Xserver crashes enabling visual effects

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-ati

The xserver crashes when enabling visual effects.

To reproduce:
1. Log into GDM
2. System>Preferences>Appearance>Visual Effects>Normal
Detecting driver dialog shows, "Unable to enable effects" dialog shows a slit second before returning to GDM login.

Note can enable visual effects by running "compiz --replace" from the command-line. X crashes when quitting compiz in this case.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Aug 3 10:55:51 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 6000
Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090629.f39cafc5-0ubuntu4
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-4-generic root=UUID=f330234e-6a21-4d7e-9fff-33d5411efe54 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_NZ.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_NZ.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-4.23-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.5-1ubuntu1
 libdrm2 2.4.12-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.0-0ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090629.f39cafc5-0ubuntu4
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-ati
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-4-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 07/22/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A08
dmi.board.name: 0X9238
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA08:bd07/22/2005:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron6000:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0X9238:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 6000
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-4-generic

I forwarded this bug upstream to https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23104 - I'd encourage you to subscribe to that.

They indicate that this is probably fixed by a couple xserver commits. I'm going to give a shot to seeing if it'd be hard to backport those to our 1.6.3 xserver, otherwise you may want to test using a newer xserver snapshot, which can be found in the xorg-edgers ppa. https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

I've packaged the two patches mentioned on the upstream bug to this PPA:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~bryceharrington/+archive/orange

Let me know whether or not that solves the issue. If it does, I can pull it into karmic proper for more thorough testing.

ping?

According to the comment on the upstream bug, this is now fixed, so closing. I'll also be removing the patched package from the PPA.