[Gutsy backport] Using Randr or Playing Video in Totem blanks screen for 2 seconds

Bug #134365 reported by Andreas Schildbach
26
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Bryce Harrington
Nominated for Gutsy by Bryce Harrington

Bug Description

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

On Gutsy Tribe-5, playing a video in Totem blanks the screen for about 2 seconds.

This does not seem to affect functionality, but looks a bit ugly.

[SRU]
Impact: For a variety of Intel graphics cards that include tv-out, the -intel driver in Gutsy cannot distinguish when there is something connected to tv-out, and enables it incorrectly, resulting in constraints on the resolution used in other outputs. This is a common issue but is very card-specific, so the fix is implemented as quirks that are applied on a card-by-card basis. As we find new cards with this bug, we simply add their pci ids to this quirk list, making it a very low-risk way to expand the fixes to additional chipsets, including ones not in production at the time of the distro release.

Explanation: This patch ports the tv-out quirks from Hardy's Xorg. These are all either provided by upstream or were arrived at through Ubuntu or Debian testing, and have been validated as correct. Hardy's Xorg actually includes a number of other kinds of quirks beyond tv-out, however those are dependent on larger changes in Xorg and thus would be more intrusive, so I've omitted them. This bug report (134365) describes this case with one of the cards, which had a quirk entered for Gutsy, but incorrectly; this patch fixes that entry as well as adding more entries.

Patch: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/12754698/09_sync_quirks_from_hardy.diff

Reproduction: The bug can be triggered on any machine with one of the graphics chipsets affected by this patch. Boot the system and run `xrandr`; the system will show tv-out to be enabled when it shouldn't, and likely will be set to an incorrect resolution. Display operations that use randr may also display unexpected screen blanking issues as the system tries to poll the non-existent output.

Regression potential: Essentially zero. All people with the cards these quirks apply to will have had this bug. Workarounds these users may have applied will not be affected and will continue to work. The quirks *only* apply to specific cards, so will not affect anyone else except those having this bug.

Revision history for this message
Andreas Schildbach (schildbach) wrote :

This happens for example with the "Experience Ubuntu.ogg" example video.

I have tested this on a Dell Latitude X1, using an i915GMS.

Revision history for this message
Andreas Schildbach (schildbach) wrote :

The same happens when I just type "xrandr" in a shell, or start the new "Screens and Graphics" preferences.

Revision history for this message
Andreas Schildbach (schildbach) wrote :

Here is what Keith Packard said on <email address hidden> (08/25/2007 05:28 PM):

Yeah, it's checking to see if you have anything connected to the TV
output. To do that, it needs to temporarily unplug the VGA.

You can avoid this by ignoring the TV output

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "TV"
        Option "Ignore" "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 ...
       Option "monitor-TV" "TV"
EndSection

If your machine cannot ever have a TV adapter (even with a docking
station), we can add a quirk to the driver to never look at the TV
output. That requires the pci subsystem values (from lspci -n -v) to
plug into the quirk table.

Revision history for this message
Andreas Schildbach (schildbach) wrote :

As a result, some machines have been added to the quirk table (src/i830_quirks.c). It would be great if this table could be synced from upstream before Gutsy will be final.

Revision history for this message
Andreas Schildbach (schildbach) wrote : Re: Using Randr or Playing Video in Totem blanks screen for 2 seconds

A fix for the Dell Latitude X1 has been committed to upstream git.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Andreas Schildbach (schildbach) wrote :

Despite the fix, this issue is still present on Hardy Alpha 1 (xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.2.0-1ubuntu1).

Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Since this was marked fix committed, I assume you believed that a quirk for your monitor was added to i830_quirks.c?
I did sync the quirk table before Gutsy was released, but without knowing what your monitor is, I can't say if this included your quirk or not. In any case, the 2.2 driver should have brought in all of the quirks.

Can you please attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log, /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and the output from lspci -vvnn. Also, if you know the commit id for the fix upstream, please include that as well.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: Fix Committed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Andreas Schildbach (schildbach) wrote :

Actually I found out that the quirk had an error.

This fix has been committed to upstream to correct the issue:

http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=xorg/driver/xf86-video-intel.git;a=commit;h=cd6f83519c69f72f146fea59afbd6a3542da783a

Is there any chance to release this to Gutsy as well?

Bryce Harrington (bryce)
Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
assignee: nobody → bryceharrington
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: Incomplete → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Here is a deb with this updated fix, and a few other TV quirks we're carrying in Hardy:

http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/intel-Gutsy/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.1.1-0ubuntu9.2_i386.deb

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
milestone: none → gutsy-updates
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

Nominating for release, updating description, and marking Fix released as per SRU policy.

Changed in xserver-xorg-video-intel:
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
description: updated
Bryce Harrington (bryce)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Bryce Harrington (bryce) wrote :

The .dsc and packaging for this is available for upload at:

http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/intel-Gutsy/

Revision history for this message
Jeremy Nickurak (nickurak) wrote :

I'm getting this behavior under hardy with an:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Does this require addition to a quirks file? Did the fix actually make it into hardy?

Revision history for this message
Ian Hinder (ian-hinder) wrote :

I get this with my laptop on Intrepid Beta 1. I have no xorg.conf file, and an external monitor connected to the VGA port. The laptop is a Sony Vaio TX650P.

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Typing xrandr in the terminal blanks the screen for a few seconds. Xorg.0.log attached. Ignoring the TV-output fixes the problem. This laptop does not have a TV-out function, so I think the quirks table can be updated to include it.

Revision history for this message
Matthias Andree (matthias-andree) wrote :

further quirks required, see bug #279719

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