Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: gnome-control-center
1) $ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10
2) $ apt-cache policy gnome-control-center
gnome-control-center:
Installed: 1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7.1
Candidate: 1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7.1
Version table:
*** 1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7.1 0
500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7 0
500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
3) What I expected to happen: No resource problems and/or continuous
error messages to log on an idle system with default settings
4) The message
"[driAllocateTexture:636] unable to allocate texture"
is written to /var/log/gdm/\:0.log about once a second even when the
system is idle and no graphics intensive application is running.
Without being an expert in this area, I understand this means that the
resources of graphics card have been exhausted.
I believe this can be seen by the end user e.g. by drastically reduced
scrolling performance e.g. in a normal gnome terminal (but I have not
investigated this claim very carefully). Anyway I think writing an error to a
log file about once a
second in a clean system is not acceptable.
Further details
Hardware: Laptop IBM T40
Graphics card:
(--) PCI:*([EMAIL PROTECTED]:0:0) ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility
FireGL
9000] rev 2, Mem @ 0xe0000000/0, 0xc0100000/0, I/O @ 0x00003000/0, BIOS
@ 0x????????/131072
Software: a plain intrepid installation with all recommended updates and
only 3 minor additional packages installed
Work around: Go to System --> Preferences --> Appearance // Visual Effects and
change the default setting "Normal" to "None"
Without understanding much of that topic I made the following guesses:
- The "Normal" visual effects of 2008 are just too heavy for an
approximately 5 year old laptop. (I understand business laptops like
this one are not optimized for graphics performance anyway)
- Because the graphic card runs out of resources the error occurs
continuously
If my guesses are correct the only solution is that Ubuntu must
recognize during installation (or a each boot), whether the graphics
card is powerful enough to handle "Normal" visual effects. If not, they
should be disabled by default, because the average user
- will not read the log files,
- will not understand what the error message [driAllocateTexture:636] means
(nor do I)
- and will not be able to draw the conclusion that visual effect should be
disabled
I further guessed that gnome-control-center might possibly be responsible for
the default settings, because it allows the user to change the visual effects.
If this guess was wrong, the bug needs to be redirected to another package,
whoever is
responsible for choosing the default value)
(Of course if my guesses above that the visual effects will just not
reasonably work on "such an old" laptop graphics card were wrong, it
might be possible to correct the implementation of the visual effects.
Then again, the bug should be redirected to whoever causes the error
message)
** Affects: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Description changed:
Binary package hint: gnome-control-center
1) $ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10
2) $ apt-cache policy gnome-control-center
gnome-control-center:
Installed: 1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7.1
Candidate: 1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7.1
Version table:
*** 1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7.1 0
500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1:2.24.0.1-0ubuntu7 0
500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
3) What I expected to happen: No resource problems and/or continuous
error messages to log on an idle system with default settings
4) The message
"[driAllocateTexture:636] unable to allocate texture"
- is written to /var/log/gdm/\:0.log about once a second even when the system
is idle and no graphics intensive application
- is running.
+ is written to /var/log/gdm/\:0.log about once a second even when the
+ system is idle and no graphics intensive application is running.
Without being an expert in this area, I understand this menas the the
resources of graphics card have been exhausted.
I believe this can be seen by the end user e.g. by drastically reduced
scrolling performance e.g. in a normal gnome terminal (but I have not
investigated this claim very carefually)
Further details
Hardware: Laptop IBM T40
Graphics card:
(--) PCI:*([EMAIL PROTECTED]:0:0) ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility
FireGL
9000] rev 2, Mem @ 0xe0000000/0, 0xc0100000/0, I/O @ 0x00003000/0, BIOS
@ 0x????????/131072
Software: a plain intrepid installation with all recommended updates and
only 3 minor additional packages installed
Work around: Go to System --> Preferences --> Appearance // Visual Effects
and change the default setting "Normal" to "None"
Without understand much of that topic I made the following guesses:
- The "Normal" visual effects of 2008 are just too heavy for ~ 5 year old
laptop. (I understand business laptops like this
are not optimized for graphics performance anyway)
- Because the graphic card runs out of resources the error occurs
continously
If my guesses are correct the only solution is that Ubuntu should
recognize, whether the graphics card is powerful enough to handle
"Normal" visual effects. If not they should be diabled by default,
because the average user
- will not read the log files,
- will not understand what the error message [driAllocateTexture:636] means
(nor do I)
- and will not be able to draw the conclusion that visual effect should be
disabled
I further guessed that gnome-control-center might possibly be responsible for
the default settings, because it allows the user to change the visual effects.
If this guess was wrong, the bug needs to be redirected to another package,
whoever is
responsibel for choosing the default value)
(Of course if my guesses above that the visual effects will just not
reasonably work on such an old laptop graphics card were wrong, it might
be possible to correct the implementation of the visual effects. Then
again, the bug should be redirected to whoever causes the error message)
--
continuous [driAllocateTexture:636] even when idle
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/305586
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