Nouveau - Apr 2013 - [Bug 63101] New: [Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS 32-bit] NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT AGP graphics card will not display any text characters on VIA Technologies Apollo MVP3-based mainboard

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63101

          Priority: medium
            Bug ID: 63101
          Assignee: nouveau at lists.freedesktop.org
           Summary: [Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS 32-bit] NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT AGP
                    graphics card will not display any text characters on
                    VIA Technologies Apollo MVP3-based mainboard
        QA Contact: xorg-team at lists.x.org
          Severity: major
    Classification: Unclassified
                OS: Linux (All)
          Reporter: mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com
          Hardware: x86 (IA32)
            Status: NEW
           Version: unspecified
         Component: Driver/nouveau
           Product: xorg

Hi,

I will report that when I use BFG Technologies GeForce 7300 GT AGP graphics
card (NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT AGP 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM) on FIC VA-503+ mainboard
(VIA Technologies Apollo MVP3 chipset), it will not display text characters
when AGP aperture setting is set to 64 MB, 128 MB, or 256 MB settings.
If the AGP aperture size is set to 32 MB or less (i.e., 4 MB, 8 MB, 16 MB, and
32 MB), the text characters will get displayed correctly on the screen.
The same exact bug has also been observed with EVGA GeForce 6200 AGP graphics
card (NVIDIA GeForce 6200 AGP 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM).
Furthermore, I have another similar era FIC mainboard (FIC KA-6110 mainboard)
with VIA Technologies chipset (Apollo Pro 133 chipset), it exhibits the same
exact behavior with EVGA GeForce 6200 AGP, and the exact same workaround (i.e.,
Set AGP aperture size to less than or equal to 32 MB, as already stated.)
resolves the issue.
Even if the screen does not correctly display the text characters, the system
does not crash or freeze, and Nouveau is able to draw graphic objects on the
screen.
However, text characters do not get displayed on the screen.
Because this bug appears when I adjust the AGP aperture size higher, I won't
be
surprised if this is a bug of agpgart-via kernel driver or via-agp kernel
module.
Note that BFG Technologies GeForce 7300 GT AGP graphics card is capable of
running in a 3.3V AGP environment, and that is the reason why I am able to test
this graphics card with this very old Socket 7 era chipset.
Honestly, I am surprised that Nouveau didn't freeze or crash with this old
chipset, but I still want this annoying bug fixed.
System Configuration:

- Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS 32-bit
  * Linux 2.6.32-46-generic
- FIC VA-503+ mainboard
  * BIOS Version JE439 (I believe this is the last release version.)
  * VIA Technologies Apollo MVP3 chipset
- AMD K6-2 (I know it's old.)
  * 450 MHz
  * 100 MHz FSB
- 512 MB PC100 DDR SDRAM
  * 256 MB PC100 SDRAM DIMM X 2
  * Passes Memtest86+ v4.00 test in flying colors
- BFG Technologies GeForce 7300 GT graphics card
  * 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM
  * Universal (1.5V/3.3V) AGP
- Intel 100 Mbps Ethernet PCI card
- Creative Labs/Ensoniq ES1371 PCI sound card
- Maxtor 90720D5 7 GB PATA hard drive
- Plextor 12X DVD-RW drive
- AT keyboard
- PS/2 mouse

Regards,

fpgahardwareengineer

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--- Comment #1 from mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com ---
Created attachment 77400
  --> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=77400&action=edit
FIC VA-503+ mainboard with 32 MB AGP aperture size

I set AGP aperture size to 32 MB in the BIOS setup of FIC VA-503+ mainboard.

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mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Priority|medium                      |high
                URL|                            |https://bugs.launchpad.net/
                   |                            |ubuntu/+source/ubuntu/+bug/
                   |                            |1161596

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--- Comment #2 from mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com ---
Created attachment 77401
  --> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=77401&action=edit
FIC VA-503+ mainboard with 256 MB AGP aperture size

I set AGP aperture size to 256 MB in the BIOS setup of FIC VA-503+ mainboard.

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mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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  Attachment #77400|0                           |1
        is obsolete|                            |

--- Comment #3 from mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com ---
Created attachment 77402
  --> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=77402&action=edit
FIC VA-503+ mainboard with 32 MB AGP aperture size

I set the AGP aperture size to 32 MB in the BIOS setup of FIC VA-503+
mainboard.

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mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Attachment #77401|0                           |1
        is obsolete|                            |

--- Comment #4 from mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com ---
Created attachment 77403
  --> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=77403&action=edit
FIC VA-503+ mainboard with 256 MB AGP aperture size

I set the AGP aperture size to 256 MB in the BIOS setup of FIC VA-503+
mainboard.

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Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |NEEDINFO
            Summary|[Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS 32-bit] |[NV4B] NVIDIA GeForce 7300
                   |NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT AGP  |GT AGP graphics card will
                   |graphics card will not      |not display any text
                   |display any text characters |characters on VIA
                   |on VIA Technologies Apollo  |Technologies Apollo
                   |MVP3-based mainboard        |MVP3-based mainboard

--- Comment #5 from Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> ---
Can you try this with an upstream kernel, e.g. 3.10 or the kernel at
nouveau/master? (Note that 3.11-rc1 - 3.11-rc6 will crash on load for you, -rc7
should be fine when it comes out.) It's impossible to tell what's in
those LTS
kernels, so they're basically useless for reporting bugs to upstream about.
If
building your own kernel isn't an option, you should file this but with
Ubuntu.

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--- Comment #6 from mypersonalmailbox1 at mail.com ---
(In reply to Comment #5)

Hi,

Please note that FIC VA-503+ mainboard is for Socket 7 platform.
I believe Linux kernel since 3.0 no longer support processors without CMOV
instructions.
Hence, this is not really an option in this case.
An alternative for me will be to use FIC KA-6110 mainboard (VIA Technologies
Apollo Pro133 chipset) since it exhibits the identical bug.
This is for Intel Slot 1 platform so the processor supports CMOV instructions
and PAE.
I have ran Ubuntu 12.04/Xubuntu 12.04 LTS 32-bit with KA-6110 mainboard, and it
still has the exact same buggy behavior and same workaround (i.e., set AGP
aperture size to 32 MB or less).
It appears that MVP3 chipset's AGP and Apollo Pro 133 chispet's AGP are
very
similar (i.e., both support AGP 1X/2X modes).
    I have not tried this with Apollo Pro133A chipset or other VIA Technologies
chipsets, but I will try to make some time to do some testing.
Also, please note that when I use AGP Aperture Size of 256 MB on Intel
SE440BX-2 mainboard with this same BFG Technologies GeForce 7300 GT AGP
graphics card, it will crash during boot, but I can boot normally with the AGP
Aperture Size of 64 MB.
SE440BX-2 mainboard has only 2 AGP Aperture Size selections in the BIOS setup:
64 MB or 256 MB.
If you have time, please take a look at Bug #56340 as well.

Regards,

fpgahardwareengineer

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--- Comment #7 from Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> ---
(In reply to comment #6)
> (In reply to Comment #5)
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Please note that FIC VA-503+ mainboard is for Socket 7 platform.
> I believe Linux kernel since 3.0 no longer support processors without CMOV
> instructions.
That's most definitely not the case. Linux did drop 386 support
semi-recently,
but 486+ should work fine, which includes all AMD K5+ processors (and probably
their 486 clones as well). It could be that the ubuntu/whatever distro builds
have done this, but not Linux as a whole. If you build your own kernel as I had
recommended, you should be fine.

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Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEEDINFO                    |RESOLVED
         Resolution|---                         |INVALID

--- Comment #8 from Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> ---
No re-test in a month, closing as invalid. Chances are that the AGP situation
is a hardware issue rather than a nouveau driver one, but so much has changed
in the nouveau driver since that ancient kernel that it's hard to tell.

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