Bug#457612: xserver-xorg-video-ati: x fails after update on testing. ppc ati 7500 graphics card

[Alex Deucher]

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 8:43 AM, LeeE <leee at spatial.plus.com> wrote:
> On Friday 30 May 2008 19:06, you wrote:
>> On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 10:15 AM, LeeE <leee at spatial.plus.com>
> wrote:
>> > I'd like to add that I'm getting the same problem as
>> > oswaldkelso except that I'm on i386 and not ppc and the card is
>> > an ATI 9200 (RV280).  I can boot the system in to a back up
>> > 'etch' install where it works ok.
>> >
>> > To summarise:
>> >
>> > Xorg appears to load and run ok but the screen remains blank.
>> > If I leave the system alone i.e. not touching the mouse or
>> > keyboard I can see the monitor switch into standby and then if
>> > I hit a key or move the mouse the monitor comes back out of
>> > standby but the screen remains blank.
>> >
>> > When booting the system from an Ubuntu 8 cd for a live session
>> > I can hear the session start-up sounds, indicating that xorg
>> > thinks it's working ok.  If I then Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to kill X
>> > I hear the session startup sounds again, as x reloads.
>> >
>> > A curious thing I've noticed is that when X thinks it's running
>> > ok it's not possible to use the screen (A Philips 109s CRT
>> > monitor) OSD controls to change brightness, contrast etc. - the
>> > OSD controls do not appear on the screen, but they do appear ok
>> > when back in the console or when etch is running.
>> >
>> > Running with DPMS disabled made no difference - it does not
>> > seem to be possible to disable EDID with the xorg ati driver.
>> >
>> > I've also tried several different kernel versions, with no
>> > change.
>> >
>> > Please let me know if you want the xorg conf & log, but they
>> > don't seem to show anything relevent - as I say, xorg seems to
>> > think that it's running ok.
>>
>> Please provide your xorg log and config.
>>
>> Alex
>
> Hello Alex,
>
> I've attached these.

xserver strikes again!  the xserver is picking a mode that your
monitor doesn't like:
(II) RADEON(0): Output VGA-0 using initial mode 1600x1024
while the mode is within sync ranges of your config and the ones in
your edid, this mode obviously isn't workable.  We really need to
patch the randr core to limit itself to edid or driver provided modes
for the initial mode. Ajax did some recent work in this regard.  this
might be the cause of or solution to the problem.

you can override this by adding a PreferredMode option to the monitor
section linked to the output in question.  See this page for more:
http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12

Alex