graphics fails with setgfxpayload=keep, AMD Radeon

Darxus, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. With the workaround removed, could you please post the results following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingKernelBoot ? As well, if you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

I'll give them a try.

Looks like this is the kernel you'd like me to try?
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.3-precise/linux-image-3.3.0-030300-generic_3.3.0-030300.201203182135_amd64.deb
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.3-precise/linux-headers-3.3.0-030300-generic_3.3.0-030300.201203182135_amd64.deb

I won't get to try this until tomorrow night.

Following DebuggingKernelBoot gives me basically the same results as just removing the "set gfxpayload..." line. Things work.

Although I noticed I'm able to repeatably get X into an unusable state with a jpeg slideshow. With disk I/O under heavy load (rsyncing gigabytes of source locally), eog and gliv both caused it within a few jpegs. Without load, I pulled up gliv and did a slideshow with no delay, so the images are just flickering by, and in about a minute it reached this state again. The display goes black every few seconds, then shows me a different sample of my desktop. I can switch out to a VT and kill the slidesow application, but X doesn't become responsive again. So I think the driver problem isn't limited to startup.

Downloaded http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.3-precise/linux-image-3.3.0-030300-generic_3.3.0-030300.201203182135_amd64.deb

dpkg -l says it's 32 bit:
ii linux-image-3.3.0-030300-generic 3.3.0-030300.201203182135 Linux kernel image for version 3.3.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP

I even uninstalled and re-installed it to verify that the amd64.deb had a description that says 32 bit x86.

$ uname -a
Linux dancer 3.3.0-030300-generic #201203182135 SMP Mon Mar 19 01:36:20 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Same results with the mainline kernel as with the ubuntu kernel. With the grub defaults, X gives me just a dark purple flickery screen. Following the Debugging KernelBoot instructions, it works.

The 32 bit stuff in the package description was apparently only a problem with the discription, since uname says it booted to an x86_64 kernel.

Darxus, could you also please try 3.4 http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.4-rc1-precise/ ?

$ uname -a
Linux dancer 3.4.0-030400rc1-generic #201203312035 SMP Sun Apr 1 00:36:22 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Same. Nothing remotely intelligable after grub with default grub settings, works with DebuggingKernelBoot instructions.

Darxus, thank you for testing the mainline kernel. The next step is to perform a kernel bisect in order to identify the offending commit. Could you do so following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?

Caught it glitching on me, thought I'd upload a snapshot. Not a huge usability problem, but....

Screenshot was with:

$ uname -a
Linux dancer 3.4.0-030400rc1-generic #201203312035 SMP Sun Apr 1 00:36:22 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I've been seeing occasional things like this in all the stuff I've tried in Precise.

I guess I should mention, the Oneric kernel that I'm not having problems with is:

$ uname -a
Linux dancer 3.0.0-17-generic #30-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 8 20:45:39 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

That looks like a lot of bisecting. But it's nice that the precise kernel repo contains the full history:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-precise.git

Are the packages of all the releases around anywhere? I guess this might be all of them: http://mirror.pnl.gov/ubuntu//pool/main/l/linux/

Tried the same kernel in Precise that I'm using without problems in Oneric: http://mirror.pnl.gov/ubuntu//pool/main/l/linux/linux-image-3.0.0-17-generic_3.0.0-17.30_amd64.deb

Got the same problem again in Precise with the grub defaults.

Looked at my grub settings for Oneric , no "quiet", "splash" ,or "set gfxpayload...." Sorry I didn't check that sooner.

So, maybe this video card never worked with that stuff with the radeon driver?

$ lspci | grep -i vga
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Barts XT [ATI Radeon HD 6800 Series]

Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report on this issue.

However, given the number of bugs that the Kernel Team receives during any development cycle it is impossible for us to review them all. Therefore, we occasionally resort to using automated bots to request further testing. This is such a request.

We have noted that there is a newer version of the development kernel than the one you last tested when this issue was found. Please test again with the newer kernel and indicate in the bug if this issue still exists or not.

You can update to the latest development kernel by simply running the following commands in a terminal window:

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If the bug still exists, change the bug status from Incomplete to Confirmed. If the bug no longer exists, change the bug status from Incomplete to Fix Released.

If you want this bot to quit automatically requesting kernel tests, add a tag named: bot-stop-nagging.

 Thank you for your help, we really do appreciate it.

I'm pretty sure it's a kernel driver issue, since the screen becomes useless immediately after the grub screen goes away.

It's definitely a kernel issue.

Ok. It makes more sense that this wasn't a regression, as that would be the first regression in this area that I've seen. At this point the correct thing would be to blacklist in grub; adding a grub-gfxpayload-lists task.

Could you please check that the attached blacklist package successfully blacklists your card, and so makes things work again?

Works.

Confirmed the problem still existed.

Installed grub-gfxpayload-lists_0.6_amd64.deb.

Confirmed grub defaults result in X working just fine.

Between grub and X, I get a black screen with a cursor blinking in the upper left, which I think is what you expect.

Thanks.

This bug was fixed in the package grub-gfxpayload-lists - 0.6

---------------
grub-gfxpayload-lists (0.6) precise; urgency=low

  * Blacklist Radeon HD 6800 (LP: #971204)
 -- Christopher James Halse Rogers <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:02:32 +0800