Page flipping on intel (2.11 driver)

[Rudolf Kastl]

2010/5/2 Owen Taylor <otaylor at redhat.com>:
> With the 2.11 update for xorg-x11-drv-intel in updates-testing we have a
> couple of serious problems occurring with gnome-shell on Intel systems:
>
>  A) A complete hang where the system can't even be pinged.
>
>  B) A problem where the system continues to run fine but the GPU gets
>    "stuck" and no further drawing happens until the system is rebooted.
>
> We've also had similar reports for Compiz.
>
> These problems seem to be associated in particular with the "page
> flipping" functionality that it enables. (The implementation is mostly
> in the kernel, but the use is driven by the X server.)
>
> With considerable testing and experimentation, the biggest source of
> hangs on my GMA3100 system turned out to be fixed by the kernel patch:
>
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/intel-gfx/2010-April/006463.html
>
> However, that fix is "gen3" specific (i915, i945, and variants),
> and we've also had reports of hard locks on newer chips like the i965
> and GM45, so it's probably not the only thing going on. The second
> problem also is likely unrelated.
>
> My feeling is that we should disable page flipping for F13 - it's had
> only a tiny bit of testing, and any fixes we put in at this point are
> going to get a far tinier bit of testing.
>
> We could "disable" it by simply avoiding pushing the 2.11 update, but
> since that leaves things broken for people who have updates-testing
> enabled, I think it would be better to patch the functionality out the
> 2.11 package. See the patch im:
>
>  https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27883#c3
>
> for how to do that schematically, though it would be better to also
> change the:
>
>  "Kernel page flipping support detected, enabling"
>
> message. (It would be sort of neat to have some way to allow users to
> enable it and test, but maybe the "way to enable it" is just installing
> the F-14 rawhide package.)
>
> What do people think?

Actually if you want people testing with i965 id volunteer.

kind regards,
Rudolf Kastl

>
> - Owen
>
>
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