Ubuntu Karmic fail report: Xorg update breaks screensaver on Intel 830m video

I don't know whether or not this is just me that Ubuntu and/or Xorg is trying to kill, but my latest Intel-graphics honeymoon is most definitely over.

Yesterday I used Aptitude to pull in the latest Ubuntu Karmic updates for the Toshiba Satellite 1100-S101 (with the Intel 82830 CGC, aka 830M). If you'll recall, the last series of updates I installed for Karmic allowed me to use kernel mode setting for the X server, and I was once again able to run Ubuntu (with no xorg.conf, by the way) and have the onboard Intel graphics run as well as they ever have.

But after yesterday's bag full of updates, which were mostly Xorg-related, everything worked OK until the screensaver blanked the screen, after which the screen could not be restored either with the keyboard or mouse.

I haven't yet bothered to return ctrl-alt-backspace functionality to kill the X server in Ubuntu, so I don't know whether or not that would bring X back.

As it stands now, if the screensaver is invoked, I need to do a hard reset with the power button to bring the machine back.

The closest bug I could find is this one specific to the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Bug #491302 in Launchpad. I do have a Launchpad account, and I did add a comment to the bug. Right now I'm not running the Ubuntu laptop, so I can't attach dmesg, lspci, etc.

Before setting up the Ubuntu Toshiba laptop, I pulled out the 1999-era Compaq Armada 7770dmt (Pentium II MMX 233 MHz, 144 MB RAM) and updated its Debian Lenny system ("customized" with a minimal Xfce desktop), writing this entry via the just-updated Opera 10 browser.

My next course of action with Ubuntu Karmic will be to try the xorg.conf I used in Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty). Hopes remain low.