Ubuntu
fglrx-installer package

No display on LCD panel when the fglrx driver is installed. Display on external VGA still works.

Bug #572196 reported by Roger Barrett on 2010-04-30

This bug affects 2 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	fglrx-installer (Ubuntu)	New	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: xorg

Applies to:
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
fglrx 2:8.723.1-0ubuntu3

1. Loaded 10.04 using Wubi on an Alienware M17 laptop (also called OCZ Whitebook, based on the Arima W840D Chassis).

2. Testing showed system worked correctly out of the box with RADEON xorg driver.

3. Switched to ATI FGLRX driver using menu item "System/Administration/Hardware Drivers".

4. Multiple functional errors found with FGLRX.
- xorg provides no output to the Internal LCD, but external VGA and HDMI both have output.
- xorg outputs to virtual terminal 8, no other virtual terminals display anything on any screen.
- Catalyst control center recognizes the existence of the LCD, but thinks it is a 1400x1050 panel (It is actually 1920x1200).

This is probably very specific to fglrx on the Alienware M17. The log files do not show any real errors, which makes it hard to understand the issue. Searching the Internet uncovered a small number of forum posts from lost souls with the Alienware M17 that have been having this problem for quite a while, but as there are no obvious faults, community response was close to zero.

I have also verified (by doing clean Wubi installs, and updating to the latest updates) that the issue also existed in Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10 on the same Alienware M17.

I do not really understand the xorg architecture well enough to know whether this is a problem with an xorg component, or solely the ATI fglrx driver. If I understand it correctly, xrandr is supposed to probe for screens and resolutions and does so properly when using the default radeon driver. The xorg log files suggests that the fglrx driver uses its own version of xrandr, which sees the hardware, but complains a bit about not recognizing hardware or not supporting it.

If there are any suggestion that I could try to resolve this, or anything I can do to provide further information, not already provided by ubuntu-bug, please let me know.

Roger Barrett

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 30 10:08:11 2010
DkmsStatus: fglrx, 8.723.1, 2.6.32-21-generic, x86_64: installed
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20100411)
MachineType: alienware Alienware M17
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=/dev/sda1 loop=/hostname/disks/root.disk ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_GB.utf8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
dmi.bios.date: 10/14/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel
dmi.bios.version: W841.B10
dmi.board.name: alienware
dmi.board.vendor: alienware
dmi.board.version: alienware
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: alienware
dmi.chassis.version: alienware
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntel:bvrW841.B10:bd10/14/2008:svnalienware:pnAlienwareM17:pvrW841.B10:rvnalienware:rnalienware:rvralienware:cvnalienware:ct1:cvralienware:
dmi.product.name: Alienware M17
dmi.product.version: W841.B10
dmi.sys.vendor: alienware
system:
distro: Ubuntu
codename: lucid
architecture: x86_64
kernel: 2.6.32-21-generic

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Roger Barrett (roger-m-d-barrett) wrote on 2010-04-30:

BootDmesg.txt Edit (56.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
CurrentDmesg.txt Edit (6.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Dependencies.txt Edit (4.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
GdmLog.txt Edit (24.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
GdmLog1.txt Edit (25.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
GdmLog2.txt Edit (24.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lspci.txt Edit (20.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lsusb.txt Edit (756 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
PciDisplay.txt Edit (728 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcCpuinfo.txt Edit (1.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcInterrupts.txt Edit (1.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcModules.txt Edit (3.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
RelatedPackageVersions.txt Edit (231 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevDb.txt Edit (121.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevLog.txt Edit (266.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
XorgConf.txt Edit (1.7 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
XorgLog.txt Edit (30.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
XorgLogOld.txt Edit (31.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Xrandr.txt Edit (5.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
glxinfo.txt Edit (36.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
setxkbmap.txt Edit (339 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
xdpyinfo.txt Edit (41.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
xkbcomp.txt Edit (57.0 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Bryce Harrington (bryce) on 2010-04-30

affects:

xorg (Ubuntu) → fglrx-installer (Ubuntu)

Revision history for this message

Roger Barrett (roger-m-d-barrett) wrote on 2010-04-30:

Just to update the the behaviour somewhat:

According to xrandr, the LVDS (LCD panel) screen is connected. I can use xrandr to tell the LVDS screen what resolution to display, and can set the display to off. When the display is set to off, the backlight goes off, suggesting that the panel is simply not being sent the signal when it is on.

However, LVDS still describes the panel incorrectly - it should be 1920x 1200, but I get the following from xrandr...

roger@ubuntu:~$ xrandr --prop
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1400 x 1050, maximum 1600 x 1600
LVDS connected 1400x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
BACKLIGHT: 7 (0x00000007) range: (0,7)
SignalFormat: DisplayPort
ConnectorType: Panel
   1400x1050 60.2*+
   1280x1024 60.2 +
   1280x960 60.2 +
   1280x800 60.2 +
   1152x864 60.2 +
   1280x768 60.2 +
   1280x720 60.2 +
   1024x768 60.2 +
   1024x600 60.2 +
   800x600 60.2 +
   800x480 60.2 +
   720x480 60.2 +
   640x480 60.2 +
DFP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
SignalFormat: TMDS
ConnectorType: HDMI
CRT1 connected 1400x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
SignalFormat: VGA
ConnectorType: VGA
   1600x1200 60.0 +
   1400x1050 60.0*
   1280x1024 75.0 60.0
   1440x900 59.9
   1280x960 60.0
   1280x800 75.0 60.0
   1152x864 75.0 60.0
   1280x768 59.9
   1280x720 60.0
   1024x768 75.0 60.0
   1024x600 60.0
   800x600 75.0 60.3
   800x480 60.0
   720x480 60.0
   640x480 75.0 60.0

Roger Barrett.

Revision history for this message

Hameed Mohammed (chaosx9) wrote on 2010-05-03:

This isn't exclusive to your machine i don't think. I have a HP 6735s with ATI Radeon HD3200 (Integrated) with the same problem.

This is a workaround taking the modules used back to the generic

Does terminal login still work? (press Ctrl+Alt+F1 when you think you get to the login screen, gives a login terminal)

If it does, login using your username (not full name) and password, and then use:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

then remove the entry for loading the fglrx module. Then, press Ctrl+X, press y, then enter

then reboot (using sudo shutdown -r now)

when you log in, you'll get an error saying "problem loading modules" or something

tell it to use the generic module, it'll have a progress bar, then take you back to the selections, click cancel and cancel again and it should work (if not, navigate through options)

It's just a workaround, but not a fix. Really annoying. I'm thinking of going back to karmic just to get rid of this

Revision history for this message

Roger Barrett (roger-m-d-barrett) wrote on 2010-05-05:

Hello Hameed,

Your problem may be similar, but is not the same, I think. This issue has been present in the last 3 releases of Ubuntu on my laptop, so reverting to Karmic would be of no use. Also, as metioned in my original post, I have NO virtual terminals when using fglrx.

By the way, in the latest version of Ubuntu, the default xorg.conf is actually blank, with xorg probing for the best values for open source drivers and screen configurations, so the best work-around is to simply delete xorg.conf.

Rog.

Revision history for this message

Roger Barrett (roger-m-d-barrett) wrote on 2010-11-12:

This issue appears to have been fixed in Ubuntu 10.10. The FGLRX driver now correctly displays on the internal LVDS connected panel.

I assume that this is from a corrected/updated version of the FGLRX driver rather than any other reason, since xrandr ( an extension implemented by the driver ) now correctly reports the screen capabilities.

If the version of FLGRX driver used in 10.10 is provided as an update to the previous Ubuntu versions ( 9.04, 9.10, 10.04 ), I would further assume that the issue is fixed for those versions, but I have not verified that.

Catalyst Control Center reports the following sofware versions
2D Driver Version 8.78.30
RandR Version 1.3
OpenGL Version 3.3.10237

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Ubuntufglrx-installer package

No display on LCD panel when the fglrx driver is installed. Display on external VGA still works.

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fglrx-installer package