[i945gm] Kubuntu: corrupt login screen and X freeze on startup when using desktop effects (UXA bug)

Hi peter-hwtl,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (and maybe Xorg.0.log.old) file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

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I've reverted to xorg.conf where Option "AccelMethod" "UXA" is specified, but no Driver.
The login screen was corrupted as described above. After login I switched to tty1 and waited for the music, then switched to tty7 and graphics. The screen looks OK. Desktop effects are disabled. I attach the output of Xorg.0.log, which seems to show several warnings and an error. I haven't yet tried a visual login on the tty7 screen.

And this is the result of logging in visually on tty7. The screen froze while rendering the last [square] icon.

Further evidence -
If the machine suspends itself after 20 mins I resume by pressing power button.
This presents a login that looks perfectly normal, no screen corruption, no lock up.

However, if I force a logout the graphics screen goes and the screen hangs with text showing

/dev/sda
setting advanced Power Management level to 0xfe (254)

All I can do is to switch to tty1 and restart kdm; then I get a normal login screen.

In summary:
The corrupt login screen and graphics hang only occurs on initial login when that tty is on screen.
Other logins seem to behave normally.
A forced logout fails to get back to the login screen.

After several cases where the screen completely locked up (mouse too) while opening a new page in Firefox or while running a card game, I decided to revert to Device "vesa" in xorg.conf. This is stable, shows no corruption at login and is not showing any performance problem in what I'm doing.
For me the Option "AccelMethod" "UXA" in xorg.conf is too unstable.
This is how it will stay unless asked to try a fix for xserver-xorg-video-intel module.

We have a PPA with some new tools for debugging X freezes:

  https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-freeze-test

I know how irritating X freezes can be. They're also typically
quite hard to debug, but the information provided by these new
tools should help upstream figure them out.

You can help by doing the following:

 A. Install the PPA packages on Jaunty and boot kernel 2.6.30-rc2
 B. Reproduce your freeze
 C. ssh into the machine and run the steps to collect the info
 D. Attach the tarball of the results to this bug report

With this information, we'll be able to forward your bug upstream.

(For more information on triaging X freeze bugs, see
 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze )

Collected the info requested. I am using kdm so I gathered logs for kdm rather than gdm.

Just in case it helps - hope I am not off-topic
Using kernel 2.6.30-rc2 I was able to re-create the X freeze but also I found that X will not run normally even using the default EXA acceleration. The screen freezes, I switch to tty1 then back to tty7, it runs a few more seconds, then freezes again. This used to happen with Ubuntu 8.10 for a while; at that time it was cured by turning off DRI in xorg.conf.

Also I am running Sidux, with kernel 2.6.29-1.slh.6-sidux-686, on a Vaio laptop using Intel 915GM. This does not have any problems with UXA settings (or EXA either). X seems to run smoothly on the laptop despite lower spec graphics.

For what it's worth, I am having the same issue (I think). Cannot enable desktop effects at all: results in screen corruption as described in this thread, then automatic restart of xorg and login screen without effects enabled. If I force UXA I get the screen corruption from the outset. This on a Thinkpad T500 with GMA 4500 intel card.

I've forwarded this bug upstream to https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21514. Could you please subscribe yourself to this bug, in case they need further information or wish you to test something. Thanks ahead of time!

I think they are likely to want you to test a newer version of the -intel driver. We have a Jaunty backport of 2.7.0 available at https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates/

If they need you to test something even newer, check https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

Upstream may also want Xorg.0.log's posted from these newer versions with option "ModeDebug" "yes" added in the Device section of your xorg.conf, to dump more register information into Xorg.0.log

I have had the chance now to test a bit more and I am certain that desktop effects is NOT part of this problem, despite my initial report, and hence the title.
The screen corruption and X freeze occurs with my current system both with and without desktop effects enabled. The single change that definitely gives rise to the problem is to add UXA acceleration to my xorg.conf file.
I think perhaps the title of this bug should be changed to remove the words ... when using desktop effects ... The rest of the title is, I believe, accurate. Also, maybe the compiz tag should be changed to UXA?

Does this still happen with the xorg edgers bits and the 2.6.30-rc7 kernel?

Today I installed kernel 2.6.30-rc8- now testing.
When I tried 2.6.30-rc2 (only runs with no UXA setting) my desktop kept freezing and had to unfreeze by switching terminals often.
With 2.6.30-rc8 (no UXA) I get a clean login screen and no desktop freezes (after 30 mins)
I have now switched on UXA in xorg.conf and I still get a clean login screen. No freezes on desktop in first 10 mins (with earlier kernel I would have had several freezes in that time).
So first impression is that rc8 has fixed the graphics problems that I was getting.

Spoke too soon. After a complete reboot into 2.6.30-rc8 with UXA on I get the corrupt screen as before and complete X lock up after login. My previous report was after just restarting the X server having set UXA on (Xorg.0.log did report loading UXA).
So the desktop freeze problem (first seen in rc2) may have been fixed by rc8, but not the X lock up.

According to upstream this is fixed. If not, please reopen this and the upstream bug with further details.

I've just done an install of kubuntu karmic alpha 3 from the latest packages and have experienced the following issues;

Font sizes at login screen are huge (~72 points or so)
During login, screen/cursor visibly freeze every few seconds
On login, font sizes are still huge
Taskbar at bottom is drawn without corruption
Clicking on anything makes a window appear (although there is a brief freeze as the window is drawn), but the contents are entirely corrupted (mostly horizontal banding lines) - cursor is not visible when it overlies corrupted area

I would attach screenshots and configs, but the laptop is utterly unusuable - nothing coherent is visible on the screen, and for some reason ctrl-alt-backspace won't work to let me drop to a terminal so I can tinker with xorg.conf. To me this sounds exactly like a manifestation of the above issue, but I don't have any way of checking my config and/or changing any settings. Can anyone confirm this? Just to reiterate that this is a completely standard install on first boot, and no customisation has been done.

Hardware is an HP nx7400 laptop with the i945 GM. Going to try the same hardware with Debian tonight after I try and get some pics of what the screen looks like. If this really is endemic to i945's it's a real showstopper IMHO.

Uploaded pic - displaying huge fonts on plasma desktop config jellybean thing, plus corruption from hovering over upgrade icon in the system tray.

As noted, this is a fresh boot from a fresh install of the latest alpha3.

Confirmed still an issue with alpha 4 but had the foesight to instal an ssh server this time. lspci -vv of graphics for comparison; karmic doesn't seem to install with a xorg.conf (could this be the reason for huge fonts?). No noteworthy errors in xorg log, other than it looks like my lcd panel needs a quirk.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30a2
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at f4400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        Region 1: I/O ports at 4000 [size=8]
        Region 2: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Region 3: Memory at f4480000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Capabilities: [90] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
                Address: 00000000 Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [d0] 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-
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915

"screen/cursor freeze every few seconds" - that symptom is a performance lag which is different from the original bug report's "X freeze", in which the system just locked up but the mouse cursor moved. This bug was inappropriately reopened. Instead you would be better off filing a new bug, as your issue seems distinct and unrelated to this one.