Random system freeze in 13.04

[MorrisseyJ]

I am having a problems after upgrading to 13.04. This problem was not apparent in 12.10.

My system now freezes randomly. When this happens i cannot input (no mouse, no keyboard) or output (if music is playing it starts to skip) anything from the machine. The only option left when this happens is to hard reboot by holding down the power button. The freeze appears to happen randomly and could occur after 3 minutes of use or after 10 hours. It has even occured during the shutdown process. I have no sense what, if anything causes the freeze.

I have seen that i am meant to upgrade my BIOS before posting bugs, and while my BIOS is out of date, i see that my BIOS update now includes a UEFI update which i am worried will break my system. As such before fiddling with the BIOS i thought i'd see if this was a kernel issue or a bug.

I am running 64bit Ubuntu 13.04, dual booting windows 7, on a Lenovo Thinkpad x131e.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: linux-image-3.8.0-19-generic 3.8.0-19.29 [modified: boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-19.29-generic 3.8.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: james 1737 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Mon Apr 29 14:29:56 2013
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=d1d94d08-d6e3-4dd5-9c12-727b6058b754
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-04-25 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
MachineType: LENOVO 33682NG
MarkForUpload: True
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic root=UUID=92ae58cb-ae73-45fb-84b1-86ea89b46181 ro persistent quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-19-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-19-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.106
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/04/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: G8ET30WW (1.08 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 33682NG
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrG8ET30WW(1.08):bd07/04/2012:svnLENOVO:pn33682NG:pvrThinkPadX131e:rvnLENOVO:rn33682NG:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 33682NG
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X131e
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.9 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.9-raring/

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

I have got yesterday's upstream kernel up and running, but have had my ability to test it compromised by not being able to get the wireless working on it.

My attempts to fix the wireless on the upstream kernel managed to break my wireless on the current kernel, thus i ended up being tethered to the internet for most of yesterday doing work that couldn't wait for me to find a fix to my wireless issues. In all that time i had no problems with the machine freezing. I'd like to try it for a bit longer however, so getting the wireless to work would really help that.

I have now fixed the wireless on the current kernel (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2140655) and in doing so wonder if its not some conflict with the proprietary wireless driver that is causing the freezes.

When i have wireless working in the current kernel, i see the following message on the boot screen:
INFO @wl_cfg80211_attach : Registered CFG80211 phy

When i boot to the upstream kernel, where my wireless isn't working, i have no such issue. Notably i also have no system freezes. In addition, after i broke the wireless on the current kernel, i did not see that message at start-up and, notably also had no freezing on the current kernel.

Problematically, in all these tests, i think more time on either kernel, could result in a freeze.

I am not sure if the idea of a link between the wireless error on start-up and the freezing is specious. The only way for me to really be able to test the upstream kernel however would be if i could get the wireless working.

Does anyone have any advice for how i can resolve this.

Wireless card is:
Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/

On the current kernel this works fine when the proprietary Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver is enabled via: Software & updates --> Additional Drivers. Notably, when this is installed the error message 'INFO @wl_cfg80211_attach : Registered CFG80211 phy', shows on startup.

On the upstream kernel enabling the proprietary Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver does not get the wireless working, and there is no error message on startup.

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

Recent update to 3.8.0-21-generic doesn't seem to have fixed things. Just had a freeze.

I would really appreciate if anyone could help me through this. Random system freezes are crippling me.

Thanks.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

Why has this expired?

What am I meant to do? I have requested support for testing the upstream kernel and received none.

[Orionds (shamrock-d)]

I have had the same random freezing problem with the PCs at work and at home, totalling 6 in all. I have a second PC at home with Ubuntu 12.04 and does not have this problem. The 6 PCs with the freezing problem have Ubuntu 13.04 on them.

Everything just stops for no reason - any time. If music or audio is playing, when it freezes, the audio just keeps repeating the last second or so.

The freezes seem to happen at least once a day. The only solution has been to hold down the power button to shut down and then pressed to restart.

[Orionds (shamrock-d)]

The PC I am using just froze again - about 20 minutes after the previous one.

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

This is a frustrating problem.

Since filing this bug i have reverted to 12.04, which also went about freezing randomly.

It seems though that freezing is limited to when the machine is on battery power - i am still testing this but haven't had a freeze on mains power for a long while. That has lead me to believe that it is a wireless card problem, which also possibly explains all the issues i described above.

I have a broadcom BCM43228 wireless card and had originally been running the driver through the additional drivers dialogue. I have since removed that (bcmwl-kernel-source) and built again from scratch, using the patches included here: http://www.mindwerks.net/2012/06/wireless-bcm4312-with-the-3-4-and-3-5-kernel/

Was on battery power for about 5 hours last night and no freeze. I will continue testing today.

If this works i might try and go back to 13.04 and build the driver again there.

@Orionds: if you have the same wireless card on your machines running 13.04, perhaps you could give this a try .

[rsoika (ralph-soika)]

I have the same behavior on 13.04 64bit. It freezes minimum once a day. I also made a test with 12.04 32Bit but without any improvement.
The system freezes with power supply as also without. I also tried switch off the wireless card and use cable. But also the system freezes after some minutes.
I try every new kernel release and I am working currently with 3.11.0-031100rc6-generic. But I did not found any solution yet.
See also my own report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1137817

[Julius Juurmaa (juurmaa)]

I can also confirm the same buggy behavior on 13.04 64bit. I can also confirm that removing bcmwl-kernel-source and building from scratch as described on http://www.mindwerks.net/2012/06/wireless-bcm4312-with-the-3-4-and-3-5-kernel/ seems to have fixed it :) Fingers crossed!

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

I have now been running the system for about 5 days and have not had one freeze since recompiling the driver. I think this must have been the problem

Great to hear that this also fixes the problem in 13.04.

[flanagan (flanaganj)]

I can confirm that the freezes and some other buggy things have been absent for a few days now since I also recompiled the patched 64-bit driver. Before that, I would get 2-5 complete system freezes a day (mostly when on battery power) on 64-bit Ubuntu 13.04. The other annoying thing that has so far gone away since the re-compile are random disconnects (especially when another device with a non-Broadcom card came nearby (like our other laptop or a Kindle Fire HD). The Broadcom card would sometimes, but not always disconnect. Then it would never again connect until a soft reboot of our router was done. So far so good.

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

Unfortunately i am back on 13.04 and installing with the patched driver still results in freezes when on battery. I will try and rebuild this evening.

[max (maxciceu)]

Hi.
Had the same issues with ubuntu 12.04/12.10/13.04 on my laptop.
The solution I found is to replace the kernel with the upstream kernel 3.9.0-030900-generic.
It breaks the wifi , but that was fixed by installing the driver provided by Broadcom.
It's been 3 days since my last freeze ... still in testing.

[MorrisseyJ (morrissey-james1)]

Hi all,

I never solved this, but eventually got rid of the freezing by buying and installing a whitelisted intel centrino wireless card and replacing the broadcom card. Freezing has stopped. It was clearly the broadcom card that was the problem. This is not a great solution, but its been worth it to have a stable machine.