ubuntu-x-swat team mailing list archive

[C de-Avillez <hggdh2@xxxxxxxxx>]

** Description changed:

  see also here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1305459
  
  for some reasons the upgrade breaks proprietary graphics drivers
  
  this means a flickering screen without the possibility to login or
  startx.
+ 
+ ATTENTION
+ 
+ Since this bug report is being linked to by news stories, it is getting
+ viewed by many people with nvidia bugs that fail in similar ways but due
+ to unrelated causes. I'd like to direct them to more appropriate bug
+ reports:
+ 
+ The "blinks on reboot" issue is a bug in gdm, bug #441638. That blinking
+ symptom will occur for any sort of failure of X to start, and there are
+ a lot of reasons why X may not start, so be aware that just because
+ someone else is reporting this same blinking behavior does not
+ necessarily mean you have the same underlying cause as them, so keep
+ digging. This is causing lots of confusion in bug reports.
+ 
+ For those who have upgraded since Intrepid or earlier, there is an issue
+ reported where /sbin/lrm-video can cause nvidia to fail loading. That
+ file no longer exists in Jaunty or Karmic and you can safely delete it
+ as a work around. Bug #467490 describes this issue. I don't know how
+ common this is, but if it is common we may need to make sure the
+ upgrader removes the file properly. Manually uninstalling all nvidia
+ packages *might* clear the file.
+ 
+ For people running -rt kernels, such as Ubuntu Studio users, -nvidia has
+ a known incompatibility there, see bug #464125 for example. Similar
+ situation for -pae kernels, see bug #454220 as a recent example.
+ 
+ Someone mentioned that "the upgrader disables the proprietary drivers".
+ According to mvo, that is not correct, or at least not intentional.
+ However, the upgrader *does* remove driver entries from xorg.conf if the
+ driver is no longer present after upgrade. As far as I know, this should
+ all work seamlessly for people, however several people have reported
+ that removing their xorg.conf and reinstalling -nvidia helped, so it is
+ possible there is an error in this logic. If you suspect this is the
+ case, what we need is a full bug report filed using 'ubuntu-bug xorg';
+ in particular we need to see the xorg.conf files so we understand how
+ the upgrader is misbehaving.
+ 
+ I see a lot in forum articles the advice that "the solution" is to
+ remove "nvidia" or "fglrx" lines from xorg.conf. While this may help in
+ getting the system functioning again, please note that it is not a
+ solution - it merely turns off the proprietary drivers. Whatever the
+ original problem was is still there, you're just using different video
+ drivers. Also, be aware that both nvidia and fglrx install GL and other
+ libraries on top of the normal system libraries, so if you install one
+ of those drivers and then use something else, it may work for 2D but you
+ may run into severe problems for 3D. This is also a known issue - bug
+ 258038 describes one possible solution we will be considering for Lucid.
+ It's a hard problem to solve for proprietary drivers though.
+ 
+ There are almost certainly more nvidia bugs, but we also have plenty of
+ other bug reports (over 300 against -nvidia so far), many of which have
+ been reported using ubuntu-bug so are closer to having the information
+ we need.
+ 
+ Finally, regarding people skills, actually after thousands of X bug
+ reports those get worn down to a raw nub so I don't think I have them
+ any more. All that's left is a grumpy X maintainer.
+ 
+ p.s. Also see bug 438398 which appears to be the root cause for a lot of
+ the nvidia failures. Unfortunately jockey may not be flagging these
+ errors to the user (bug 441638) leading them to reboot without the
+ nvidia driver fully installed.

-- 
upgrade breaks graphic drivers and x, preventing login or startx
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/464591
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X,
which is subscribed to xorg in ubuntu.