Ubuntu Raring Hard Freezes with AMD Driver

[Mike L]

This bug is simple to explain, but hard to figure out what specifically is causing it. While using the computer, Ubuntu will frequently (within 5-10 minutes of use) hard freeze. I am unable to move the mouse, CTRL ALT F whatever to a virtual terminal, use the keyboard, and the power button doesn't respond unless I do a hard shutdown. This could be a bug with the kernel, Xorg, or compiz. Or even something else. I have no clue to as to what's causing this, so I will upload some log files from /var/log and provide my kernel version, graphics card, and more system info if necessary. This courts frequently on raring, but also happened occasionally on Quantal. But that's another bug report. Every package is up to date. I noticed this happened only on quantal when I manually upgraded to the mainline kernel. So it could also be a kernel bug.

[Mike L (mikerl)]

Kernel: Linux 3.8.0-1-generic 64 bit
Log files on there way. Lert me know if additional details are needed.

[Mike L (mikerl)]

In case anyone is reading this bug report, I am going to attempt and SSH in to Raring the next time it freezes. I was unable to get it to do a dump when it last crashed. Must be really badly crashing.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Valentin (valentin-stn)]

Very annoying problem. I can't reproduce it. The error occurs spontaneosely, but it seems that it occurs very often, if the PC startet at least an hour ago or so.

I'm using die open-source gallium/radeon driver and Ubuntu raring. If you need more informations, please let me know ...

[Mike L (mikerl)]

In a way, I'm glad someone else has this problem. I wish nobody had it, but now we can confirm this bug. That means it's not a hardware issue. What specific graphics card do you have? I wonder if it's the same graphics card I have, an AMD Radeon HD 6300. Or does this effect every graphics card using the radeon driver? Please do investigate.

[Harald Hetzner (haraldhetzner)]

Same problem here on an AMD A4-5300 APU using the radeon driver. Freezing particularly occurs when I scroll in firefox. Interestingly, when using the chromium-browser instead, this problem occurs much less frequently. As soon as the freeze occurs, unity does not respond to mouse and keyboard input any longer. However, I can use magic SysRq keys Alt + Print + REISUB to reboot my computer. So, the kernel (3.0.8-5) is still alive. It would be great, if someone could figure where this annoying problem is located.

[Mike L (mikerl)]

Now that you guys can get the magic SysRq keys to dump a log, and then we can get the ball rolling. I left plenty of logs, but still we need more. I oddly don't even have a SysRq key (I have a Microsoft keyboard that comes with its own funky layout) and I have no clue as to any alternate key commands. When I went on IRC to debug this mess, the devs told me I need to get more proper logs. If one of you guys can do it, it will be appreciated and we can make progress. Anyhow, the links they gave me were to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Triaging#Package_Classification
and also
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Debugging
but I think we just need to debug Xorg if you guys can get the kernel to respond. You've saved me some bug reporting work! Thank you! Just reference the first link.

[Harald Hetzner (haraldhetzner)]

Since having updated to the latest linux image (linux-image-3.8.0-6-generic_3.8.0-6.11_amd64.deb), which was rebased to kernel version 3.8-rc7, a few days ago, I have not experienced any freezes of unity. Even when using firefox and doing excessive scrolling, which was very likely to cause freezes of my computer, before. So, it looks like the latest upstream kernel solved the problem in my case.

[Mike L (mikerl)]

Thanks for testing it out! With all the hard freezing I was ready to pull my hair out! But development branch is development stability, so I guess I should have expected issues. I will continue to use this Ubuntu release until I experience a freeze again. If I don't experience it in a week or so, and no others experience it again, I will mark the bug as resolved.

[Valentin (valentin-stn)]

Updated today to the new kernel version. Hopefully this solves the problem also for me.

[Valentin (valentin-stn)]

Bug definitely fixed for me.

[Mike L (mikerl)]

Yep. No more crashes here, either. Now I can get back to testing and work.