Bug#510208: xserver-xorg-video-ati: freezes/crashes on startup after kernel upgrade 2.6.22->26

[Brice Goglin]

stefan schwarzer wrote:
> Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati
> Version: 1:6.9.0-1+lenny4
> Severity: important
>
> I am running testing on a Fujitsu-Siemens E8010 (Radeon Mobility 9600 M10) with 
> kernel 2.6.22-3 (and-2). I have so far used video-ati 1:6.8.0 (pinned). After
> upgrade to 2.6.26-1 kdm would freeze before showing the login screen. After 
> X server (Radeon) upgrade to 1:6.9.0 symptoms were the same. I made some 
> additional tests (using /etc/init.d/kdm start or xinit) and X would leave the
> sceen black (with some green
> stripe pattern across the top part), sometimes with cursor visible frozen or 
> moving very slowly, sometimes with the fan coming up after a few seconds
> possibly indicating a high CPU load. I cannot switch to console windows. 
> I cannot tell how much of the kernel is still alive, since the system is not 
> connected to something that I could use for login. However, I do not find
> anything of concern in /var/log/messages after system restart.
>
> Behavior is (mostly?) configuration independent, I had a customized 
> configuration before the update, now the one created by dpkg-reconfigure, 
> later I added a line to enforce 16 bit depth default without effect.
> All combinations of server/confguration file work (as far asI can tell) 
> flawlessly with kernel 2.6.22-2 and 2.6.22-3, taken from testing 
> repos some time ago. 
>   

Assuming this is caused by a kernel change between 2.6.22 and 2.6.26,
it's not easy to find out what caused this. It could have been related
to PAT changes in the kernel, but those appeared in 2.6.27.

Does adding
    Option "ButType" "PCI"
to the Device section of xorg.conf help?

You might also want to try with xserver-xorg-core and
xserver-xorg-video-radeon from experimental in case they work better.

Brice