Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

Ambrevar · 2013-08-02 20:42:11

Hi,

I've got a tough one here: since the beginning of July, when I start my laptop the boot process runs fine, but when X start 5-10% of the time the screen gets black (controls are still working). If I switch to a TTY then back to X, the output is there again, but only low-res (1024*768). There is no X errors, dmesg doesn't output anything unusual (I did a diff of dmesg | grep radeon, they are the same). Only xrandr is complaining:

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 1024 x 768, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768        0.0*

If I reboot, the issue disappears.
I've tried reverting to a previous Mesa stack (mesa + radeon + ati-dri), the issue persists.

What I cannot tell for sure:
* seems to happen on poweron only
* seems to happen only when the cable is unplugged
* happens on various recent kernels, but I haven't succeeded in reproducing the issue on an older kernel like linux-lts.

The hardware:
* Asus x52j
* Radeon HD 6370M/7370M (tested with free 'radeon' driver 9.1.[3-6])

This issue is hard to reproduce since the machine can start correctly 50 times in a row.

I have only two clues this far:
* because of the randomness, this may be related to udev, since hardware probing is the random part of the boot process;
* or may be the hardware is simply broken

Does anyone know how to introspect more precisely hardware-related issues?

Last edited by Ambrevar (2013-08-02 20:48:14)

ewaller · 2013-08-03 00:26:30

I've no direct suggestions, but I few things I would do, were I debugging this.

the screen gets black (controls are still working). If I switch to a TTY then back to X, the output is there again, but only low-res (1024*768).

Can you tell if it an LCD problem, or if the back light is just off. When it happens, try using a flashlight (torch) to illuminate the screen from a shallow angle. Look at the illuminated part of the LCD straight on, positioning the light so you don't get glare or reflection. Can you see part of the display, or is it just black? If you can see something, then the problem is the back light.

What happens if the display is working, and you switch to a TTY and back again? Do you get the same phenomenon?

There is no X errors, dmesg doesn't output anything unusual (I did a diff of dmesg | grep radeon, they are the same). Only xrandr is complaining:

One trick I use is this. Set your machine so that you start X from a command line rather than depending on a log in manager. Before you start X, start a tmux or screen session on the console, and then start X from inside the tmux session. This allows you to either attach to the session from a terminal emulator inside of X, or from a different TTY (or from an ssh session for that matter). This will allow you to see sdtout and stderr of the X session while it is running.

when X start 5-10% of the time the screen ...since the machine can start correctly 50 times in a row.

That is only ~2% of the time

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-03 02:13:42

ewaller wrote:

when X start 5-10% of the time the screen ...since the machine can start correctly 50 times in a row.
That is only ~2% of the time

Only if you assume that the failures happen only one at a time...

koroki · 2013-08-03 09:56:17

I have the same problem.

Kernel 3.10.3-1, Gnome3
I updated this morning the mesa and ati-dri.

[2013-08-03 09:49] [PACMAN] upgraded mesa (9.1.5-1 -> 9.1.6-1)
[2013-08-03 09:49] [PACMAN] upgraded mesa-libgl (9.1.5-1 -> 9.1.6-1)
[2013-08-03 09:49] [PACMAN] upgraded ati-dri (9.1.5-1 -> 9.1.6-1)

Before updating, I don't have the problem.

Ambrevar · 2013-08-03 12:53:34

ewaller wrote:

I've no direct suggestions, but I few things I would do, were I debugging this.
the screen gets black (controls are still working). If I switch to a TTY then back to X, the output is there again, but only low-res (1024*768).
Can you tell if it an LCD problem, or if the back light is just off.

Actually, I forgot to mention that I have two possible symptoms.
* Either the screen displays some purple/green artifacts half a second, and then the screen is off. If I switch to a TTY, the screen gets back on.
* Or the screen is on the display is plain black.

ewaller wrote:

What happens if the display is working, and you switch to a TTY and back again? Do you get the same phenomenon?

In both cases, switching to TTY and back to X will result in a 1024*768 X display.

ewaller wrote:

when X start 5-10% of the time the screen ...since the machine can start correctly 50 times in a row.
That is only ~2% of the time

I said 'can', so that's an extremum, not the mean value which is around 10-20 (so 5-10%)

koroki wrote:

I have the same problem.
Kernel 3.10.3-1, Gnome3
I updated this morning the mesa and ati-dri.
[2013-08-03 09:49] [PACMAN] upgraded mesa (9.1.5-1 -> 9.1.6-1)
[2013-08-03 09:49] [PACMAN] upgraded mesa-libgl (9.1.5-1 -> 9.1.6-1)
[2013-08-03 09:49] [PACMAN] upgraded ati-dri (9.1.5-1 -> 9.1.6-1)
Before updating, I don't have the problem.

Does it happen randomly too?

I must find a way to stress the problem a little bit so that I make it happen more often. Otherwise it's hard to test different kernels and graphic drivers.

Last edited by Ambrevar (2013-08-03 14:09:59)

koroki · 2013-08-03 13:06:08

I think it's not randomly because all black screen was while I watching videos on full screen.

Ambrevar · 2013-08-04 11:18:59

What do you mean? Does it happen to you when X starts?

koroki · 2013-08-05 14:49:20

LOL, ok... I failed reading the initial post. Wrong post, sorry.

xschlef · 2013-08-07 09:26:20

I'm having a similar problem, but I'm using my intel hd 2000 as graphics card and a samsung tv. I can resolve it by unplugging and replugging my hdmi cable, killing all active sessions (I have a user that automatically logins into a gnome session on startup) and restarting gdm.

The wierd thing is, that if I reboot with a black screen, my screen will stay black throughout the whole boot process. My guess is, that my box is using a resolution my tv cannot handle and stays that way until it notices a change, like restarting gdm.

Ambrevar · 2013-08-07 18:41:56

Hmm, actually that may be a good guess. In my 'cause and effect' reasoning, I completely omitted the fact that 'begginning of July' is approx. the time I started using my TV with the HDMI port of my radeon (only from times to times). I'm not using any desktop environment, so I wrote a quick and dirty script calling xrandr and udevadm:

#...
udevadm settle --quiet --timeout=16

## Reset resolution for all connected displays.
for i in $(xrandr | awk '/^[[:alnum:]-]+ connected/ {print $1}'); do
    xrandr --output "$i" --auto
done

#...

Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce the issue by rebooting after I unplugged my HDMI cable. I tried all possibilities, X would always start properly.
I tried all possibilities: cable still plugged in while shutting down, etc.

Maybe the HDMI connection is a clue, maybe not.

Last edited by Ambrevar (2013-08-07 18:43:24)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-02 20:42:11

Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#2 2013-08-03 00:26:30

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#3 2013-08-03 02:13:42

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#4 2013-08-03 09:56:17

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#5 2013-08-03 12:53:34

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#6 2013-08-03 13:06:08

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#7 2013-08-04 11:18:59

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#8 2013-08-05 14:49:20

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#9 2013-08-07 09:26:20

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

#10 2013-08-07 18:41:56

Re: Randomly X is black or stuck to 1024*768 on startup

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