8.10 Hangs when enabling full visual effects

[dnvikram]

Hi Folks!

I am running Ubuntu 8.10 (Fully Updated with latest fixes,patches,etc) on a Dell Inspiron 1420.Everything seems to be fine except the visual effects.Initially I noticed this problem when I was configuring AWN on it and wherein I had enable the full visual effects (3D) to fully exploit awn's capabilities.Installed,configured awn and the problem started after the next restart(post awn install).Whenever I tried to open firefox,nautilus,package manager or any other app,the whole desktop would lock up,not respond and I had to forcefully do a cold reboot to fix it.Initially I thought the problem would have been with awn.So,uninstalled it and inspite of that the same issue.So,awn wasnt the one which was causing the issue.Then I tried reducing the visual effects to normal and it was somewhat better.Then,suddenly the same issue.So,this time I disabled visual effects completely and it seemed fine.Yesterday,again I wanted to see if I could run the visual effects in normal mode without freezing up.It seems to be running fine till now.Hoping it wouldnt freeze or lock up.Ubuntu 8.04 used to run flawlessly with all the effects enabled on the same laptop.Not sure whats causing this issue.Is anyone else facing this issue on a Inspiron 1420 or Ubuntu 8.10 as such?How can I permanently fix this?

I really am in love with 8.10..Its an amazing OS...But,this one issue is dampening my spirits although a minor irritation.That too this issue happened twice in front of an acquaintance of mine who started bashing Linux immediately with his less than half baked knowledge.I have always showed off ubuntu to everyone around me and it made me proud :-) Still does...But,this guy got onto my nerves...Didnt even try explaining to him about the merits of Linux over *******...Its like playing a harp to a buffalo..

Any tips,assistance would be highly appreciated...Thanks a million!

[mjheagle8]

can you open up a terminal when you first start? from the terminal, launch a program, and see if you get errors which would cause the hang. if that does not work, launch a terminal and run either top or htop, then try to load a program and see if anything is sucking up a ton of system resources.

[dnvikram]

That's the problem.I just cant open anything.Everything is frozen and the only option left is to forcefully reboot the system.It happened yesterday twice.There is one common thing though,most of the times this problem tends to start after I try invoking firefox when visual effects are enabled,either in normal or 3D effects mode.

[mjheagle8]

so you cant open a terminal?

[dnvikram]

Yes.Absolutely nothing.Its just frozen.Have disabled visual effects for now.Launching FF still freezes my system for 10-15 seconds btw.

[dj722000]

I had similar problem when I put ATLANTIS plugin on, with everything I had runnning, AWN, SCREENLETS, COMPIZ, it just hung, about 20 sec later it came back. I don't know which one is causing the problem. But when I was able to get back into COMPIZ and turn off ATLANTIS, everything is fine now. Are you by chance running ATLANTIS and everything else? I think it maybe ATLANTIS and AWN not getting along. Might not even be your problem. Just my .02 cents.