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I have recently upgraded my Thinkpad430s from 12.10 -> 13.10 -> 14.04. After the upgrade to 13.10 I could not boot in graphics mode and in order to start the system I had to edit the grub entry to boot to the console. After logging in from the console I could run startx and it was ok enough to proceed to upgrade to 14.04. However, I still cannot boot into graphics mode. And, while Unity runs ok (after doing a startx from the console) I tried gnome and it was a failure (incorrect screen updates, blurry icons, etc.).

I am not sure how to determine the graphics drivers (or even if I have an nvidia controller).

Just to be clear, if I boot in graphics mode, e.g., /etc/default/grub has:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Then I see spash screen, then I see the login screen, then it goes gray. If I press ctrl-alt-f1 (or f7, or any other) I can see the login prompt, but only for about 1 second. Then it goes back to the gray screen and nothing I type gets to the login prompt.

If I change /etc/default/grub to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text"
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

Then, I boot into console mode, login, and run startx, and voila Unity (mostly) works.

One more thing, instead of startx, I can also run sudo service lightdm start and I am shown the normal login screen.

BTW: in 12.10 everything worked perfectly.

I think there are two problems here:

  • some timing issue which won't allow lightdm to start properly at boot time
  • a driver issue which causes gnome to not function properly (and unity to have some flaws too)

Below is some information about my graphics controller. What else do you need to help me diagnose the problem?

Graphics Information:

$ sudo lshw -numeric -C display
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:166]
       vendor: Intel Corporation [8086]
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:45 memory:d0000000-d03fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:5000(size=64)
$ sudo lspci -vnn  | grep VGA -A 12
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21fb]
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 45
    Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
    Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    I/O ports at 5000 [size=64]
    Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
    Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
    Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
    Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
    Kernel driver in use: i915

----------- output of grep -E "Linux version|render ring" /var/log/syslog

Sep 23 11:45:09 name-ThinkPad-T430s kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 3.13.0-36-generic (buildd@toyol) (gcc version 4.8.2 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1) ) #63-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 3 21:30:07 UTC 2014 (Ubuntu 3.13.0-36.63-generic 3.13.11.6)

------------ output of uname:

prompt> uname -a
Linux name-ThinkPad-T430s 3.13.0-36-generic #63-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 3 21:30:07 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
prompt> uname -r
3.13.0-36-generic

---------------- output of lspci -nn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller [8086:0154] (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller [8086:1e31] (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1e3a] (rev 04)
00:16.3 Serial controller [0700]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family KT Controller [8086:1e3d] (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1502] (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1e20] (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1e10] (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1e12] (rev c4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 [8086:1e14] (rev c4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 [8086:1e18] (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1e26] (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation QM77 Express Chipset LPC Controller [8086:1e55] (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:1e03] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1e22] (rev 04)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 [8086:4238] (rev 3e)

-------------------------------- output of dkms status i915-3.15-3.13, 0.01, 3.13.0-36-generic, x86_64: installed openafs, 1.6.7, 3.11.0-26-generic, x86_64: installed openafs, 1.6.7, 3.13.0-36-generic, x86_64: installed

seth
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1 Answers1

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So it wasn't a multiple graphics card issue either.
Another thing you can do is try another kernel and / or try to install the lastest drivers. Intel provides deb packages for Ubuntu 14.04 here.

Discarded information left for documentation

There's an issue with the i915 driver in kernels 3.15 and 3.16, to check if you hit this bug, post the output of grep -E "Linux version|render ring" /var/log/syslog and append it to your question.

In case you are affected, you need to either apply a patch to your kernel or use the upcoming 3.17 kernel.

OK, so you're on a 3.13 kernel and as such, you're not affected be the bug I mentioned earlier.

Lenovo specs show that your 430s has the following video chipsets:

  • Intel HD Graphics 4000
  • NVIDIA NVS 5400M

Please add the full output of lspci -nn, perhaps you need to install NVIDIA drivers. Relevant, in case you also have NVIDIA adapter:
How do I get AMD/Intel Hybrid Graphics drivers to work?

Did you try to run sudo aticonfig --inital to get an automatically configured xorg.conf? Please note that this might break your xorg config, if you already have a working xorg.conf, make a backup first.

Community
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Jan
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    Could you also add instructions on patching the kernel, or link to guides on doing so? – muru Sep 23 '14 at 21:41
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    Yep, if the user is affected I will edit my answer and include that. – Jan Sep 23 '14 at 21:42
  • I posted the info you wanted above, also posted output of uname. – seth Sep 23 '14 at 22:12
  • I appended the output of lspci -nn. I never ran sudo aticonfig --initial, but am scared to because I am not sure if I have a working xorg.conf. I couldn't find it in the places listed on the man page, but am not sure if there is a path specified in the startup command - which I don't know how to find. Also, I can't find aticonfig on my system. Not sure where to get it. Advice? – seth Sep 24 '14 at 16:00
  • As per the advice above I upgraded my intel drivers, e.g., see the output of dkms status above and nothing has changed. – seth Sep 29 '14 at 17:31