Random system freezes (description, observations, hardware information).

[mivo]

I had installed Gutsy a few days ago and at first I was quite impressed by its stability and "snappiness". It also looked beautifully. However, after a few hours I experienced my first system freeze. This would then happen up to five times per 12 hours work session. There was nothing in the logs, and no actual pattern that I could determine. The freezes were, I believe, Gnome/desktop/X freezes as sound usually (but not always) continued and downloading of files resumed. The mouse cursor moved, but clicks were not registered and the keyboard was dead (LEDs did not work), In the end, I had to power off the machine every time. ( I waited up to 30 minutes.)

This happened in many different situations, while downloading files, while not downloading files, while playing back video, and while not playing back video. It did not seem to depend on any particular application, either. I tried the Radeon open source drivers and the ATI binary drivers (which increased my virtual desktop size unasked and caused the fan to blow at 100% even in the login screen). Temperature was checked and unlikely to be an issue (in fact, it was cooler than in Feisty because I had opened the side of the case). Gradually disabling Compiz effects and plugins until nothing was loaded did not remedy the problem. Number of running applications and backgrounds also seems to have no impact on the trouble, it happened with only Pidgin or Firefox running, and also while running five or six other applications and not running Pidgin/Firefox at all.

The one reliable observation I made was that the system freezes only occurred when I was actively doing something: typing, scrolling, moving windows, moving the mouse. The machine would happily run a 12 hours night and download torrents without any freezes. No freezes occurred when the system was idle, so the problem seems somehow related to I/O, though unlikely file I/O. I also let Memtest run for several hours, no problems were found.

The box is a P4 3.0 Ghz, 1 GB, IDE 250 GB disk (10 for /, 1 GB swap, rest for /home, no dual boot), Speedport 500V router, ATI X700 pro with 256 MB video RAM, NEC MultiSync 1960 NXi at 1280x1024/60 Hz (DVI), USB keyboard but connected per PS/2 adapter, Razer USB mouse, Pioneer DVD RW, Toshiba CDR. If any additional/specific hardware information is needed, please tell me how to obtain it and I'll post.

I went back to Feisty now because having to power off the machine five times every day is just not good for the disk. Feisty works fine, no freezes. Kubuntu Feisty also worked well on this box, though some KDE apps were notoriously crashy (Kmail with IMAP, but that is a common problem and not related).

I did not post a bug report at launchpad because I simply don't know what to put there. It is too vague and cannot be deliberately reproduced, though it happened daily. I also tried a Gutsy reinstallation. I saw other posts about the same trouble, so it is at least not an isolated problem. :/

[Sturmeh]

It IS beta you know... <_<
It could be some of your hardware using drivers that are unstable.

Is there any hardware that worked all of a sudden in GG that didn't work in FF?

( I was originally going to reply to this post saying, this is not a Windows support forum. xD )

[mivo]

I think you are missing the point of my post. It is not a complaint, it is a report. Yes, it is a beta, and we are less than two weeks away from release. My hardware is not exotic (and as said, works with Feisty and Kubuntu Feisty), so by posting my observations I hope to contribute information that may help to fix the trouble before the release.

[Sturmeh]

No I understand what you are saying, that is evident by the length and depth of your post, unlike mine.

You said it yourself however, it's best done as a bug report.

Your system logs nothing?
When it freezes, does REISUB not help?

Have you considered the new indexing service, that compliments the desktop search function, try turning that off?

[_oOMOo_]

Were you using Compiz in Feisty? Have you tried disabling desktop effects for a while?

There is a bug already that you might want to subscribe to if you feel this is Compiz related:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/134446

[Sturmeh]

Didn't he say he tested compiz pretty thoroughly, I doub't its compiz, it's been heavily tested, xD. ( Sure it can be unstable at times, but it doesn't cause system hang-ups. )

[_oOMOo_]

Didn't he say he tested compiz pretty thoroughly, I doub't its compiz, it's been heavily tested, xD. ( Sure it can be unstable at times, but it doesn't cause system hang-ups. )

yeah right

http://www.nvnews.net/vostebulletin/showthread.php?t=95804 (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=95804)

have you looked at the bug I posted? I don't think I'm the only person who would disagree with you. And twiddling settings in Compizconfig is not the same as switching to metacity - which is what happens when you turn off the desktop effects.

[mivo]

Compiz works for me in Feisty, no freezes. I had not tried to completely remove it in Gutsy, though, only turned everything off. The linked bug report seems as if it might apply, though most people seem to experience the freezes after relatively short periods of time. There were times I could work for five or more hours without any freezes. Freeze frequency seemed to increase when I switched between windows more often and faster (i.e. writing an email while also answering IMs), but this is also very vague and may only be coincidence.