[intel 855GME] kernel modesetting does not work

I've recently upgraded to karmic.

Unfortunately, KMS does not work with my laptop.

At startup the display is mangled. It seems that only every second line and column of the display is being used. Thus the display size is doubled vertically and horizontally. I can only see the upper left quadrant of the screen.

dmesg shows some errors relating to graphics:

[ 2.483325] Linux agpgart interface v0.103
[ 2.490060] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: Intel 855GM Chipset
[ 2.490261] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected 8060K stolen memory
[ 2.492152] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: AGP aperture is 128M @ 0xf0000000
[ 2.502188] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A03:00/device:16/input/input6
[ 2.502336] ACPI: Video Device [IGFX] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no)
[ 2.543624] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[ 2.569972] i915 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 2.569983] i915 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 2.580784] i2c-adapter i2c-1: unable to read EDID block.
[ 2.580791] i915 0000:00:02.0: LVDS-1: no EDID data
[ 2.916156] [drm] DAC-6: set mode 640x480 0
[ 3.380524] i2c-adapter i2c-1: unable to read EDID block.
[ 3.380532] i915 0000:00:02.0: LVDS-1: no EDID data
[ 3.389626] [drm] fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
[ 3.389641] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20080730 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[ 3.401772] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 160x48
[ 3.476696] render error detected, EIR: 0x00000010
[ 3.476699] page table error
[ 3.476702] PGTBL_ER: 0x00000049
[ 3.476707] [drm:i915_driver_irq_handler] *ERROR* EIR stuck: 0x00000010, masking
[ 3.476713] render error detected, EIR: 0x00000010
[ 3.476716] page table error
[ 3.476718] PGTBL_ER: 0x00000049
[ 3.483234] [drm] LVDS-8: set mode 1280x768 d

If I disable KMS everything works fine.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Aug 1 22:46:21 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=e1fc4aae-5701-4d3d-b967-63d17ca9fffb
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: TWINHEAD F10DT
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-4-generic 2.6.31-4.23
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=ab766fca-38f0-485d-9bb5-ac28cbe28fec ro quiet pci=assign-busses hpet=force resume=/dev/sda6 i915.modeset=0
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-4.23-generic
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-4-generic N/A
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-4-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 10/06/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 080011
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.vendor: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.version: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr080011:bd10/06/2005:svnTWINHEAD:pnF10DT:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rvrTobefilledbyO.E.M.:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: F10DT
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: TWINHEAD