Created attachment 31021 [details] log with no xorg.conf Starting with X version 7.4, when I start my computer and gdm starts, all I get is a black screen. I can hear the gdm login sound and I can even blindly type my userid and pasword and it will log me into gnome. The screen remains black. Before 7.4, when gdm would start, I could hear the monitor switch on and off then I would see the gdm prompt. Now, I don't hear the monitor switch on and off. It is like the monitor is in sleep mode. I can do ctl-alt-f1 and go to a tty. When I do that I hear the monitor switch on and it wakes up and I can see the terminal. I have tried without an xorg.conf and with the old mga xorg.conf that used to work. Nothing makes any difference. There are no errors in Xorg.0.log. I am running Debian testing/squeeze. I have a matrox G550 agp card. I have a Samsung syncmaster 1200NF monitor. If I put in a vesa xorg.conf then X and gdm will start. However the performance is terrible and the resolution is only 1280x1024.
The same happens to my box, I have a g550 on a digital flat acer panel; I have this behavior when loading framebuffer support (matroxfb) and I launch gdm. Please note that after a fresh install I had no xorg.conf and everything went ok at 1280x1024. Then I modified boot modules in order to have matrox framebuffer support and troubles began. In this scenario it seems that xorg cannot set the right resolution/frequency and the monitor goes blank (your one shuts down it seems), I know this since it complains about an `unsupported frequency'. Of course system is responding, I can switch to tty and gdm can accept my login, so I can get into a working xorg session with the right resolution and frequency (75 Hz). I created a simple workaround using a xorg.conf with a `modelines' statement with two modes: "1280x960" and "1280x1024". The former is used during gdm access, this way it's able to show graphical login and I can type in my username; it is noticeable that the whole screen is 1280x1024 so I have to scroll it in order to see the menus at top and bottom of it. The latter is used by xorg during the `real' session. Now I'm using latest ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) 2.6.32-22-generic i686 GNU/Linux with gnome 2.30.2 and xorg X server 1.7.6. I reported this to gnome devs, also: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=623102
I was told on the debian bug tracker that mga is not supported by anyone anymore. No one has done anything about mga being totally broken for months. I was tired of having to use vga. I took care of the problem by buying an Nvidia video card on ebay. I will sell my Matrox G550 if anyone wants to buy it. It isn't any good for Linux anymore.
> I will sell my Matrox G550 if anyone wants to buy > it. It isn't any good for Linux anymore. It is not a matter of the card itself, which is still a good piece of hardware. It is a matter of matrox' software support which is almost un-existent. It really seems they want us to throw their cards away (and not to buy a matrox one anymore).
Have exactly the same problem, with a brand-new PCI-E 1x dual-DVI Matrox G550. Nothing is visible, but it appears that X works fine: I can blindly log in, start web browser, and play you-tube videos ... display remains blank. Monitor/display work fine for standard tty boot console, only get black screen for X. No amount of twiddling the modelines to lower resolutions changed a thing. I'm very disappointed to see this bug... I'd previously opened an Ubuntu/launchpad bug to track this, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-mga/+bug/900111 I'm guessing that there's some config register on this card, and that the driver is setting this so that it sends output to a (non-existent) vga port, instead of the DVI port. Just a wild guess. I will download the source, and see if I can get lucky and find it, although the 'lack of support' comments above make my hopes sink.
Bump version to latest: this is still an issue on xorg-server 2:1.10.4-1ubuntu4.2 which translates to X11R7.7 FWIW, I also tried debian testing, same issue.
So, ahh .. how/where can I get hardware specs for this card (i.e. description of hardware registers, commands, etc.)? Any pointers appreciated.
This bug is also discussed at length in Debian: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=546836 I downloaded the xf86-video-mga-1.4.13 tarbal and built against current X11 headers/libs (X11R7.7 from ubuntu 11.10 onieric) copied the resulting mga_drv.so in place, but did not get any change in behavior. Downloaded xf86-video-mga-1.4.7 tarball, hacked on it till it compiled (it references numerous, obsolete headers). Using this crashes the xserver. I was interested in this driver, as it appears to be the last known-good driver, based on dates & other reports of this problem. Have not tried current git repo yet, but did browse the git commit logs, and did not see any commits that would appear to have any effect on this. Have seen a couple of worrysome (bug cryptic) comments on the net to the effect that the binary-blob mga_hal driver is required to enable DVI outputs. I'm concerned that this may be true, as grep DVI in the source code reveals a hardware register that is only ever reset, but never set: RESTORE_TEXTMODE_ON_DVI() which does /* Reset DUALDVI register */ outMGAdac(MGA1064_DVI_PIPE_CTL, 0x0); but the driver never actually ever sets this register to any value. Thus, again, I suspect that this "DUALDVI" register controls output, and is never enabled to display. (I might try writing 0xffffffff to it later today, just for grins)
Mass closure: This bug has been untouched for more than six years, and is not obviously still valid. Please reopen this bug or file a new report if you continue to experience issues with current releases.
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