ports/116359: screen blinks with PCI-E nvidia card and vesa driver under xorg-7.3

[Aryeh Friedman]

>Number:         116359
>Category:       ports
>Synopsis:       screen blinks with PCI-E nvidia card and vesa driver under xorg-7.3
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-ports-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Fri Sep 14 22:10:01 GMT 2007
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Aryeh Friedman
>Release:        7.0-CURRENT
>Organization:
FloSoft Systems
>Environment:
FreeBSD monster 7.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT #0: Wed Sep 12 20:49:01 UTC 2007     root at monster:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

>Description:
When using vesa driver under Xorg-7.3 in combination with a nVidia 8400 GS (256 MB PCI-E) screen "blinks" in and out at arbitrary times.  (See "two questions" and "porting 7.3" threads on FreeBSD-x11 for details)

Attempted fixes/trouble shooting:

     * Use of nv/branded nvidia driver (X doesn't reconize the card under either 
       driver)

     * Some minor changes in physical I/O configuration of target platform
       (swapped out wireless router for direct connect to cable modem and 
        different PCI latency settings [BIOS])... lower latency and direct 
        connect seem to make the problem worse.

     * Ensure that machine is not swapping (and it is not)

Full hardware environment :

    Intel E6850 CPU
    P35 based mother board
    nVidia 8400 GS (256 MB PCI-E)
    20" wide screen

   Current resolution and depth: 1680x1050 @ 24 (using built in vesa mode line)

Here is my xorg.conf (generated by X -configure with hand added default depth and mode lines):

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	RgbPath      "/usr/local/share/X11/rgb"
	ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
	FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
	FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
	FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
	FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
	FontPath     "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "GLcore"
	Load  "xtrap"
	Load  "dri"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
	ModeLine "1680x1050"  147.14 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
        Option     "DefaultRefresh"     	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ModeSetClearScreen" 	# [<bool>]
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "vesa"
	BusID       "ISA"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
  	DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth       8
Modes "1680x1050" "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth       16
Modes "1680x1050" "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth       24
Modes "1680x1050" "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth       32
Modes "1680x1050" "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubsection
EndSection


>How-To-Repeat:
Replicate hardware enviroment and use stock vesa driver
>Fix:


>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: