Help !! It's Baaack !

[Micros50]

On Wed, 2007-12-19 at 09:38 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-12-19 at 06:01 -0500, mylar wrote:
> > On Mon, 2007-12-17 at 10:31 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2007-12-16 at 06:30 -0500, mylar wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 2007-12-14 at 11:30 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, 2007-12-14 at 06:11 -0500, mylar wrote:
> > > > > > Hello.
> > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Any ideas. Where do I start debugging this thing ? Why would it work,
> > > > > > then not work, intermittently like that. Its one of the strangest
> > > > > > problems I've had in a looooong time. 
> > > > > 
> > > > > First off, what kind of video hardware is it?  Which driver are you
> > > > > running?  This sounds like the driver is misinterpreting the DRI data
> > > > > from the monitor on warm boots.
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Okay, the machine is 2.8 Ghz Dell 4600 running an Intel on board video
> > > > adapter. The video card is an Intel 82865G Integrated Graphics
> > > > Controller  and the monitor is a Dell E172FP flap panel LCD display. The
> > > > driver is the i810 driver which is the one I was told to use and, the
> > > > only one which seems to work. I'm running at a screen resolution of
> > > > 1280x1024 which I have been using on this machine for several years. I
> > > > had no problem with Fedora 1, not with Fedora 7 while running the 2.6.18
> > > > XEN kernel. As soon as I upgraded to 2.6.20 whammo, the problem began.
> > > > 
> > > > To make things confusing (at least for me) it sometimes the display
> > > > comes up fine. Other times it will flicker a few times then come up
> > > > fine. other times it sits there like stone and does nothing till I hit
> > > > the big switch.
> > > > 
> > > > Oh, one other thing. It also happens on cold boots too. This morning I
> > > > booted the machine cold and it happened. I had to reboot to the old
> > > > kernel.
> > > > 
> > > > Lastly, I can find nothing in the systems logs or anywhere else that
> > > > might indicate where the glitch is occurring. It's strange.
> > > 
> > > I've run into a similar thing myself.  On occasion after the screen
> > > saver blanks the screen (this is on an nVidia with a Viewsonic display),
> > > the display wakes up but it's torn and unreadable.  A quick
> > > "CTRL-ALT-F1" followed by an "ALT-F7" (go to text console and back to
> > > GUI) cures it.  I've not found a permanent fix.
> > > 
> > > It seems that the DRI/DRM stuff isn't sticking so the horizontal and
> > > vertical refresh aren't sent properly when the screen wakes up and my
> > > weird key sequence above causes a reset.  This smells like something
> > > that should be sent to bugzilla.
> > > 
> > 
> > I may have found a temporary fix. I lowered the default screen
> > resolution as root and thus far it has booted up with no problems two or
> > three times in a row. However, when i log in and operate under X under
> > my regular non-root account it seems to run fine under the higher
> > 1280x1024 screen resolution that I normally like to use.
> > 
> > I googled around a bit to see what I could find about this problem. it
> > seems that I am not alone. Others have reported similar problems. seems
> > something got broke between kernel updates with respect to the i810
> > driver. I hate it when updates break stuff that has previously worked
> > but that's the nature of the beast.
> 
> I kinda suspected it was something like that.
> 
> > I never submitted a bug report to bugzilla. Is that a relatively
> > painless process ?  It would be great if this problem could be patched
> > soon.
> 
> First, go to https://bugzilla.redhat.com and create an account (don't
> worry, it's free) and log in.  Select "New" in the grey menu bar below
> the red one at the top.  In the next screen, select a product and you'll
> be taken to the appropriate screen.  The items labeled in blue should be
> filled in as best you can.  When you're done, click on the "Commit"
> button at the bottom of the page.
> 
> Pretty simple.

Thanks for the help. For the time being I seem to have found a temporary
workaround as I described in a prior email. Thus far I've booted this
machine several times into the new kernel and it hasn't hung with a
blank screen. Meanwhile I'll file a bugzilla report. Hopefully this
problem will be fixed in future kernel updates. This new kernel fixes a
few other annoying problems I was having with the old kernel. Glad I can
use it now.

Now I've got to check another (different) machine. Seems the kernel I
updated on that one is causing strange system hangups.That's the way it
goes I suppose. Fix one break another :)

In the event I don't write to the list till next year Happy Holidays

John / (mylar)