[radeon] plasma screen corruption/nothing to click on except crash notifier -> black screen

[Felix Miata]

Felix Miata composed on 2015-08-25 23:13 (UTC-0400):

> host fi965
> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
> RV370 [Radeon X600/X600 SE] using radeon driver
> F23 x86_64 freshly dnf upgraded from last same about 10 weeks ago (4.2.rc8
> kernel)
> initial screen corruption eventually clears to black
> plasmashell PID 1621/1667/1687 segmentation fault (11)
> multi-user.target startup -> startx
> IIRC, theme selected is whatever alternative to Breeze was found, likely Oxygen
> If I un-disable compositing (set via xorg.conf*), crash notifier never
> appears, and screen corruption remains until Ctrl-Alt-BS
> .xsession-errors is not being written
> no BRC bug on point less than 5 months touched last found

> After clicking off notifiers, screen goes black. No response to Ctrl-Alt-BS
> with keyboard configured via default /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf.
> Ctrl-Alt-Fn works. Ctrl-Alt-BS works after fixing 00-keyboard.conf and
> restarting X.

> IceWM works normally on same installation.
> F22/KDE works normally on same host.
> Tumbleweed works normally on same host, though it's still using as much of
> KDE4 as remains available, Breeze is not there used, and Oxygen fonts are not
> there installed as a form of locking out Plasma5.

> Same problem on same host with freshly upgraded Rawhide.

> Prior kernels 4.1.rc2 and 4.0.rc4 didn't help. While in 4.0.rc4, something
> exhausted freespace on EXT4 F23 /. On reboot, it recovered to 37% free of
> 4.8G total, and dnf clean all brought free to 39%.

> I replicated with variation on host big41 with rv380 radeon, but by
> incrementally dnf upgrading and starting after each increment. On the 5th
> group, kf5*, the trouble started. Excerpt from dnf.log containing the cuplrit:

> http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/dnflog-badKF5.txt

> The variation on host big41 (F23) is that the splash/desktop background and
> progress window paint instead of the screen corrupting. Post-crash the
> background is black.

Having reported in a thread branch about host fi965 POST failure and moving
the rv370 to host gx28b to replicate this problem, I came back to host big41
with rv380 expecting to replicate this in its openSUSE Tumbleweed
installation after a fresh update, using FW 5.12.0 with Breeze and KDE's
Oxygen fonts. No corruption or crashing on it though. It's mesa is 10.6.4,
and repositories is only up to 10.6.5. So is this apparent regression due to
F23's newer 11.0 mesa?

> I shut it down, moved the VGA cable to the onboard Intel 4000 port, removed
> the rv380, and the problem disappeared (1440x900 @108 DPI).

> I shut it down again, installed a G84 (GT8600), put VGA cable on its #1 DVI
> port via adapter required for the LCD, and the problem remained gone (working
> 1440x900).

> I shut down again, put in an ATI Cedar, connected the VGA cable to it, and
> again booted to a working 1440x900 Plasma desktop.

> To follow up, I went to an ATI Radeon rv200 installation, dnf upgraded its
> (30 July) F23 to today's, and it works as expected, before and after today's
> upgrade.

> Suggestions welcome, not sure whether this should have gone to xorg list,
> test list, devel list, somewhere upstream, or straight to BZ, instead of here
> in kde.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/