Bug 19493 - [i945GM] Secondary X session goes white if compiz activated
Summary: [i945GM] Secondary X session goes white if compiz activated
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: xorg
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Driver/intel (show other bugs)
Version: 7.3 (2007.09)
Hardware: x86 (IA32) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: haihao
QA Contact: Xorg Project Team
URL: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+so...
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-01-10 00:47 UTC by Bryce Harrington
Modified: 2009-03-20 11:16 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:


Attachments
Xorg.log.primary (56.41 KB, application/octet-stream)
2009-01-10 00:48 UTC, Bryce Harrington
no flags Details
Xorg.log.guest (28.22 KB, text/plain)
2009-01-10 00:48 UTC, Bryce Harrington
no flags Details
glxinfo.primarysession.jaunty.txt (7.54 KB, text/plain)
2009-01-10 00:48 UTC, Bryce Harrington
no flags Details
glxinfo.guestsession.jaunty.txt (7.22 KB, text/plain)
2009-01-10 00:49 UTC, Bryce Harrington
no flags Details

Description Bryce Harrington 2009-01-10 00:47:38 UTC
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/269509

[Problem]
On this hardware, starting a second session and activating compiz leads to a white screen, presumably because the second session is assuming DRI is present when it isn't.

[Discussion]
Ubuntu has a 'Guest session' feature which allows starting a second X session.  It is said that DRI is not available for anything but the primary session, which is unfortunate but acceptable.  However, when starting the xserver on a second session, it does not seem to be smart enough to realize it should not try using DRI, because it consequently presents a blank white, non-interactive screen.

Expected behavior would be for it to realize DRI is unavailable and load without DRI enabled.

Compiz currently works around this by including a check for 'Software Rasterizer' in its startup script.  However, we'd like to not need to work around this issue like that, as it's kind of a hack.

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0201]

[Original Report]
Compiz recently started by default again, thanks to some fixes in gnome-session. Now the old problem of "second X session just has white screen" is back. Parrotting Michael, this is due to the X server pretending that it has two DRI capable screens, but it is a known problem that there can only be one compiz X.org at a time.

I'll attach glxinfo output from my primary session (with compiz running fine) and the output from the guest session (where I just get a white screen).

> I tried reproducing it on my 965 box but couldn't, would you mind
> listing the exact steps to reproduce it?

for glxinfo:
- boot
- log into GNOME
- glxinfo > glxinfo.primarysession.txt
- start guest session
- glxinfo > /tmp/glxinfo.guest.txt
- switch to primary session with ctrl+alt+f7 (since quitting the guest
  session kills all files of guest)
- copy /tmp/glxinfo.guest.txt to ~
- switch back to guest and close the session

For checking white screen:
 - edit /usr/bin/compiz and disable the abort_* thing in

        # check if we run with software rasterizer and if so, bail out
        if check_software_rasterizer; then
                verbose "Software rasterizer detected, aborting"
                abort_with_fallback_wm
        fi

Then start the guest session.
Comment 1 Bryce Harrington 2009-01-10 00:48:01 UTC
Created attachment 21852 [details]
Xorg.log.primary
Comment 2 Bryce Harrington 2009-01-10 00:48:26 UTC
Created attachment 21853 [details]
Xorg.log.guest
Comment 3 Bryce Harrington 2009-01-10 00:48:52 UTC
Created attachment 21854 [details]
glxinfo.primarysession.jaunty.txt
Comment 4 Bryce Harrington 2009-01-10 00:49:13 UTC
Created attachment 21855 [details]
glxinfo.guestsession.jaunty.txt
Comment 5 Eric Anholt 2009-03-20 11:16:14 UTC
Your second X Server wasn't using DRI, though you seem to suggest that it was somehow.  Compiz apparently doesn't do well with the software rasterizer, which isn't surprising.

With KMS and the current driver, thanks to Dave Airlie, you'll get multiple servers with DRI support.  Unless you intend this bug to be about software rasterizer issues with compiz, I think this is RESOLVED -> FIXED now.


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