Possible graphics or monitor problem?

[KimG]

I see that what is showing there is different than how I set it up in gparted. I had sda 6 as root and 7 was home. Did that back before I installed Lubuntu. When I installed LL, it saw Lu and asked if I wanted to over write it there and I did.

[KimG]

Yup, I have an old image from gparted from when I did the original partitioning that I saved and have on my laptop. I just checked gparted on the Dell and it has switched sda 6 and sda 7.

[gold_finger]

Note lines I've highlighted in red from your output below.

kim@kim-DIM2100:~$ lsblk
NAME  MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0  37.3G  0 disk
├─sda1  8:1    0  14.7G  0 part
├─sda2  8:2    0    1K  0 part
├─sda5  8:5    0    1G  0 part [SWAP]
├─sda6  8:6    0  13.8G  0 part
└─sda7  8:7    0  7.8G  0 part /
sr0    11:0    1  1024M  0 rom 
kim@kim-DIM2100:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>  <type>  <options>      <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=94217e69-9f06-42f0-8cc3-d184d834ec33 /              ext4    errors=remount-ro 0      1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=1d6147c7-d3f9-497c-ae68-bc5c14f8983f none            swap    sw              0      0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0      0
kim@kim-DIM2100:~$

Both lsblk and fstab output confirm that you are only using a root partition currently and it's sda7.  Fstab file does not show the a separate /home partition listed to be auto-mounted on boot.  So, you've got your /home within same partition as root and are not using sda6 at all right now.  That has nothing to do with your Xorg problem, but you might want to reinstall again to fix that.  When you select the "Something else" install option you need to set the mount points for both root and home partitions.  You must have just forgotten to set it for /home last time.

Thanks for posting the bug link.  I and others will take a look at it and hopefully an come up with an idea around the problem.  Worst case scenario, you might need to run LL version 1.06 (which is supported through April, 2017).  I'll be busy for a few hours so won't be able to post back until later tonight.  If someone else comes up with an idea, go ahead and try it.

P.s.  If you were using a separate /home partition, then the lsblk output would show "/home" in the MOUNTPOINT column next to one of the partitions.  It doesn't.

[KimG]

If I could get the image off my laptop I could show you how I had set it up. sda 2 is an extended partition with 5 6 and 7 inside of it. 5 is swap. I can repartition again and reinstall fresh and see how that goes.

[gold_finger]

If I could get the image off my laptop I could show you how I had set it up. sda 2 is an extended partition with 5 6 and 7 inside of it. 5 is swap. I can repartition again and reinstall fresh and see how that goes.

I don't really need to see how you had it set-up before.  I'm assuming you already reinstalled again at this point, but if you didn't you can either re-make partitions, or just re-use the ones you already have.  If re-using, just check box to format the partitions when you get to the partition selection screen and that will ensure a fresh install.  Just remember to designate mount points for both Root and Home.


I read through bug report and doesn't look like there is a fix yet.  Don't really know what to do about it other than placing a hold on the xserver-xorg-video-intel package so it doesn't get upgraded during updates or through Synaptic.  You can do that for now and just keep an eye on that bug report to see when it gets fixed.  Then remove the hold on package if/when a fixed update becomes available.  Wish I had a better answer, but that's all I can think of doing right now.

I am a bit confused though by what I read in the bug report.  Seemed like people were saying that video broke with version 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.3.  So I checked to see what version the live DVD starts out with and it showed that same version being used without any updates having been done.  I then booted up my test computer that has LL 2.2 fully updated and it also had that same version.  That makes me wonder if that package really is what caused your problem?  Anyway, won't know till you try updating after putting a hold on the package.

Place the hold on package using both methods below (do both, not just one):

1.  Open a terminal and enter the following command:

Code:

echo xserver-xorg-video-intel hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections

To undo the hold later, run same command and substitute "install" in place of "hold".


2.  Place hold in Synaptic Package Manager also.  (Menu -> System -> Install/Remove Software)

    Find the installed package version in Synaptic and highlight it.
    Along top of window, go to Package -> Lock Version to lock it.
    To remove lock later, do same thing and just uncheck it under Lock Version.

[KimG]

Good morning! Yes, I re-made the partitions and got all of that straightened out. Did a fresh re-install and everything the same. Boots to a black screen with garbled white something in the center then proceeds to load everything else just fine. However, and maybe I didn't notice this before but after the install when I clicked restart, just before it asks me to remove the cd I got a warning message that said ModemManager [1332]: <warn> Could not acquire the 'org.freedesktop.ModemManager1' service name. 

I will do what you said and hold that update back. That is what I did in Lubuntu but there were two that it kept trying to push at me. One was the server one and the other was maybe a core update? If it tells you anything, and I remember correctly the version was 1.15.1 I believe and the new one it was something like 1.17? After I took both of those, bsod.

I still have the display UNCLAIMED listed too. So, I'm leaving for work now. I will do what you said and see what happens. Thank you so much for all of your help and have a great day!!

[rokytnji]

Not sure what bug or problem you are dealing with on your Dell.
So just posting some info on mine.

Code:

$inxi -M
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Latitude E5500
           Mobo: Dell model: 0DW635 Bios: Dell v: A17 date: 09/27/2011
$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3
$  cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i "dri" | grep -v -i "driver"
[    25.574] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[    25.578] Initializing built-in extension DRI3
[    25.578] Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DRI
[    25.578] Initializing built-in extension DRI2
[    25.637] (II) Loading sub module "dri2"
[    25.637] (II) LoadModule: "dri2"
[    25.637] (II) Module "dri2" already built-in
[    25.650] (II) intel(0): [DRI2] Setup complete
[    25.650] (II) intel(0): direct rendering: DRI2 Enabled
[    25.698] (II) GLX: Initialized DRI2 GL provider for screen 0
[    25.756] (II) config/udev: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0) card0 /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0
[    25.756] (II) config/udev: Ignoring already known drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i "i915" | grep -v -i "driver"
    915G, E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM,

[attachment deleted by admin, more than 25 days old]

[gold_finger]

Did a fresh re-install and everything the same. Boots to a black screen with garbled white something in the center then proceeds to load everything else just fine.

As long as it ends up loading fine, let's not worry about that for now.

just before it asks me to remove the cd I got a warning message that said ModemManager [1332]: <warn> Could not acquire the 'org.freedesktop.ModemManager1' service name. 

That's normal -- or at least it's something I've seen a million times too -- don't worry about it.

I still have the display UNCLAIMED listed too

I'm still looking into that -- making slow progress and hope to have solution to try within next day or two.

I will do what you said and hold that update back. That is what I did in Lubuntu but there were two that it kept trying to push at me. One was the server one and the other was maybe a core update? If it tells you anything, and I remember correctly the version was 1.15.1 I believe and the new one it was something like 1.17? After I took both of those, bsod.

For now, let's try that and see what happens.  If run into problem after a future update, you will be able to retrieve your data by using a live DVD but to make things easier you might want to consider doing the following before you run updates:

• Keep a running list of any new programs that you install to the system.  (Not updates, only things you purposely install yourself.)  Save a copy of that list to a USB stick for safe keeping.
  
• Make notes of any special configuration changes you make to the system that might not be easily remembered or duplicated.  Keep copies of those on a USB stick also.
  
• Use the backup utility in LL to make a copy of your entire Home folder to a USB stick.  Make sure USB stick has enough room -- 16GB stick should have no problem holding your Home plus your other notes.
  

That will make reinstalling and getting everything back to the way you had it much easier.  But don't reinstall right away if the video goes bonkers again after an update.  We'll want to find out what in the recent update caused the problem.  To find that out, you can boot from your live DVD and access/copy the log file for the last update.  Once you've copied it off to a USB stick, you can go ahead with a reinstall as well as report back here with a copy of the log file for us to look through.  From that we'll probably be able to figure out which other package(s) needs holding back.

In the event that video breaks on an update, I'll post instructions for copying off log file now so you don't have to waste time posting to forum and waiting for answer.  Just boot your live DVD, come here and follow steps below.

*  Know your Root partition number and plug in correct number in place of "X".
*  From live DVD, open a terminal and enter following commands:

Code:

sudo mount /dev/sdX /mnt
cp /mnt/var/log/apt/history.log /home/linux/Desktop/update-history-log.txt

You'll see "update-history-log.txt" appear on your live Desktop.  Copy it off to a USB stick.
At that point you can go ahead and reinstall as well as post the history log file to the forum for us to examine.


P.s.  You might be able to accomplish same thing as above by just opening the file manager, click on root hard drive partition, then navigate to /var/log/apt directory and copy the history.log file from there.

[KimG]

Success! I put a hold on the xorg intel driver and ran "install updates" rebooted and had a little change in screens after grub but I'm back and everything seems to be working fine. Whew! So, I'll keep an eye on that bug report and see if anyone figures it out. I would like to not mark this thread as solved yet if that's o.k. since really it isn't. If anything changes or there are any updates I will post back here. Thank you gold_finger again for your help and I will do what you said with making the backup of my home partition on a flash stick.