Gentoo Websites Logo
Go to: Gentoo Home Documentation Forums Lists Bugs Planet Store Wiki Get Gentoo!
Bug 79131 - failed screenblanking with newer g-d-s kernels
Summary: failed screenblanking with newer g-d-s kernels
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Gentoo Linux
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Current packages (show other bugs)
Hardware: x86 Linux
: High normal (vote)
Assignee: Michal Januszewski (RETIRED)
URL: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.ph...
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2005-01-22 13:10 UTC by Bob
Modified: 2005-06-24 08:39 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---


Attachments
fbsplash-blanking-fix.patch (fbsplash-blanking-fix.patch,1.58 KB, patch)
2005-04-01 08:15 UTC, Peter Beutner
Details | Diff

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Bob 2005-01-22 13:10:29 UTC
with gensplash loaded, vesafb-tng provides complete screen blanking with Maxtrox Milennium 1 or 2 video boards while running 2.6.9-gentoo-r8, but does not provide complete screen blanking with later 2.6.9 Gentoo Development Sources kernels, or the 2.6.10 GDS kernels.

for the purpose of this bug report, complete screen blanking is defined as complete blanking of the screen (all video suppressed).  incomplete screen blanking is defined as 1) blanking of the outer border of the screen display, 2) changing of the text color from white to black, 3) failure to turn off the text output, so that screen updates are made with black text, and 4) failing to turn off the background.


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.  install gensplash and vesafb-tng with a matrox milennium 1 or milennium 2 card
2.  load a recent gentoo-dev-soruces kernel
3.  wait for screen blanking

Actual Results:  
incomplete screen blanking 

Expected Results:  
complete screen blanking 

this problem occurs on multiple computers that are using either Matrox 
Milennium 1 or Matrox Milennium 2 video boards, and are running gensplash with 
the vesafb-tng video driver on a recent Gentoo Dev Sources kernel.  this 
problem completely disappears when the systems are booted using older kernels, 
such as such as 2.6.9-gentoo-r8.  
 
the following link on the Gentoo Dicusssion Forums provides details about each 
system, including the output of emerge info, lspci, dmesg, and kernel 
configurations for systems where screen blanking works/doesn't work.
Comment 1 Andreas Fragner 2005-01-24 00:29:49 UTC
Screen blanking with development-sources doesn't work either with vesafb and Nvidia GeForce FX5200 GO - but is working with:

ATI Rage128 Pro with in kernel compiled aty128fb
Matrox G200 with in kernel compiled matroxfb

So I'm thinking this is a bug of vesafb in the kernel sources?
Comment 2 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-01-24 02:43:40 UTC
I believe the problem you've described is caused by fbsplash, not vesafb-tng. I know about the broken blanking code in the recent versions. It'll be fixed ASAP. Reassigning to myself to take the load off from kernel@ and make sure I don't forget about it ;)
Comment 3 onip 2005-02-04 03:46:30 UTC
Same problem here with vesafb-tng and Geforce4 MMX. I have another problem too, the progress bar of silent theme doesn't show up. I'm currently running 2.6.10-gentoo-r6 (gentoo-dev-sources)
Comment 4 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-02-05 13:24:31 UTC
OK, everyone: is this still a problem with g-d-s-2.6.10-r7?

As for the original bugreport - I've noticed one strange thing. According to the ChangeLog there were no vesafb-tng or fbsplash updates to the 2.6.9 kernel since -r2.
Comment 5 Bob 2005-02-09 17:09:20 UTC
yes, its still a problem with 2.6.10-r7.

as far as the ChangeLog goes, i'm at a loss to explain why 2.6.9-r8 works properly but not the later versions.  maybe some information is missing from the changelog?
Comment 6 Paolo Pedroni 2005-03-03 05:20:50 UTC
It does not seem to be a problem either with vesafb-tng or with fbsplash, because I have the same problem with a Radeon 9250 using radeofb (as a module) and I have never installed fbsplash.
In my case the only thing which is "blanked" is the blinking cursor.
Comment 7 Bob 2005-03-15 09:31:29 UTC
this is still a problem on the 2005.0-rc5 Live CD.  while installing from the Live CD, the framebuffer blanks only partially -- the outer rim of the screen is blanked, and the text is "blanked" in that the color changes from white to black.  but the background image remains on, the cursor remains on, and text flow continues to be rendered, but in black instead of white.
Comment 8 onip 2005-03-19 14:18:56 UTC
seems solved for me with 2.6.11-gentoo-r4 sources (gentoo-dev-sources)
Comment 9 Bob 2005-03-21 09:29:18 UTC
still a problem with Matrox Milennium 1 & 2 video boards using vesafb-tng driver under 2.6.11-r4. :(
Comment 10 Peter Beutner 2005-04-01 08:15:57 UTC
Created attachment 55040 [details, diff]
fbsplash-blanking-fix.patch

I also had the problem with "incomplete blanking"(using radeonfb). Today I made
some bughunting and tried to find the source of the problem. Its indeed
fbsplash broken blanking.
Though I am still not completely understand whats going on, I came up with a
patch which fixes it for me.If yours isnt a different bug(with the same
symptoms) it should work for you too.
(though im not completely sure if it is the right way to fix it)
Comment 11 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-04-02 15:21:32 UTC
The patchs looks good -- I included it in the latest version of fbsplash. Thanks, Imago :) It would be nice if the bug reporter and people who have posted comments could test it and let us know whether it solves the issue completely.
Comment 12 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-04-27 10:34:48 UTC
There have been no comments in almost a month, so I'm assuming the problem is fixed now.
Comment 13 Paolo Pedroni 2005-04-27 23:57:03 UTC
For me it's not. I still think it's the kernel's fault, at least in my case.
Comment 14 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-04-28 08:02:51 UTC
You can make sure that it's the kernel's fault by testing whether you can reproduce the problem on a vanilla kernel.org source tree. If you can, you should probably report the bug on the kernel bugzilla (http://bugme.osdl.org/).
Comment 15 Bob 2005-04-28 12:54:37 UTC
still a problem with gentoo-sources 2.6.11-r6, with matrox milennium 1 and 2 series video boards.
Comment 16 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-04-28 13:08:29 UTC
Could you please check whether you can reproduce the problem with CONFIG_FB_SPLASH=n?
Comment 17 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-04-28 13:33:11 UTC
Ah, and one more thing -- the patch is not included in gentoo-sources 2.6.11-r6, so in order to test it, you'd have to apply it manually. 
Comment 18 Bob 2005-04-29 10:51:37 UTC
>> Could you please check whether you can reproduce the problem with 
>> CONFIG_FB_SPLASH=n?

Yes, I've checked that for you.  Turning off framebuffer support for the bootsplash makes the problem go away.  I guess I would have expected that, as the screenblanking problem I had initially described involves failed blanking of the *background* colors in the framebuffer.  When the framebuffer is turned off in the kernel, there are no background colors to turn off.  ;)

i will try to test the kernel patch later today.

Comment 19 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-05-04 14:51:19 UTC
Have you had any luck with it?
Comment 20 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-06-24 08:39:04 UTC
The problem should be fixed in gentoo-sources 2.6.12. Please reopen if it's not.