[gentoo-user] X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[gentoo-user] X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[Florian Philipp]

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Hi list!

I ran into a massive problem when I tried to update to xorg-server-1.8:
When I tried to start it, the x-server didn't come up and wrote this
error: "(EE) intel(0): No kernel modesetting driver detected".

So I activated modesetting by default in the kernel and tried it again.
Now I have two distinct problems:

1. On boot up, the screen goes completely black until the xserver is
started. While I know my system long enough to recognize common boot
errors by watching the disk and peripheral device activity, I wouldn't
like to make a filesystem recovery blindfolded ;)

2. Once the XServer runs, it is extremely unstable. It gets killed and
restarted by XDM every few minutes. dmesg and Xorg.0.log haven't shown
anything suspicious.

In the end that means that I'm currently stuck with xorg-server-1.7 and
no modesetting.

For reference, my system:
Dell Latitude D520
Intel GMA 945 (i915 driver)
64bit, libs mostly from stable
screen resolution 1400x1050

Thanks in advance,
Florian Philipp


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Re: [gentoo-user] X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[Willie Wong]

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 06:47:42PM +0200, Florian Philipp wrote:
> 1. On boot up, the screen goes completely black until the xserver is
> started. While I know my system long enough to recognize common boot
> errors by watching the disk and peripheral device activity, I wouldn't
> like to make a filesystem recovery blindfolded ;)

Any dmesg output?

> 
> 2. Once the XServer runs, it is extremely unstable. It gets killed and
> restarted by XDM every few minutes. dmesg and Xorg.0.log haven't shown
> anything suspicious.
> 
> In the end that means that I'm currently stuck with xorg-server-1.7 and
> no modesetting.
> 

-- 
Willie W. Wong                                     wwong@math.princeton.edu
Data aequatione quotcunque fluentes quantitae involvente fluxiones invenire 
         et vice versa   ~~~  I. Newton

Re: [gentoo-user] X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[Florian Philipp]

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Am 29.06.2010 13:48, schrieb Willie Wong:
> On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 06:47:42PM +0200, Florian Philipp wrote:
>> 1. On boot up, the screen goes completely black until the xserver is
>> started. While I know my system long enough to recognize common boot
>> errors by watching the disk and peripheral device activity, I wouldn't
>> like to make a filesystem recovery blindfolded ;)
> 
> Any dmesg output?
> 

What, you mean after going blank? Not that I would have noticed. If you
mean after the xserver crash, see three sentences below ;)

>>
>> 2. Once the XServer runs, it is extremely unstable. It gets killed and
>> restarted by XDM every few minutes. dmesg and Xorg.0.log haven't shown
>> anything suspicious.
>>
>> In the end that means that I'm currently stuck with xorg-server-1.7 and
>> no modesetting.
>>
> 



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Re: [gentoo-user] X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[Willie Wong]

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 08:49:38PM +0200, Florian Philipp wrote:
> What, you mean after going blank? Not that I would have noticed. If you
> mean after the xserver crash, see three sentences below ;)

Oh, my bad. So I assumed that you also checked the kernel logs then. Are
you sure there's no kernel trouble _very early_ in the boot process?

I don't know about the Dell model you have, is it a laptop? Some
motherboard BIOS/ACPI are known to have a bug where they mis-report
the lid status of the laptop, and so on boot the computer "thinks" the
lid is closed and turns off the screen. Though the kernel would
usually complain about not finding an active screen attached to the
video card or something like that.  
> 
> >>
> >> 2. Once the XServer runs, it is extremely unstable. It gets killed and
> >> restarted by XDM every few minutes. dmesg and Xorg.0.log haven't shown
> >> anything suspicious.

Is this with a window manager or is this also with the vaniila TWM +
xterm?

I mean, if something crashes, somebody somewhere ought of have a log,
right? 

Best of luck, 

W

-- 
Willie W. Wong                                     wwong@math.princeton.edu
Data aequatione quotcunque fluentes quantitae involvente fluxiones invenire 
         et vice versa   ~~~  I. Newton

[gentoo-user] Re: X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[walt]

On 06/28/2010 09:47 AM, Florian Philipp wrote:

> 2. Once the XServer runs, it is extremely unstable. It gets killed and
> restarted by XDM every few minutes...

I stopped using display managers years ago, mostly because they make life
so difficult when X is being flakey.  My advice is to avoid xdm and use
startx until you figure out what's causing the crashes.  This makes the
logs easier to figure out.

Re: [gentoo-user] X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[Andrea Conti]

> 1. On boot up, the screen goes completely black until the xserver is
> started.

KMS provides its own framebuffer console driver -- disable any other
framebuffer drivers such as (u)vesafb and enable
FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DETECT_PRIMARY under drivers/graphics
support/console display driver support. Also make sure you remove any
vga= or video= options from the kernel commandline in your bootloader
configuration.

You will get a _fast_ console with native resolution (no more horribly
stretched fonts!)

BTW, everything KMS-related should be compiled in rather than built as a
module.

> 2. Once the XServer runs, it is extremely unstable. It gets killed and
> restarted by XDM every few minutes. dmesg and Xorg.0.log haven't shown
> anything suspicious.

I've been using 1.8 since it made it into the tree and I must say I  did
not encounter any problems.

Did you recompile every installed packege in x11-drivers after the
switch to 1.8?

Here I'm running ~amd64 with tuxonice-sources and xorg-server-1.8.1.902
on an Acer 2930 (GMA 4500MHD, 1200x800). I use KDE but I don't think
that is relevant.

andrea

Re: [gentoo-user] X-Server-1.8 and Intel i915 modesetting stability

[Florian Philipp]

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Am 30.06.2010 09:09, schrieb Andrea Conti:
>> 1. On boot up, the screen goes completely black until the xserver is
>> started.
> 
> KMS provides its own framebuffer console driver -- disable any other
> framebuffer drivers such as (u)vesafb and enable
> FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DETECT_PRIMARY under drivers/graphics
> support/console display driver support. Also make sure you remove any
> vga= or video= options from the kernel commandline in your bootloader
> configuration.
[...]
> BTW, everything KMS-related should be compiled in rather than built as a
> module.

Thanks! I had to enable the option you mentioned and change everything
framebuffer related from module to compiled-in. Now the console works
like a charm.

Then I had to remove my xorg.conf and it magically solved the X-Server
instability (which was caused by a segfault of the intel driver, btw.).


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