Frequent x-window and system crashes since recent updates

[skern03]

Since the recent updates over the past 10 days, my once reasonably stable system is no longer stable.

The system crashes back to the login prompt, sometimes when I'm working in OpenOffice documents, sometimes when I'm in Firefox, sometimes when I'm listening to music (Amarok). I'm grateful that OpenOffice has a decent recovery option. I've set background auto-saves for 5 minutes so I don't lose work. Unfortunately, crashing back to the login prompt is not rare - it happens once or twice a night.

Sometimes, it completely reboots while I'm working.

This morning at 5 AM it rebooted. I was not using it; in fact, it had been idle since 11 PM last night.

The only apps I'm running are HPLIP and screenlets. Screenlets running are the dock, a weather monitor and two CPU monitors. But these before the upgrades with no problems.

I've run recovery from the main menu, with no change in behavior.
I've run fsck up to the prompt that says it will destroy your hard drive (sorta kidding; can't remember the exact wording).

Running Ubuntu 8.10 on a P4 3 ghz hyperthreaded w/1.5 GB RAM w/ 250 GB SATA drive. Dualboot XP on a separate drive (40 GB Western Digital - gotta love WD - they almost never die!).
Any ideas?

[skern03]

Bump... either nobody else is experiencing this, or it's hardware. :confused:

[TTFN]

skern03, I am using Kubuntu and I am experiencing the exact same thing as you had described. I am monitoring this thread in hopes that someone will have an answer. I didn't post before now as I didn't want to hijack your thread, but did want to let you know that I share your problem.

[skern03]

skern03, I am using Kubuntu and I am experiencing the exact same thing as you had described. I am monitoring this thread in hopes that someone will have an answer. I didn't post before now as I didn't want to hijack your thread, but did want to let you know that I share your problem.

I tried Kubuntu, and found it pretty buggy and the forum support so awful that I asked the administrator to yank my account. I switched to Ubuntu, and have been much happier. Until the last wave of updates over the past two weeks.

Glad I'm not alone!

What video card are you using, and what driver? I have an ATI Radeon 9200 Pro, and am using the standard drivers. The ATI drivers really screwed things up. I am running "normal" advanced visual effects.

[TTFN]

What video card are you using, and what driver?

The video card in my laptop is an Intel 85x, using the stock i810 driver. (Found this info in Hardy. Could not find it in Intrepid.) I didn't have any thing more than the default video settings, effects, etc. Nothing that should have been too taxing on the system. However, afraid of losing data while working in Intrepid, I have switched back to Hardy since I never had any issues with it. But, have an image of my Intrepid installation if I should find new information to try. If nothing comes about then I will wait and give Jaunty a try when it is released.


I tried Kubuntu, and found it pretty buggy and the forum support so awful...

Being primarily a Windows user, I felt more at home with KDE for my transition to linux. I also agree with you about the Kubuntu forum - Ubuntu forum is much better and still contains a lot of useful information Kubuntu users like myself.

[skern03]

The video card in my laptop is an Intel 85x, using the stock i810 driver.

There goes my theory that it's something to do with ATI video cards. Those have been perennial problems with Ubuntu/Kubuntu.


Being primarily a Windows user, I felt more at home with KDE for my transition to linux. I also agree with you about the Kubuntu forum - Ubuntu forum is much better and still contains a lot of useful information Kubuntu users like myself.

I liked the desktop background chooser in Kubuntu. Great source for eye candy, not available (at least to my knowledge) in Ubuntu. The mac-like shelf at the bottom of Kubuntu was buggy, but nice when it worked.

As for the forum, yeah. If you didn't wear a propeller beanie, you were SOL. I asked a question about an upgrade that fouled up something I installed under Kubuntu - a "mac os style top menu bar." After the upgrade to 8.04 or 8.10, it became featureless and non-functional, and you couldn't get rid of it. I posted a message and to make a long story very short, got blasted. And I DO mean blasted as though I were a complete imbecile. Heck with that.

You don't find that here. You find lots of helpful folks.