Bug 391351 – Regression from sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.39-r3 to 3.0.6 using kernel's ATI driver: X11 mouse cursor corrupted

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED NEEDINFO

[Description Thomas Fischer 2011-11-22 08:17:30 UTC]

Recently switching to kernel sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-3.0.6 revealed a regression compared to my previously used kernel (2.6.39-r3). After a short time of using X, the regular mouse cursor's image gets corrupted. Instead of the regular image, only the top two lines appear, vertically repeated several times with small spacing in between.
The cursor is not "damaged" from the start, but I am not sure what triggers the change. One time I observed it that it happened when cursor was in the lower corner of my primary screen where it borders to the secondary screen. Logging off or restarting X (/etc/init.d/xdm restart) doesn't change anything, cursor is corrupted even in kdm.
The mouse cursor itself stays operational: I can click on links in a browser, move windows etc. If the mouse shape changes e.g. when hovering a link in a browser, the damaged image is updated accordingly showing again only the top two lines repeated vertically. Interestingly, inside a VirtualBox window, no cursor is shown at all.
Booting either 3.0.6 or 2.6.39 shows that this is the decisive difference. I am using the open source ATI drivers that come along with the kernel; no binary drivers. Xorg configuration hasn't been changed in months and has worked fine so far.
I am using KDE 4.6.5, but as the mouse stays operational and the problem persists across X11 restarts, I doubt the problem is due to user applications.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Boot kernel sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-3.0.6 instead of sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.39-r3.
Actual Results:  
Disturbed/damaged mouse cursor

Expected Results:  
Regular mouse cursor

lspci's output on graphics card:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series


Portage 2.1.10.11 (default/linux/x86/10.0, gcc-4.5.3, glibc-2.12.2-r0, 2.6.39-gentoo-r3-tf i686)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.39-gentoo-r3-tf-i686-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_T9400_@_2.53GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.3
Timestamp of tree: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:45:01 +0000
ccache version 2.4 [enabled]
app-shells/bash:          4.1_p9
dev-java/java-config:     2.1.11-r3
dev-lang/python:          2.7.2-r3, 3.1.4-r3
dev-util/ccache:          2.4-r9
dev-util/cmake:           2.8.4-r1
dev-util/pkgconfig:       0.26
sys-apps/baselayout:      2.0.3
sys-apps/openrc:          0.8.3-r1
sys-apps/sandbox:         2.5
sys-devel/autoconf:       2.13, 2.68
sys-devel/automake:       1.10.3, 1.11.1
sys-devel/binutils:       2.20.1-r1
sys-devel/gcc:            4.4.5, 4.5.3-r1
sys-devel/gcc-config:     1.4.1-r1
sys-devel/libtool:        2.4-r1
sys-devel/make:           3.82-r1
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 2.6.39 (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:           2.12.2
Repositories: gentoo sunrise Local-Repository x-g-cpan
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=prescott -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa /usr/share/themes/oxygen-gtk/gtk-2.0 /var/lib/hsqldb"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=prescott -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs ccache distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles fixpackages metadata-transfer news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"
FFLAGS=""
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/gentoo/ http://ftp.ing.umu.se/linux/gentoo/ http://ftp.ds.karen.hj.se/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.ds.karen.hj.se/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.ing.umu.se/linux/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/gentoo/ http://mirror.mdfnet.se/mirror/gentoo http://ftp.klid.dk/ftp/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.klid.dk/gentoo/ ftp://mirror.mdfnet.se/gentoo ftp://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/"
LANG="en_US.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
LINGUAS="en"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/var/lib/layman/sunrise /usr/local/portage /usr/local/g-cpan"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.se.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="7zip X aac aalib acl acpi alsa aspell audiofile bash-completion berkdb bluetooth bzip2 cdaudio cdparanoia cleartype cli cmake consolekit cracklib crypt css cups curl cxx dbus djvu dri dtmf dvd dvdread dvipdfm encode exif fame ffmpeg fftw flac fontconfig fortran ftp fuse gdbm gif gimp gnutls gpg gpm graphviz gs h323 iconv icu id3tag idea idn ilbc imagemagick imap ipv6 jabber java5 jbig jpeg jpeg2k kde kpathsea lame laptop latex latex3 lcms ldap libcaca libnotify logrotate lua lzma lzo mad md5sum mjpeg mmx mng modules mp3 mpeg mplayer mudflap ncurses network nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin ntp ogg opengl openmp openssl openxml pam pcre pdf pgf png policykit ppds pppd qmake qt4 quicktime rdesktop readline redland resolvconf rss rtc rtmp samba sasl sdl sdl-sound semantic-desktop session sip sipim slang slp smime sndfile socks speex spell srtp sse sse2 sse3 ssl ssse3 stun subversion svg sysfs taglib tcpd tga theora threads tiff truetype udev unicode usb utils v4l v4l2 vim-syntax vnc vorbis wav webdav webkit wicd win32codecs x264 x86 xcomposite xinerama xml xorg xpm xrandr xvid zlib zrtp" ALSA_CARDS="snd_hda_intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="braindump flow karbon krita tables words" CAMERAS="canon ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="ati radeonhd radeon vesa" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

[Comment 1 Thomas Fischer 2011-11-24 15:54:54 UTC]

I tried to reproduce this bug in order to collect more information, but it hasn't reappeared in the last two days. Maybe it was only a glitch or strange coincidence.

I recommend to switch this bug's status to NEEDINFO (or keep it at UNCONFIRMED) and close it within a month if no one (including me) reports anything new.