Bug 46059 - bad NV50 only works with "nomodeset" kernel parameter
Summary: bad NV50 only works with "nomodeset" kernel parameter
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: xorg
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Driver/nouveau (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: x86 (IA32) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Nouveau Project
QA Contact: Xorg Project Team
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2012-02-14 11:39 UTC by Chatty
Modified: 2012-10-26 14:53 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:


Attachments
dmesg|grep "nouveau|drm" (3.03 KB, text/plain)
2012-02-14 11:39 UTC, Chatty
no flags Details

Description Chatty 2012-02-14 11:39:04 UTC
Created attachment 57046 [details]
dmesg|grep "nouveau|drm"

My HP Pavilion dv9560eg sports a 8600M GS video chip with a design defect (for the interested: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19308567/Nvidia-Class-Action).

Good thing is, under certain circumstances it may still be used.

1. Sometimes it boots up just normally and works for a certain time (hour or so).
2. If #1 fails I have to set "nomodeset" to actually see something, otherwise (when the mode gets set) the screen get white and fades to grey in an awkward way. I can still blindly login  or use ssh.

With "nomodeset" only the first line, otherwise all of those lines can be found in dmesg.

Unfortunately I haven't logged dmesg output in the few moments the machine boots up normally.
Comment 1 Chatty 2012-02-14 11:45:20 UTC
I'm using "xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110823.169512fb-0ubuntu0sarvatt~natty" on Ubuntu 11.10 with kernel 3.3.0-030300rc3-generic-pae.
Comment 2 Emil Velikov 2012-02-14 14:08:06 UTC
Hi Chatty

If I have to be honest I'm surprised it works at all (considering the issues nvidia had with those cards)

* Can you please confirm if the blob (proprietary driver) works fine with your card

After a quick look I've noticed that

* Nouveau is using the vbios fetched from the PCIROM
* The vbios does not appear to be correct

As a workaround can you try appending the following to your kernel command line

nouveau.vbios="pramin"


It will tell nouveau to use the PRAMIN vbios, thus possibly resolving some of your problems

Note - I seriously believe that there is a hardware problem with your card considering the hardware issues that have been noticed (and confirmed in the linked document)
Comment 3 Chatty 2012-02-15 03:47:54 UTC
Hi Emil,

the blob fails at "could not load nvidia kernel module", unfortunately dmesg doesn't show anything about that. Again, I know the card is damaged somehow (had it repaired a few times, but problems reoccur always). But odd thing is, it still works in VESA mode - only 1024x768, but it works.

When using your kernel parameter it dmesg stops here:
[   16.190148] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[   17.009568] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
[   17.009574] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
[   17.011184] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Detected an NV50 generation card (0x086500a2)
[   17.015638] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Attempting to load BIOS image from PRAMIN
[   17.104300] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: ... BIOS checksum invalid
[   17.104304] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: No known BIOS signature found

Once there was Video BIOS update from HP which came as PC BIOS update which supports the assumption PCIROM BIOS is correct. But due to the hw failure the VBIOS does not get copied into the right location. I guess if it could be supplied from file it might work a treat.

Latest BIOS is in here: http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp48001-48500/sp48024.exe

Btw, Windows 7 VESA driver is able to switch to 1440x900 (native display resolution) - NVidia driver fails to load as well.
Comment 4 Emil Velikov 2012-10-26 14:53:32 UTC
Had a colleague of mine with similar issue - repairing the card/gpu only fixes temporary

Considering this fact and that the blob does not even run (Linux nor Windows), I would recommend getting a new card/laptop

Closing as invalid


Use of freedesktop.org services, including Bugzilla, is subject to our Code of Conduct. How we collect and use information is described in our Privacy Policy.