there and confirm that the kernel update there does not resolve things. There are two fixes in there for black screens over the previous kernels.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

Attaching intel_reg_dumper dumps per apw request.
This one is for kernel-11 and grub2 1.99~201104
This combination fails.

Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

Attaching intel_reg_dumper dumps per apw request.
This one is for kernel-11 and grub 1.99~20101126.
This combination works.

Revision history for this message
Andy Whitcroft (apw) wrote :

Appears that we hit a pipe underrun during initialisation when the display does not appear. Previously this has been triggered by poor teardown of the pipes for reconfiguring:

- PIPEBSTAT: 0x80000202 (status: FIFO_UNDERRUN VSYNC_INT_STATUS VBLANK_INT_STATUS)
+ PIPEBSTAT: 0x00000202 (status: VSYNC_INT_STATUS VBLANK_INT_STATUS)

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

FWIW, GRUB doesn't do anything to pipes itself, relying on the VBE BIOS to do it.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

At the recent platform rally, we determined that this is happening because GRUB is failing to get EDID information (1024x600) due to an internal logic bug, and as a result is using VBE Flat Panel information (1024x768), which exceeds the size of the screen; this is more or less readable in GRUB, but confuses the kernel.

I'll fix GRUB to use EDID information properly, which I think will end up as 800x600 since the VBE BIOS doesn't actually expose a 1024x600 mode despite advertising it as the preferred mode in EDID. The bug that the kernel fails to reprogram registers correctly when the boot loader leaves it in 1024x768 mode on this machine remains.

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson)
importance: Undecided → High
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
locust (marineworks) wrote :

Same bug here,
2.6.37-12-generic (64) nvidia 260.1926
black screen on graphic loading and locking of devices

no warning or errors in xorg log
I have a 1200x800 video resolution, playing with vga modes gave no results.
Best regards
David

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :
Download full text (3.9 KiB)

This bug was fixed in the package grub2 - 1.99~rc1-1ubuntu1

---------------
grub2 (1.99~rc1-1ubuntu1) natty; urgency=low

  * Resynchronise with Debian. Remaining changes:
    - Adjust for default Ubuntu boot options ("quiet splash").
    - Default to hiding the menu; holding down Shift at boot will show it.
    - Set a monochromatic theme and an aubergine background for Ubuntu.
    - Apply Ubuntu GRUB Legacy changes to legacy update-grub script: title,
      recovery mode, quiet option, tweak how memtest86+ is displayed, and
      use UUIDs where appropriate.
    - Fix backslash-escaping in merge_debconf_into_conf.
    - Remove "GNU/Linux" from default distributor string.
    - Add crashkernel option.
    - Bypass menu unless other OSes are installed or Shift is pressed.
    - Allow Shift to interrupt 'sleep --interruptible'.
    - Reduce visual clutter in normal mode.
    - Remove verbose messages printed before reading configuration.
    - Suppress kernel/initrd progress messages, except in recovery mode.
    - Handle filesystems loop-mounted on file images.
    - Ignore devices loop-mounted from files in Linux grub.d scripts.
    - Show the boot menu if the previous boot failed.
    - Don't generate device.map during grub-install or grub-mkconfig.
    - Adjust upgrade version checks for Ubuntu.
    - Suppress "GRUB loading" message unless Shift is held down.
    - Adjust versions of grub-doc and grub-legacy-doc conflicts.
    - Fix LVM/RAID probing in the absence of /boot/grub/device.map.
    - Look for .mo files in /usr/share/locale-langpack first.
    - Make sure GRUB_TIMEOUT isn't quoted unnecessarily.
    - Build-depend on qemu-kvm rather than qemu-system for grub-pc tests.
    - Use qemu rather than qemu-system-i386.
    - Add a grub-rescue-efi-amd64 package.
    - On Wubi, don't ask for an install device, but just update wubildr
      using the diverted grub-install.
    - Enable lua from grub-extras.
    - Incorporate the bitop library into lua.
    - Add enum_pci function to grub module in lua.
    - Check hardware support before using gfxpayload=keep.
    - Build part_msdos and vfat into EFI boot images.
    - Put second and subsequent Linux menu entries in a submenu.
    - Preferred resolution detection for VBE.
    - Set vt.handoff=7 for smooth handoff to kernel graphical mode.
  * Fix logic error in VBE resolution detection that meant EDID information
    was never used (LP: #693093).
  * Export linux_gfx_mode so that it's usable in submenus (LP: #702594).
  * Restore grub_mkdevicemap and associated options to grub-install, since
    it's needed when doing EFI installs (thanks, Jason Gunthorpe;
    LP: #702707).
  * Don't fail when there are no *.lua files in $pkglibdir (thanks, Jason
    Gunthorpe; LP: #702707).
  * If we're upgrading and /boot/grub/core.img doesn't exist, then don't ask
    where to install GRUB, since it probably means we're in some kind of
    specialised environment such as a live USB stick (LP: #591202).
  * Drop the default priority of grub2/linux_cmdline to medium. We only
    need to ask it if we're upgrading from GRUB Legacy and found an empty
    kopt in menu.lst (LP: #591202).

grub2 (1.99~rc1-1...

Read more...

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Marjo F. Mercado (marjo-mercado) wrote :

grub2 - 1.99~rc1-1ubuntu1 fixes problem and confirmed with removal of workaround. Thanks Colin!

Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote : Unsupported series, setting status to "Won't Fix".

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Won't Fix
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