ubuntu natty beta nvidia regression - maximize white hang

I ran a fresh install of the ubuntu amd64 20110414 daily build, and the situation for beta2 is similar to beta1.
* Nouveau driver seems to work OK, classic gnome interface only, as its unaccelerated
* nvidia driver has issues on this Dell Inspiron 530 with the nvidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 (C61) chip.

The current behavior is:
  * most application windows draw as solid white
  * gnome terminal is readable ordinary size, but solid white maximized
  * firefox windows are solid white, both ordinary and maximized. However, if I use Alt-D to type url stuff, the search completion overlay is visible, while the main page canvas remains solid white
  * 5 minutes of opening and closing apps and maximizing and minimizing windows didn't produce a lockup

So it improved, but not to the point of being usable. If anyone wants particular log files or experiments, please ask.
There are no exciting error messages obvious in /var/log{syslog,kern.log,Xorg.0.log}.

I can confirm similar behavior.

Installed Natty beta2 fresh (yesterday). AMD64. Applied all updates. Using "recommended" Nvidia driver.

Not only do I experience a plain white screen when I maximize a window (though the top menu appears to be intact), but I also have this problem when I make the window just a little too big. For example, FF is probably about 500 pixels wide as I type because if I make it any wider, the FF window goes all white, making it useless.

Though I've not tested *all* applications, I can repeat this effortlessly with terminal and LibreOffice also. In other words, the three applications I've opened.

If this isn't a show stopper for me, it's pretty darn close.

Let me know what info I can produce that might help. When I get a chance, I'll try an different (older?) Nvidia driver.

Well, I ended up trying the other Nvidia driver sooner rather than later because of this issue. Literally, the comp is nearly unusable otherwise: the Nvidia configuration screen is too big, resulting in a white out; the ubuntu system settings dialog is too big, resulting in a white out. Neither one of those can be made smaller than it already is. I'm not trying to be a prat here, but I do want to communicate that the symptoms we're experiencing are not trivial.

Now, downgrading the driver seems to have made a pretty big difference. I'm writing this in a maximized FF, and I can maximize Terminal and LibreOffice also (ditto for System settings). The Nvidia version appears to be 173 (I have no idea what the "recommended" one is - the dialog doesn't say).

As before, let me know what additional information I can provide.

Confirm same problem after upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04
 x86_64
HP Pavilion dv9205us
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (UMA)

"Recommended" nvidia driver causes white screen window if more than two maximized windows.
Downgrading to 173 nvidia driver allows many maximized windows.

Confirm same problem after upgrade 10.10 to 11.04
i386

"Recommended" nvidia driver causes white screen window if more than two maximized windows.
Downgrading to 173 nvidia driver allows many maximized windows.

As noted above, but 173 nvidia driver causes occasional choppy HD video playback, which is the lesser of the two evils.

Can I encourage more people to register and voice their opinion as this bug is serious needs to get on the radar.

Hi,

Same problem after upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04, with a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 with shared memory.
I suspect his might come from video memory usage. Here is the result of my (limited) experimentations:
After having opened a few windows (full screen or not), I reach a point where the next opened window will be solid white.
At this point, it is still possible for me to get the content of that window by reducing its display size, or that of another window.
If I then switch to a previously opened (and correctly displayed) window, and make it a little bigger, it will get blank too. I can even find a treshold: below a certain window size, content shows; over it, it does not.

I suspect there is something of a "maximum total opened window area": when reached, any activated window will be plain white.

I think it may be linked to video memory usage, because I've found that whenever I play Civilization IV over Wine, which uses much more video memory than a standard desktop app, the total showable window area seems much smaller.

I hope this might help to correct that serious defect, as well as help those who experience it...

Xavier

I'm having the same issue as well, but I noticed it before upgrading to Natty. I was running 10.04 and having the issue with fullscreening. Running an HP Pavilion dv6000, AMD64, with a GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M and (currently) the latest NVIDIA drivers (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-275.09.07). The reason I upgraded to 11.04 is I was hoping it would solve the issue. It seems like the more windows are open the easier it occurs. I'll try downgrading to 173...

Same issue here after upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04.
Using Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 on Compaq Presario V3019AU.

To add, sometimes when locking/unlocking the screen, the whole screen goes white.
I type my password in anyway and can then see the desktop (though one time everything was still white).
The issue is still there though, as I then experience the maximize issue, also the image resizing issue.

After some testing to reproduce the issue, I'm thinking along the same lines as Xavier.
Open a few windows and the issue starts occurring.
Close a few windows and the issue goes away.

HTH

I had the same problem on my HP dv2700 with an nvidia 7150. I could only maximize about three windows, after that, everything that I maximized went blank. What I did was increase the video memory in the bios from 64mb to 128mb. After that I could open any number of windows and none of them had that problem. Hope it helps.

That version is no more supported; please open a new bug report if the actual archive found version also has the same issue.