Hard freezes of ThinkPad T41p (ATI Mobility FireGL T2)

[Valentin Schwamberger]

Alex Deucher wrote on 11.02.2008 23:43:
> 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.

Cool, that's it! :-)

Unfortunately, your fixes for better BIOS/DRIVER interaction for COM
bios (10 Feb 2008) didn't fix my problems. I still get a lot of hard
freezes on my M10-based laptop when starting/restarting/exiting Xorg or
switching to VT.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Valentin