Bug 17986

Summary: [HD3870, HD3850] Blank screen on boot (works with -vesa or -radeonhd)
Product: xorg Reporter: Bryce Harrington <bryce>
Component: Driver/RadeonAssignee: xf86-video-ati maintainers <xorg-driver-ati>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact: Xorg Project Team <xorg-team>
Severity: major    
Priority: high CC: bugzi11.fdo.tormod, rbmorse, stefan, zecoucou
Version: 7.4 (2008.09)   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux (All)   
URL: https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udev/+bug/264462
Whiteboard:
i915 platform: i915 features:
Attachments:
Description Flags
Xorg.0.log none

Description Bryce Harrington 2008-10-08 18:58:05 UTC 
Created attachment 19506 [details]
Xorg.0.log

I'm forwarding this bug from a Ubuntu reporter:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/264462

Problem:
On booting the Ubuntu livecd, it comes up with a blank (black) screen when trying to bring up the gdm login page.  Works okay with -vesa and -radeonhd.  Two HD3870 users have confirmed seeing this issue; I could not reproduce it on an HD3670.  One HD3850 (also RV670) user reported the same issue.  Disabling DRI and experimenting with AGPMode settings had no effect (it's a PCIe card).


Tested:
Intrepid Alpha 3 (-ati 6.9.0-x, xserver 1.4.99.905-x) - Works properly
Intrepid Alpha 4 (-ati 6.9.0+git20080802.1f3eee36-x, xserver 1.4.99.906-x) - Fails with issue
Intrepid Beta    (-ati 6.9.0+git20081003, xserver 1.5.1-x) - Fails with issue

Original Report:
"The xserver-xorg-video-ati driver version that is part of the 02 Sep daily build (Ubuntu i386) fails to start the display during the boot sequence for either the live desktop or direct install modes, resulting in a blank "X" display. The text terminals are accessible, and if I edit xorg.conf to load either the "vesa" driver or the "radeonhd" driver and restart the X terminal, the display works normally.

If one then continues to install to hard drive the same behavior manifests on that installation...the radeon (ati) driver fails to start, but either the VESA or radeonhd drivers work as expected.

I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to be able to determine if the problem lies with the ati driver, xrandr or the "X" subsystem. If it is any help, the display and video adapter are properly detected, but when using the "ATI" driver xrandr -q returns inappropriate mode data. Xrandr returns appropriate mode data when using both the "vesa" and "radeonhd" drivers.

The display is an Apple Cinema HD 23 Inch and the video adapter is an ATI HD3870.

Interpid Alpha-3 and earlier did not exhibit this problem. The 02 Sep daily was the first of the Alpha-4 releases I attempted to use."
Comment 1 Bryce Harrington 2008-10-18 10:45:38 UTC 
A user who believes he has the same issue tested the following patches both individually and combined, but did not find it solved the issue for him:

http://www.botchco.com/alex/xorg/150_pref_high_fb.diff
http://www.botchco.com/alex/xorg/150_pref_high_ref.diff

Aurélien Couderc wrote:
"I tested all 3 pairs of packages linked above (I didn't install the -dbg) but none of these solution worked for me.
X started as before with no special error in the log, but then the LCD panel complained about an "out of range" problem and went to sleep."

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/18349508/Xorg.0.log
Comment 2 Sergey Malkov 2008-12-04 06:30:05 UTC 
I have the same problem with HD3870. I am use "fglrx" driver instead of "ati". But I have some problems with fglrx and I want to use driver "ati" but can :(. Somebody have solve the problem?
Comment 3 Sergey Malkov 2008-12-04 06:33:47 UTC 
Description: I have PC with Ubuntu 8.10 (Xorg 7.4). When I use 'ati' driver in xorg.conf Xserver does not up. I have black screen with sound of loading system. When I use 'vesa' driver it is working (but no dri etc.).
Comment 4 Coucouf 2009-03-08 15:06:30 UTC 
Fixed in version 6.11 as can be found in Ubuntu Jaunty.

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