Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

On 22^nd of December I did an apt-get update & dist-upgrade. Since then I faced strange problems with the output of my graphics adapter. First I thought, it aged (there is a bug in the packaging of my model: nVidia GT8600M) and I have to replace it. But sometimes it worked after a reboot without any problems. The output showed mixed up characters in tty starting from the boot of the kernel or even earlier during the loading of GRUB. Some characters got replaced by other symbols.

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The X server aborted with:

(II) NVIDIA(0): Support for GLX with the Damage and Composite X extensions is
(II) NVIDIA(0): enabled.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device PCI:1:0:0.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Please check your system’s kernel log for additional error
(EE) NVIDIA(0): messages and refer to Chapter 8: Common Problems in the
(EE) NVIDIA(0): README for additional information.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!
(II) UnloadModule: “nvidia”
(II) UnloadModule: “wfb”
(II) UnloadModule: “fb”

and the kernel log told me something like this:

Dec 23 12:48:23 jitu kernel: [ 32.945818] nvidia: module license ‘NVIDIA’ taints kernel.
Dec 23 12:48:23 jitu kernel: [ 32.945827] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
Dec 23 12:48:23 jitu kernel: [ 33.205990] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
Dec 23 12:48:23 jitu kernel: [ 33.206017] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Dec 23 12:48:23 jitu kernel: [ 33.206573] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 185.18.36 Fri Aug 14 17:18:04 PDT 2009
Dec 23 12:48:24 jitu kernel: [ 34.051075] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Returned by Handler for [EmbeddedControl] 20090521 evregion-424
Dec 23 12:48:24 jitu kernel: [ 34.051092] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_GPE._L02] (Node f702ee64), AE_TIME
Dec 23 12:48:24 jitu kernel: [ 34.051145] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, while evaluating GPE method [_L02] 20090521 evgpe-568
Dec 23 12:48:24 jitu kernel: [ 34.051386] NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0×26:0xffffffff:1096)
Dec 23 12:48:24 jitu kernel: [ 34.051392] NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed
Dec 23 12:48:29 jitu kernel: [ 39.355725] NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0×26:0xffffffff:1096)
Dec 23 12:48:29 jitu kernel: [ 39.355740] NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed
Dec 23 12:48:35 jitu kernel: [ 44.665717] NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0×26:0xffffffff:1096)
Dec 23 12:48:35 jitu kernel: [ 44.665732] NVRM: rm_init_adapter(0) failed

If the machine was booted in Windows, the graphics adapter was not recognized and a standard driver was loaded.

The following packages and version numbers have been updated:

• acpid 1.0.8-1lenny2
• libldap-2.4-2 2.4.11-1+lenny1
• libexpat1 2.0.1-4+lenny2
• libexpat1-dev 2.0.1-4+lenny2
• libmozjs1d 1.9.0.16-1
• xulrunner-1.9 1.9.0.16-1
• xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support 1.9.0.16-1

Currently I suspect ACPI for the problem and it seems that somehow the IRQs get messed up. Since I added pci=routeirq to the boot parameter of my kernel in /boot/grub/menu.lst, I do not experience this behavior anymore. It took several reboots and retries by the X server to bring back the IRQs in order.

[Update 20/01/2010]: Even pci=routeirq did not work. Sometimes it was right there from the start. Sometimes it happened after 3 days of continues execution of a simulation. Although I reverted to the previous version of acpid, the problem still persisted. Currently I am trying out an older kernel and nvidia-glx version (2.6.31.2 instead of 2.6.32.2 and 185.18.36-2_i386 instead of 190.42-3_i386). Today it is the fourth day without that the problem occurred again. Let’s see. I am sure, my graphics adapter is getting ready to fail just after updating the post. Threatening it to be replaced (the laptop has a standardized MXM interface between mainboard and graphics adapter), will make it to work again (at least it seems so)

[Update 21/01/2010]: As I stated above: A few hours after I wrote updated this post, the graphics adapter failed again. Let’s see, where I can get a replacement from.