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BJones007
October 5th, 2014, 09:45 AM
Hey guys, I've been having an issue with my desktop crashing each time I hit the super key + W. At first I thought it was my graphics card, so I added the xorg-edgers/ppa and installed
xserver-xorg-video-intel but the same thing keeps happening. The screen will flash once when I hit the shortcut on the first try, but afterwards I get the error notification: "Docky requires compositing to work properly. Please enable compositing and restart Docky." and it's stuck on the opened window and I'm unable to get out of that screen or switch to something else. The notification bar at the top also goes missing and the only way I can resolve this is by pressing and holding the power button till the PC is completely off.

The PC works fine without hitting the windows spread key combination, but I'd love if it went back to normal cos sometimes I forget and I have to reboot all over again. From the notification error it seems there's a problem with compositing, but I don't understand what I could have done to make it crash. What could have caused this and how do I go about fixing it? Am I over working my graphics card?

I appreciate any advice and help, cheers.

gordintoronto
October 6th, 2014, 12:03 AM
What version of Ubuntu? Do you have Docky installed?

BJones007
October 6th, 2014, 08:08 AM
I'm running Ubuntu 14.04 and yes I do have Docky installed

BJones007
October 6th, 2014, 08:09 AM
I'm running Ubuntu 14.04 and yes I do have Docky installed

CantankRus
October 6th, 2014, 01:41 PM
Odd you get that docky error, because compiz is an "OpenGL window and compositing manager"
What's your terminal output from...

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

BJones007
October 7th, 2014, 06:15 AM
Here is the output for
/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p





OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 256 bits)
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3


Not software rendered: no
Not blacklisted: yes
GLX fbconfig: yes
GLX texture from pixmap: yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program: yes
GL fragment program: yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object: yes
GL version is 1.4+: yes


Unity 3D supported: no

CantankRus
October 7th, 2014, 06:30 AM
That seems to indicate a gfx card/driver issue. You are using software rendering.
Installing inxi will help to diagnose.

sudo apt-get install inxi
Then in terminal run inxi -b and post results.
eg

@Trusty:~$ inxi -b
System: Host: Trusty Kernel: 3.13.0-36-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Ubuntu 14.04 trusty
Machine: Mobo: Gigabyte model: GA-78LMT-USB3 version: x.x Bios: Award version: FA date: 04/23/2013
CPU: Quad core AMD FX-4300 (-MCP-) clocked at 3800.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GF116 [GeForce GTX 550 Ti]
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) Resolution: 1680x1050@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 331.38
Network: Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1254.2GB (14.6% used)
Info: Processes: 230 Uptime: 2:23 Memory: 1208.5/3935.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 1.9.17

I have to go out now but I am sure others will help.

BJones007
October 7th, 2014, 07:38 AM
This is my output for
inxi -b


System: Host: brian-Inspiron-3520 Kernel: 3.13.0-36-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Ubuntu 14.04 trusty
Machine: System: Dell (portable) product: Inspiron 3520
Mobo: Dell model: 0G8TPV version: A04 Bios: Dell version: A04 date: 09/28/2012
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i3-2370M CPU (-HT-MCP-) clocked at 1200.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 256 bits) GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k
Card-2: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller driver: r8169
Card-3: Atheros
Drives: HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (52.3% used)
Info: Processes: 248 Uptime: 1:37 Memory: 3155.4/3816.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 1.9.1

CantankRus
October 7th, 2014, 09:52 AM
Was this a fresh install or upgrade?
Try re-installing xserver-xorg-video-intel and rebooting.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-video-intel

BJones007
October 8th, 2014, 07:24 AM
It was a fresh install and I just did the re-install, rebooted and I'm still having the same issue. :(

CantankRus
October 8th, 2014, 08:32 AM
I have never had to deal with driver issues.
Only ever had desktops with nvidia cards that just work.
I would just be googling for fixes now.

Try googling "Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller" +ubuntu to find out why you're not using the intel driver.
Also try googlubuntu (http://www.googlubuntu.com/)

BJones007
October 9th, 2014, 08:41 AM
I fixed it! After doing some extensive research I found that it had nothing to do with my intel driver. In fact I have the Cinnamon desktop environment installed and was able to do the windows spread there. The issue was actually with Unity. At first I thought there was a conflict between Unity Tweak tool and CCSM, but I didn't have CCSM installed so I was baffled. Finally I came across this command
dconf reset -f /org/compiz/ && setsid unity and everything is now back to normal. Apparently this spread issue is a bug with the Unity Tweak tool. Hopefully this helps anyone else having the issue. Cheers! :)

CantankRus
October 9th, 2014, 08:49 AM
Good to see it's working.
Don't understand why the /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p command
shows your using software rendering though.
Out of curiosity what does this command give you.

sudo lshw -c video

BJones007
October 10th, 2014, 06:23 AM
Here you go


*-display description: VGA compatible controller
product: 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 09
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:43 memory:f7800000-f7bfffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:f000(size=64)

CantankRus
October 10th, 2014, 07:32 AM
Here is the output for
/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p





OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 256 bits)
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3


Not software rendered: no
Not blacklisted: yes
GLX fbconfig: yes
GLX texture from pixmap: yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program: yes
GL fragment program: yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object: yes
GL version is 1.4+: yes


Unity 3D supported: no
Does this give a different result now.

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

BJones007
October 10th, 2014, 04:41 PM
Yeah it does:-k

OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology CenterOpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Sandybridge Mobile
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3


Not software rendered: yes
Not blacklisted: yes
GLX fbconfig: yes
GLX texture from pixmap: yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program: yes
GL fragment program: yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object: yes
GL version is 1.4+: yes


Unity 3D supported: yes

CantankRus
October 11th, 2014, 01:35 AM
That appears to show that for some reason the intel drivers were not being loaded.
and you were falling back to software rendering by llvmpipe (http://www.mesa3d.org/llvmpipe.html) instead of using your gfx card.
I don't have a full grasp on this but possibly it was a just case of compiz failing to load properly.
Anyway looks like you found a fix by setting compiz back to default and reloading.
If it happens again just try reloading compiz without setting back to defaults so you don't lose any customized compiz settings.
ie

setsid unity
before running if needed

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/ && setsid unity
Goodluck.

colinafletcher
October 28th, 2014, 09:40 PM
I had the same issue. The symptoms started when I checked the 'click to access desktop' item in the Window Spread section of the Unity Tweak tool. It was initially greyed out, but became checkable after I toggled Window Spread off and on again. After checking it, when window spread was activated the desktop would flash. Activating window spread again would make the desktop crash.

No amount of unchecking that option (after rebooting) would return the thing to normal. Neither would
dconf reset -f Inspired by that, however, I reset the Unity Tweak package:
dpkg-reconfigure unity-tweak-tool
Problem solved. Thanks for sharing, I wouldn't have figured this out otherwise.