Public bug reported:
CONFIGURATION
Lenovo Thinkpad R61 (widescreen model with Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M). Some BIOS
settings modified.
RAM upgraded to 4GB (memtest86 ran OK).
Gutsy amd64 CD installed. Initial aptitude update&&aptitude upgrade ritual not
yet followed.
Uh... using German translation. English menu titles etc. are guessed. (Can I
change the GUI language after the install? There doesn't seem to be a
System->Language (System->Sprache) control on the top-left menu.)
PROBLEM
First Gnome start brings up the "System is running in low resolution mode"
dialog.
System runs the VESA driver but detects the card as "NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series"
(that's all fine by me).
Monitor is detected as Plug 'n' Play, but erreneously offers just 640x480 and
800x600 (and selects the latter, which is good).
Switched to LCD Panel 1680x1050 (that's what the R61 has). Driver still offers
just nonmatching resolutions - I forgot what exactly, but the three top entries
were 1024x768 and some widescreen resolutions immediately above and below that.
Using one of the top entries would either create the typical
I-can-almost-see-what-it-does pixel snow from a wrong pixel count per scan
line, or a blank screen. Blank screens would usually go away with
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, sometimes I'd have to Ctrl-Alt-F1 and reboot. There seemed
to be a correlation between selected resolution and failure symptoms, but it
wasn't consistent enough to report anything for sure.
Trying to select another driver would result in various forms of lockup, or the
changes not accepted. (It is a bug if the system reverts/ignores a change
without giving a warning. This seems to be a general problem with the
screen/graphics settings dialog, though I won't file another bug for that one
right now.)
WORKAROUND
After much googling and hair-pulling, is followed an obscure advice, fired up
the BIOS settings, Config->PCI setting and switched all interrupts from INT 11
to Automatic.
SPECULATION
I don't have the slightest clue why BIOS-assigned interrupt settings might
affect screen resolution settings. Therefore, package assignment was
speculative.
I dimly remember that this particular problem did not show up on the 32-bit
install that I tried before.
WHAT I CAN DO
I am a competent C programmer. I'm reasonably familiar with the Linux compiler
toolchain, though I never learned to use gdb.
I am a competent Linux server administrator. This is my first-time encounter
with Gnome.
The machine is destined to become my daily workhorse ASAP. I am willing to try
a lot of things short of unfixable breakage and/or reinstalling.
** Affects: meta-gnome2 (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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Lenovo R61: Interrupt settings interfere with screen resolution config on amd-64
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/185863
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