Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel
The -intel driver does not appear to work on the Dell Studio Hybrid (Mobile GM965 8086:2a02 / 1028:0279). On booting the Intrepid Alpha-4 cd and selecting either the Live CD option or the Install ubuntu option, the screen blanks and never comes back. I'm not certain if it is hanging at that point or waiting for input. Vt switching *sort of* works; about half the time if I ctrl-alt-f1/f2 several times, I'll see either a corrupted text screen or get an uncorrupted text screen, that I can log into and use; the other half of the time the console just remains blank.
I was able to successfully boot an old Gutsy Tribe 2 LiveCD using Safe Graphics mode (regular LiveCD hung as above). In this case, X seemed okay but I had trouble getting the wired network to connect to the network (kernel device driver problem?)
Next, I went back to the Intrepid Alpha-4 CD and switched it to the vesa driver. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to start up via startx (see the log file attached, which displays the error message).
[StableReleaseUpdate]
Impact: The bug prevents Ubuntu from being installed using the Desktop LiveCD, and makes X display nothing when the -intel graphics driver is used if installing some other way.
Addressed: The root cause of the problem is known upstream, and they've provided a quirking mechanism to deal with this class of problem. Adding the quirk solves this bug. This has already been uploaded to Intrepid.
Patch: See attached. In addition to this quirk, it also syncs 3 quirks from upstream; one for the same bug on another hardware platform, and two for the very common hang-on-lid-close pipe-a problem.
Reproducing: The LVDS bug can be reproduced by attempting to boot a LiveCD. After usplash the screen will blank, including vt's. The hang-on-lid-close bug is reproduced by closing the laptop lid or putting the machine into sleep mode.
Regression Potential: Quirks are targeted to specific PCI ID's and thus the scope of any regression is extremely small. Additionally, quirks are just changes in a data table, so the worst possibility is mistyping the PCI ID.
An error message I saw once on the console when attempting to do Install Ubuntu on Alpha4, vt1 showed" Can't get mode info (vm86 failure).
Also, I misspoke about the hang with Tribe2's LiveCD and -intel; it did not hang quite like on Intrepid, but rather hung after X had started up, while GNOME was initializing (it hung right after displaying the gnome-volume-