Bug 18407 - very dark text console on rv280 after VT switch/server exit
Summary: very dark text console on rv280 after VT switch/server exit
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: xorg
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Driver/Radeon (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: x86 (IA32) NetBSD
: medium normal
Assignee: xf86-video-ati maintainers
QA Contact: Xorg Project Team
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 19217 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2008-11-06 04:44 UTC by Andrew Randrianasulu
Modified: 2010-12-05 06:46 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:


Attachments
old xorg.log (46.54 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 04:47 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
xorg.conf (5.22 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 04:48 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
xorg.log (51.33 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 04:50 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
radeontool regmatch '*' after fresh boot (17.96 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:12 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
Xfree running ... (18.05 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:13 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
Xfree killed with ctrl-alt-bs, console still usable (bright text) (18.06 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:14 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
Xorg running ... (18.04 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:14 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
Xorg killed like XFree by me, but text console mauch darker now (18.05 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:15 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
2nd cycle in row - Xorg running (18.03 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:16 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
now text hardly visible without brightness boost. (18.04 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:17 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
diff -u between Xfree and Xorg (9.99 KB, text/plain)
2008-11-06 05:20 UTC, Andrew Randrianasulu
no flags Details
save/restore palette (2.67 KB, patch)
2010-10-20 13:04 UTC, Alex Deucher
no flags Details | Splinter Review
Comparision of regs (9.02 KB, application/xhtml+xml)
2010-10-20 13:12 UTC, Rafał Miłecki
no flags Details

Description Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 04:44:53 UTC
I have NetBSD 4.0/i386, updated with many packages from pkgsrc-wip (http://pkgsrc.se/wip/). For example, i updated X from Xfree 4.5.0 (default) to modular-xorg-server-1.4.2nb3. After this i nearly lost my text consoles, i can see something after first server exit, even after second - but further start/exit cycles completely blanked out my screen. This happen with xf86-video-ati 6.9.0 and also with xf86-video-ati from git (44abaa0ea8e5e3bbe833fa73e6d011618bb6d7e7)

xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log.old will follow ....
Comment 1 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 04:47:25 UTC
Created attachment 20101 [details]
old xorg.log
Comment 2 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 04:48:45 UTC
Created attachment 20102 [details]
xorg.conf
Comment 3 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 04:50:06 UTC
Created attachment 20103 [details]
xorg.log
Comment 4 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:12:25 UTC
Created attachment 20104 [details]
radeontool regmatch '*' after fresh boot
Comment 5 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:13:05 UTC
Created attachment 20105 [details]
Xfree running ...
Comment 6 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:14:02 UTC
Created attachment 20106 [details]
Xfree killed with ctrl-alt-bs, console still usable (bright text)
Comment 7 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:14:44 UTC
Created attachment 20107 [details]
Xorg running ...
Comment 8 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:15:46 UTC
Created attachment 20108 [details]
Xorg killed like XFree by me, but text console mauch darker now
Comment 9 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:16:44 UTC
Created attachment 20109 [details]
2nd cycle in row - Xorg running
Comment 10 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:17:36 UTC
Created attachment 20110 [details]
now  text hardly visible without brightness boost.
Comment 11 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-06 05:20:33 UTC
Created attachment 20111 [details]
diff -u between Xfree and Xorg

Separate runs, but just reboot in between, not full power off/wait/power on cycle.
Comment 12 Andrew Randrianasulu 2008-11-07 11:36:17 UTC
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-x11/2008/10/03/msg000156.html

This is not only my problem...
Comment 13 Rafał Miłecki 2008-11-07 12:17:45 UTC
Yes, that's definitely not broken hardware issue. I was experiencing this bug using my old notebook Acer 5024 with X700 Mobility.
After every X restart console screen was getting darker. However X was fine, ever when I couldn't read anything in VTx, I didn't see any difference in X.
Comment 14 Håvar Nøvik 2009-03-15 16:21:31 UTC
I have Arch Linux with the xf86-video-ati(6.10.0-1) and xorg(1.5.3-4)from the "extra" repo. After starting the X server the text console becomes very dark. Both if I change to another tty or I exit X.
Comment 15 Rafał Miłecki 2010-03-30 10:03:02 UTC
(In reply to comment #14)
> I have Arch Linux with the xf86-video-ati(6.10.0-1) and xorg(1.5.3-4)from the
> "extra" repo. After starting the X server the text console becomes very dark.
> Both if I change to another tty or I exit X.

6.10.0 version is over year old, could you check some up-to-date version?

My ooold Acer has broken PANEL (well, it does not have it anymore) so I can not debug this locally.

If problem still exists for you in current version of radeon (xf86-video-ati) we should be able to easily debug this with simple registers chacking.
Comment 16 Alex Deucher 2010-10-19 16:50:05 UTC
closing due to lack of feedback.
Comment 17 Jonathan Kollasch 2010-10-19 20:26:42 UTC
My RV370 still has this problem with 6.13.2 on 1.6.5 (on NetBSD, pkgsrc Xorg, using UMS obviously).
Comment 18 Rafał Miłecki 2010-10-20 01:34:14 UTC
Jonathan: I really got lost in this report and attachements plus I do not know *BSD.

First of all, does this issue happen when you switch from X to console? Like ALT+CTRL+F1 in Linux? I believe there is similar operation in *BSD?

Or does it happen only if you close/kill whole X?
Comment 19 Rafał Miłecki 2010-10-20 01:35:57 UTC
(In reply to comment #18)
> First of all, does this issue happen when you switch from X to console? Like
> ALT+CTRL+F1 in Linux? I believe there is similar operation in *BSD?

AFAIU:
1) ALT+CTRL+F1: quite nice console
2) ALT+CTRL+F7: back to X
3) ALT+CTRL+Fx: darker console
4) ALT+CTRL+Fx: back to X
5) ALT+CTRL+Fx: even darker console

and so on... Is that right?
Comment 20 Jonathan Kollasch 2010-10-20 06:08:06 UTC
(In reply to comment #19)
> (In reply to comment #18)
> > First of all, does this issue happen when you switch from X to console? Like
> > ALT+CTRL+F1 in Linux? I believe there is similar operation in *BSD?
> 
> AFAIU:
> 1) ALT+CTRL+F1: quite nice console
> 2) ALT+CTRL+F7: back to X
> 3) ALT+CTRL+Fx: darker console
> 4) ALT+CTRL+Fx: back to X
> 5) ALT+CTRL+Fx: even darker console
> 
> and so on... Is that right

Yes, it happens at every switch from X to console (VT switch or X exit), with the console getting progressively dimmer each time. `vbetool vbemode set 3` will restore the normal intensity to the console.
Comment 21 Jonathan Kollasch 2010-10-20 06:15:07 UTC
> Yes, it happens at every switch from X to console (VT switch or X exit), with
> the console getting progressively dimmer each time. `vbetool vbemode set 3`
> will restore the normal intensity to the console.

Also, it doesn't happen if the output is DVI-D, only VGA (and maybe TV, but I'm not sure about that).
Comment 22 Rafał Miłecki 2010-10-20 10:14:22 UTC
Please, do cold boot (to have "fresh" brightness) into X and perform following:

1) ALT+CTRL+F1 (to console)
2) radeontool regmatch '*' > console.great.log
3) ALT+CTRL+F7 (back to X)

4) ALT+CTRL+F1 (to console)
5) radeontool regmatch '*' > console.good.log
6) ALT+CTRL+F7 (back to X)

7) ALT+CTRL+F1 (to console)
8) radeontool regmatch '*' > console.poor.log
9) ALT+CTRL+F7 (back to X)

10) ALT+CTRL+F1 (to console)
11) radeontool regmatch '*' > console.bad.log
12) ALT+CTRL+F7 (back to X)

Then attach all the 4 logs. Please note I am not interested in dumps from X. Just console (ALT+CTRL+F1).
Comment 23 Jonathan Kollasch 2010-10-20 12:05:43 UTC
Well, bugzilla doesn't seem to want to let me attach anything. :(

Anyway, PALETTE_30_DATA seems to be the only relevant register that changes when the brightness changes.
Comment 24 Alex Deucher 2010-10-20 13:04:58 UTC
Created attachment 39593 [details] [review]
save/restore palette

Does this patch help?
Comment 25 Rafał Miłecki 2010-10-20 13:12:04 UTC
Created attachment 39594 [details]
Comparision of regs

Comparison based on regs dumps I got privately mailed. In case Alex's patch won't help.

This comparison looks weird however... Maybe it's really PALETTE related?
Comment 26 Jonathan Kollasch 2010-10-20 13:40:28 UTC
(In reply to comment #24)
> Created an attachment (id=39593) [details]
> save/restore palette
> 
> Does this patch help?

unfortunately not.
Comment 27 Jonathan Kollasch 2010-10-24 08:32:28 UTC
(In reply to comment #26)
> (In reply to comment #24)
> > Created an attachment (id=39593) [details] [details]
> > save/restore palette
> > 
> > Does this patch help?
> 
> unfortunately not.

Playing with this some more, if I move the palette restore to after the vgahw restore, it works properly.
Comment 28 Alex Deucher 2010-10-24 08:48:49 UTC
Thanks.  Pushed:
5efdf514ab0e5439114e8dd7a49105812155eb69
Comment 29 Alex Deucher 2010-12-05 06:46:03 UTC
*** Bug 19217 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***


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