Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Jesper Juhl]

In addition to the problem I reported earlier about 2.6.15-rc5-mm2
hanging at boot with vga=791 I've just discovered another problem.

If I boot with vga=normal (which is aparently all that works), then I
can boot up to a nice lain text login and run startx, but if I then
switch away from X back to a text console with ctrl+alt+f6 or if I
shut down X, then I'm presented with a completely garbled text mode
screen - flashing coloured blocks all over, random bits of text at
random locations etc.

Also, when starting X, just before the cursor appears I normally just
have a black screen. With this kernel I first get a short blink of a
garbled graphics mode screeen with either what looks like just random
pixels or sometimes with something that looks like a mangled snapshot
of my text mode console, or if I kill X with ctrl+alt+backspace and
then start it again (the garbled text mode console does work, although
I'm glad I know how to touch type ;) then I sometimes get what looks
like a snapshot of my previous X session with random pixels on top.
The garbled graphical screen stays for just a blink of an eye, then
it's replaced with the normal black screen and the mouse cursor.

2.6.15-rc5-git1 works perfectly without these issues.

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
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Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Antonino A. Daplas]

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> In addition to the problem I reported earlier about 2.6.15-rc5-mm2
> hanging at boot with vga=791 I've just discovered another problem.
> 
> If I boot with vga=normal (which is aparently all that works), then I
> can boot up to a nice lain text login and run startx, but if I then
> switch away from X back to a text console with ctrl+alt+f6 or if I
> shut down X, then I'm presented with a completely garbled text mode
> screen - flashing coloured blocks all over, random bits of text at
> random locations etc.
> 
> Also, when starting X, just before the cursor appears I normally just
> have a black screen. With this kernel I first get a short blink of a
> garbled graphics mode screeen with either what looks like just random
> pixels or sometimes with something that looks like a mangled snapshot
> of my text mode console, or if I kill X with ctrl+alt+backspace and
> then start it again (the garbled text mode console does work, although
> I'm glad I know how to touch type ;) then I sometimes get what looks
> like a snapshot of my previous X session with random pixels on top.
> The garbled graphical screen stays for just a blink of an eye, then
> it's replaced with the normal black screen and the mouse cursor.
> 
> 2.6.15-rc5-git1 works perfectly without these issues.

I cannot reproduce your problem...

If set, can you comment out Load "dri" and/or Load "glx" from your
X config?

Can you try another X driver, ie, vesa?

Also, these 2 patches are present in mm but not in Linus' tree.  Can
you check which of these are the culprit, if any?

http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch

Tony
 

Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Jesper Juhl]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4734 bytes --]

On 12/12/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > In addition to the problem I reported earlier about 2.6.15-rc5-mm2
> > hanging at boot with vga=791 I've just discovered another problem.
> >
> > If I boot with vga=normal (which is aparently all that works), then I
> > can boot up to a nice lain text login and run startx, but if I then
> > switch away from X back to a text console with ctrl+alt+f6 or if I
> > shut down X, then I'm presented with a completely garbled text mode
> > screen - flashing coloured blocks all over, random bits of text at
> > random locations etc.
> >
> > Also, when starting X, just before the cursor appears I normally just
> > have a black screen. With this kernel I first get a short blink of a
> > garbled graphics mode screeen with either what looks like just random
> > pixels or sometimes with something that looks like a mangled snapshot
> > of my text mode console, or if I kill X with ctrl+alt+backspace and
> > then start it again (the garbled text mode console does work, although
> > I'm glad I know how to touch type ;) then I sometimes get what looks
> > like a snapshot of my previous X session with random pixels on top.
> > The garbled graphical screen stays for just a blink of an eye, then
> > it's replaced with the normal black screen and the mouse cursor.
> >
> > 2.6.15-rc5-git1 works perfectly without these issues.
>
> I cannot reproduce your problem...
>

It's completely reproducable here when booting the kernel with  vga=normal
and then starting X with the attached xorg.conf using this grahics card :

# lspci -vvx
...
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA Parhelia
AGP (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Matrox Graphics, Inc. Parhelia 128Mb
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop-
ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium
>TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64 (4000ns min, 8000ns max), cache line size 08
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 4
        Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Region 1: Memory at e5000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Expansion ROM at e7fe0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [dc] 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-
        Capabilities: [f0] AGP version 2.0
                Status: RQ=32 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64-
HTrans- 64bit- FW+ AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
                Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit-
FW- Rate=<none>
00: 2b 10 27 05 07 00 b0 02 03 00 00 03 08 40 00 00
10: 08 00 00 e8 00 00 00 e5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2b 10 40 08
30: 00 00 fe e7 dc 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 01 10 20

note that if I use a fb console everything is fine, only when booting
initially with vga=normal is there a problem.


> If set, can you comment out Load "dri" and/or Load "glx" from your
> X config?
>
Both were set. Commenting out both didn't change a thing.


> Can you try another X driver, ie, vesa?
>
I'm already using the vesa driver. It seems to be the only Open Source
driver that'll work with this card, so i don't have any other to try.

> Also, these 2 patches are present in mm but not in Linus' tree.  Can
> you check which of these are the culprit, if any?
>
> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch
> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch
>

Since this is 2.6.15-rc5-mm2 I grabbed these two instead:
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc5/2.6.15-rc5-mm2/broken-out/vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc5/2.6.15-rc5-mm2/broken-out/vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch

Reverting both patches didn't fix the problem. Starting X then
switching back to a text mode console still results in a completely
messed up text console. X is fine, I can switch back to it no problem,
but text consoles go bye-bye...

Would there be any point in trying a kernel with just one of the
patches reverted?


--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
Don't top-post  http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
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[-- Attachment #2: xorg.conf --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 2716 bytes --]

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
#	Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
	ModulePath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
	FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "dbe"
#	Load  "dri"
#	Load  "glx"
	Load  "xtrap"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/mouse"
	Option      "Buttons" "6"
	Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

#Section "Monitor"
#	Identifier   "Monitor1"
#	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
#	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
#EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "vesa"
	VendorName  "Matrox Graphics, Inc."
	BoardName   "MGA Parhelia AGP"
	BusID       "PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

#Section "Device"
#	Identifier  "Card1"
#	Driver      "mga"
#	VendorName  "Matrox Graphics, Inc."
#	BoardName   "MGA 2164W [Millennium II]"
#	BusID       "PCI:0:10:0"
#EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth 24

	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

#Section "Screen"
#	Identifier "Screen1"
#	Device     "Card1"
#	Monitor    "Monitor1"
#	DefaultDepth 24
#
#	SubSection "Display"
#		Viewport   0 0
#		Depth     1
#		EndSubSection
#		SubSection "Display"
#		Viewport   0 0
#		Depth     4
#	EndSubSection
#	SubSection "Display"
#		Viewport   0 0
#		Depth     8
#	EndSubSection
#	SubSection "Display"
#		Viewport   0 0
#		Depth     15
#	EndSubSection
#	SubSection "Display"
#		Viewport   0 0
#		Depth     16
#	EndSubSection
#	SubSection "Display"
#		Viewport   0 0
#		Depth     24
#	EndSubSection
#EndSection

Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Antonino A. Daplas]

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> On 12/12/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Jesper Juhl wrote:
>>> In addition to the problem I reported earlier about 2.6.15-rc5-mm2
>>> hanging at boot with vga=791 I've just discovered another problem.
>>>
>>> If I boot with vga=normal (which is aparently all that works), then I
>>> can boot up to a nice lain text login and run startx, but if I then
>>> switch away from X back to a text console with ctrl+alt+f6 or if I
>>> shut down X, then I'm presented with a completely garbled text mode
>>> screen - flashing coloured blocks all over, random bits of text at
>>> random locations etc.
>>>
>>> Also, when starting X, just before the cursor appears I normally just
>>> have a black screen. With this kernel I first get a short blink of a
>>> garbled graphics mode screeen with either what looks like just random
>>> pixels or sometimes with something that looks like a mangled snapshot
>>> of my text mode console, or if I kill X with ctrl+alt+backspace and
>>> then start it again (the garbled text mode console does work, although
>>> I'm glad I know how to touch type ;) then I sometimes get what looks
>>> like a snapshot of my previous X session with random pixels on top.
>>> The garbled graphical screen stays for just a blink of an eye, then
>>> it's replaced with the normal black screen and the mouse cursor.
>>>
>>> 2.6.15-rc5-git1 works perfectly without these issues.
>> I cannot reproduce your problem...
>>
> 
>> Can you try another X driver, ie, vesa?
>>
> I'm already using the vesa driver. It seems to be the only Open Source
> driver that'll work with this card, so i don't have any other to try.
> 

Ah, vesa Xorg driver with vgacon.  I haven't tried that yet. Let me check if
I can reproduce the problem.

>> Also, these 2 patches are present in mm but not in Linus' tree.  Can
>> you check which of these are the culprit, if any?
>>
>> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch
>> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch
>>
> 
> Since this is 2.6.15-rc5-mm2 I grabbed these two instead:
> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc5/2.6.15-rc5-mm2/broken-out/vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch
> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc5/2.6.15-rc5-mm2/broken-out/vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch
> 
> Reverting both patches didn't fix the problem. Starting X then
> switching back to a text mode console still results in a completely
> messed up text console. X is fine, I can switch back to it no problem,
> but text consoles go bye-bye...
> 
> Would there be any point in trying a kernel with just one of the
> patches reverted?

Those 2 patches are independent, so it's possible that their side
effects can cancel each other out.  So yes, try reversing one patch
at a time.

Tony

Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Antonino A. Daplas]

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> On 12/12/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Jesper Juhl wrote:
>>
> I'm already using the vesa driver. It seems to be the only Open Source
> driver that'll work with this card, so i don't have any other to try.
> 

I just tried with Xorg vesa and vgacon, and everything seems to work okay.
Now I'm not sure what changes in linux causes the vgacon state restore
to fail (VGA state restoration is almost the entire responsibility
of X, BTW), but maybe you can use vbetool to get and set the vga mode,
just to test?


Tony

Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Jesper Juhl]

On 12/13/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > On 12/12/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Also, these 2 patches are present in mm but not in Linus' tree.  Can
> >> you check which of these are the culprit, if any?
> >>
> >> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch
> >> http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc2/2.6.15-rc2-mm1/broken-out/vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch
> >>
> >
> > Since this is 2.6.15-rc5-mm2 I grabbed these two instead:
> > http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc5/2.6.15-rc5-mm2/broken-out/vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch
> > http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.15-rc5/2.6.15-rc5-mm2/broken-out/vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch
> >
> > Reverting both patches didn't fix the problem. Starting X then
> > switching back to a text mode console still results in a completely
> > messed up text console. X is fine, I can switch back to it no problem,
> > but text consoles go bye-bye...
> >
> > Would there be any point in trying a kernel with just one of the
> > patches reverted?
>
> Those 2 patches are independent, so it's possible that their side
> effects can cancel each other out.  So yes, try reversing one patch
> at a time.
>
I just tried two 2.6.15-rc5-mm2 kernels; the first with only the
vgacon-fix-doublescan-mode.patch backed out and the second one with
only the vgacon-workaround-for-resize-bug-in-some-chipsets.patch one
backed out. Both kernels still had the problem, so I think we can
conclude that these two atches are innocent since reverting both of
them or just one or the other does not resolve the issue.

For what it's worth, I also just build a 2.6.15-rc5-git3 kernel and
that one works perfectly, so it's clearly something still left in -mm.

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
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Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Jesper Juhl]

On 12/13/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > On 12/12/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> >>
> > I'm already using the vesa driver. It seems to be the only Open Source
> > driver that'll work with this card, so i don't have any other to try.
> >
>
> I just tried with Xorg vesa and vgacon, and everything seems to work okay.
> Now I'm not sure what changes in linux causes the vgacon state restore
> to fail (VGA state restoration is almost the entire responsibility
> of X, BTW), but maybe you can use vbetool to get and set the vga mode,
> just to test?
>
Ok, I'm not familiar with that tool and my distribution doesn't
include it, but if it will be useful to you for me to test with  it
I'll get and install it. What exactely would you like me to do/try
with it?

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
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Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Antonino A. Daplas]

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> On 12/13/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Jesper Juhl wrote:
>>> On 12/12/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Jesper Juhl wrote:
>>>>
>>> I'm already using the vesa driver. It seems to be the only Open Source
>>> driver that'll work with this card, so i don't have any other to try.
>>>
>> I just tried with Xorg vesa and vgacon, and everything seems to work okay.
>> Now I'm not sure what changes in linux causes the vgacon state restore
>> to fail (VGA state restoration is almost the entire responsibility
>> of X, BTW), but maybe you can use vbetool to get and set the vga mode,
>> just to test?
>>
> Ok, I'm not familiar with that tool and my distribution doesn't
> include it, but if it will be useful to you for me to test with  it
> I'll get and install it. What exactely would you like me to do/try
> with it?

The vbetool is capable of getting/setting or saving/restoring the current
state of the hardware.  You can run vbetool vbestate save before going
to X and then run vbetool vbestate restore after switching back to console.

Tony 

Re: Yet more display troubles with 2.6.15-rc5-mm2

[Jesper Juhl]

On 12/14/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > On 12/13/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> >>> On 12/12/05, Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> >>>>
> >>> I'm already using the vesa driver. It seems to be the only Open Source
> >>> driver that'll work with this card, so i don't have any other to try.
> >>>
> >> I just tried with Xorg vesa and vgacon, and everything seems to work okay.
> >> Now I'm not sure what changes in linux causes the vgacon state restore
> >> to fail (VGA state restoration is almost the entire responsibility
> >> of X, BTW), but maybe you can use vbetool to get and set the vga mode,
> >> just to test?
> >>
> > Ok, I'm not familiar with that tool and my distribution doesn't
> > include it, but if it will be useful to you for me to test with  it
> > I'll get and install it. What exactely would you like me to do/try
> > with it?
>
> The vbetool is capable of getting/setting or saving/restoring the current
> state of the hardware.  You can run vbetool vbestate save before going
> to X and then run vbetool vbestate restore after switching back to console.
>

Hi Antonio,

Sorry about the late reply but I've been busy and unable to return to
this issue until now.

I've tried building vbetool, but unfortunately all versions of it that
I can obtain refuse to build on my system, so at the moment I can't do
that testing for you.

I'll test the recently released 2.6.15-rc5-mm3 as well as
2.6.15-rc6-git1 and let you know if they have this issue or not.

--
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
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