[Intel-gfx] error w/ ExtMon on 13" 2011 MacBook Pro running Ubuntu

[Jeffery Olson]

Hello,
I'm running Ubuntu Natty Narwhal Beta 1 64bit and whenever I attempt
to connect an external display to my new 2011 13" (8,1) MacBook Pro
(using a mini-displayport-to-vga adapter), I get very weird behavior
with the display that can only be fixed by disconnecting the remote
display and rebooting. From what I've gathered, this issue doesn't
occur for users of the 15" and 17" models (probably because those
models have discrete graphics, like my laptop which uses sandy bridge
graphics).

I've posted on this issue in the Ubuntu Apple users forum, as well, to
see if I can get some help from that end. I know people aren't here on
this list to provide macbook support, either, but I think the issue is
pretty esoteric and probably to do with the intel drivers/support.

Back to the issue, I've never gotten External Monitor support to work
with this laptop in linux (all the monitors I've tested/verified this
behavior with work fine on OSX, as well), although the errors I
describe sometimes won't happen immediately when connecting an
external monitor (although they definitely occur when trying to run
something like Gnome's Monitor system settings dialog to configure the
displays), when I connect the external monitor (sometimes even while
the monitor is still powered off.. the issue doesn't occur
consistently), the laptop's display will go black.. but I can move/see
the mouse cursor and, as it (I assume) hovers over window elements
(like a link in a browser), I can still see the mouse cursor change.
So it's like all of the windows are being painted black?

At this point I have to drop down to a console session and kill
gnome-session to get X/gdm to restart. If, prior to doing this, I
disconnect the minidisplay port, then the gdm login screen will come
up fine, but my laptop display's resolution will be reformatted to
something like 4:3 (almost like how the resolution changes when
connected to a 4:3 projector and mirroring the display, maybe?)..
after logging in, though, I get weird behavior/lockups and pretty much
have to reboot.

I'm running on a new (2011 / 8,1) 13" MacBook Pro (uses HD3000
graphics) running a fresh install of the 64bit Ubuntu Natty Narwhal
Beta 1 (which is using the newer versions of the linux kernel and xorg
needed to use sandy bridge graphics, I gather). I have seen the exact
behavior described above on multiple installs of Natty (Alpha 2 and
Beta 1).

When I connect the monitor using the mini-displayport-to-vga dongle,
here's the dmesg output I get:

[ 277.783448] [drm:drm_mode_getfb] *ERROR* invalid framebuffer id
[ 284.540195] [drm:intel_dp_aux_ch] *ERROR* dp_aux_ch not started
status 0x8023003e
[ 284.540214] [drm:intel_dp_aux_ch] *ERROR* dp_aux_ch not started
status 0x8023003e
[ 286.816910] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid] *ERROR* EDID checksum is
invalid, remainder is 251
[ 286.816922] [drm:drm_edid_block_valid] *ERROR* Raw EDID:
[ 286.816932] <3>00 ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 72 a1 ad 36 e6 10 81 0b
........r..6....
[ 286.816940] <3>12 01 03 08 2f 1e 78 ea de 95 a3 54 4c 99 26 0f
..../.x....TL.&.
[ 286.816948] <3>50 54 bf ef 90 a9 40 71 4f 81 40 8b c0 95 00 95
PT.... at qO.@.....
[ 286.816956] <3>0f 90 40 01 01 21 39 90 30 62 1a 27 40 68 b0 36
.. at ..!9.0b.'@h.6
[ 286.816964] <3>00 da 28 11 00 00 19 00 00 00 fd 00 38 4d 1f 54
..(.........8M.T
[ 286.816972] <3>11 00 0a 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 ff 00 4c 41 ... .....LA
[ 286.816980] <3>31 30 43 30 34 31 34 30 33 30 0a 00 00 00 fc 00
10C0414030......
[ 286.816988] <3>41 4c 32 32 31 36 57 0a 20 20 20 20 20 00 65 ff AL2216W. .e.
[ 286.816994]
[ 287.951170] [drm:intel_dp_complete_link_train] *ERROR* failed to
train DP, aborting
[ 330.047224] [drm:ironlake_crtc_disable] *ERROR* failed to disable transcoder
[ 330.709291] [drm:intel_dp_complete_link_train] *ERROR* failed to
train DP, aborting

Anyways, this issue is pretty frustrating and is, basically, a blocker
for me using Linux day-to-day (otherwise I'm stuck in OSX, which is a
rant I'll save for another day).

Thanks and I hope someone can provide some insight/feedback. Please
let me know if you have a bug tracker or anything like that I can file
bugs against to expedite this, as well.

Cheers,
Jeff