Hard freezes of ThinkPad T41p (ATI Mobility FireGL T2)

[Alex Deucher]

On Feb 2, 2008 9:09 AM, Valentin Schwamberger <v.schwamberger at gmx.de> wrote:
> Valentin Schwamberger wrote on 02.02.2008 01:43:
>
> > Alex Deucher wrote on 31.01.2008 19:02:
> >> On Jan 30, 2008 10:59 AM, Valentin Schwamberger <v.schwamberger at gmx.de> wrote:
> >>> Alex Deucher wrote on 30.01.2008 15:39:
> >>>
> >>>> On Jan 30, 2008 6:22 AM, Valentin Schwamberger <v.schwamberger at gmx.de> wrote:
> >>>>> Alex Deucher wrote on 28.01.2008 00:34:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> On Jan 26, 2008 8:48 PM, Valentin Schwamberger <v.schwamberger at gmx.de> wrote:
> >>>>>>> Hi,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> whatever we have already tried yet, my T41p keeps to hard freeze (no
> >>>>>>> sysrqs, network, serial connection). So far we have tried an endless
> >>>>>>> number of xorg.conf options, several linux kernel versions, kernel
> >>>>>>> options, etc.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> As you can see from the subject it's an T41p with an ATI Mobility FireGL
> >>>>>>> T2 video card. The special setup, however, is the usage of a port
> >>>>>>> replicator (IBM portreplicator II) and its DVI output. As far as I can
> >>>>>>> tell, the system seems to run stable when I only use the local flat
> >>>>>>> panel (not absolutely sure, though). I also don't use it much, but it
> >>>>>>> also seems to be stable in windows.
> >>>>>>> Now the funny part is it sometime works stable for hours (once the
> >>>>>>> desktop was properly started it runs forever). But very often after
> >>>>>>> system start up, either the display doesn't come up and stays black (I
> >>>>>>> then have to switch to console and back to X and then it suddenly
> >>>>>>> works). This problem does more often happen, when the LID is closed.
> >>>>>>> The worst problems are the hard freezes, X is already started, login to
> >>>>>>> gdm was successful and the desktop is started, mostly at the end of
> >>>>>>> gnome initialization the hard freeze occurs.
> >>>>>>> The hardfreezes also happen on switching outputs with xrandr between
> >>>>>>> LVDS and DVI or after suspend to ram or on switching to the console
> >>>>>>> (required due to the other problem above).
> >>>>>> Remove all of the options you've tried in your current config.  Do any
> >>>>>> of these options help?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 1. Turn off dynamicclocks.  just remove the option.  It's off by
> >>>>>> default.  you'll have to reboot after changing this.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 2. Option "BusType" "PCI"
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 3. Option "AGPMode" "4"
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 4. Option "DRI" "False"
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Alex
> >>>>> Thanks a lot for your answer! I have tested all the options (and
> >>>>> different combinations too), but none of them seem to solve the problem.
> >>>>> The freezes still persist, especially when changing from console to X
> >>>>> and vice versa, but also when Gnome's desktop comes up. I tested with
> >>>>> git version from late December and with current git. This happens on
> >>>>> ubuntu 7.10.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Any more suggestions? How can we debug this further?
> >>>> Can you get a log from one of the locked up sessions?
> >>> Yes. It is on
> >>> http://www.pci.uni-heidelberg.de/tc/usr/bernd/downloads/xorg_t41p/Xorg_crash.0.log
> >>>
> >>> I created it by (cold) starting the ThinkPad. In BIOS, the primary
> >>> display was set to DVI (LVDS stays black, ttys are shown on the DVI).
> >>> Then the Xserver/gdm came up. It switched on LVDS and DVI. When I
> >>> changed to the console, back to X, back to the console, back to X, I got
> >>> a hard freeze. This was the easiest way to reproduce it.
> >>>
> >>> The freezes seem to happen more often with DVI set as primary display
> >>> (as stated in the reply to Jerome).
> >>>
> >>> Thanks for all your help!
> >> This might be related to the bios vs. the driver and keeping each
> >> other up to date.  I' working on some patches not to hopefully fix
> >> that which may help in your case.  Is it just VT switches that cause
> >> the lock?
> >
> > No. Also other output-related action can lead to freezes, e.g. xrandr
> > --output DVI-0 --off && xrandr --output LVDS --auto, DPMS off, and Standby.
> > And even when just starting up Gnome after a clean boot, it often
> > crashes when the gnome loading process is done after the icons finally
> > appeared. There are some output switches involved as well: gdm starts in
> > clone mode (LVDS and DVI), then Gnome switches just to the LVDS (Why? I
> > have to figure that out.
>
> It doesn't switch off the external TFT anymore when starting Gnome after
> having deleted the following entries:
> gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /desktop/gnome/screen
>
> > It also ignores Option "Enable" "off" in
> > Monitor Sections of xorg.conf). But these freezes seem to be a little
> > bit late to be correlated with output switches, aren't they?
>
> But how to prevent the LVDS (lid opened) from switching on when the
> Xserver starts is still an open question for me. I expected something like
>   Section "Device"
>           [...]
>           Option          "monitor-LVDS"  "LVDSMonitor"
>           [...]
>   EndSection
>
>   Section "Monitor"
>           Identifier      "LVDSMonitor"
>           Option          "Enable"        "off"
>   EndSection
> would help, but it didn't. Any suggestions?

Option          "Disable"        "TRUE"

is what you want.

Alex