Whole system freezes while copying files

[Tanguy P]

The same issue occurred to me 3 times today in Ubuntu 13.10, under different circumstances.

I was copying files in Nautilus from my internal HD to an external HD, when after about one minute the whole system froze to the point that I had to shut down my PC brutally using the power button.

Here are the details about the drives and partitions:
- Internal: 500 GB drive, 460 GB NTFS partition, distinct from my Ubuntu partition
- External: 1 TB, one single NTFS partition

I've been using Ubuntu for just about 4 weeks, but before today I'd been reading and writing from both drives involved without any issue. I was not able to clearly identify the particular conditions that were causing the copy operation to fail, as the circumstances varied:
- In one occurrence of the bug, I also had a second external HD (320 GB) plugged in; however, when the problem reoccurred this was no longer the case.
- The folder I was trying to copy that first caused the issue was an SVN repository (30 MB). However, I was subsequently able to copy it succesfully. Besides, later on the issue occurred with a different folder containing photos (12 GB).

**EDIT**: After the issue occurred again, I feel like I should add some more details regarding how exactly it manifests.

The exact symptoms of the freeze are variable:
- Sometimes, the system just gets downright frozen - I can't do anything, even move the mouse.
- Sometimes, I'm able to move the mouse around, but that's all I can do.
- Last time it happened, when I saw that the copying was blocked I was able to close the copy dialog. But a few seconds afterwards, all Nautilus windows were grayed out, so I pressed Alt+F2 in order to open xkill. The menu did open, but the system then froze before I could launch xkill. **END OF EDIT**

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: nautilus 1:3.8.2-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-12.19-generic 3.11.3
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-12-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Oct 20 20:11:57 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-09-30 (19 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha i386 (20130829)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: nautilus
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

seems like a kernel issue rather than a nautilus one

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1242408

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[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 v3.12 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/v3.12-rc6-saucy/

[Tanguy P (tanynep)]

Thanks for the quick replies.

@Joseph: I did as you said, and the bug still occurs with kernel v3.12-rc6-saucy.

It seems weird that this should have an impact, but I've noticed the following:
- When I copy my folder to a location where I have already 1) copied it (successfully or only partially) then 2) deleted it, then I can't reproduce the bug: the folder is smoothly copied without a problem.
- When I copy my folder to a new location for the first time, the issue is bound to occur.

All of this still regards copying data from my internal HD to the same external HD.

Lately, when the issue has occurred, I could still do quite a few things but none of much interest, for instance:
- I could open new tabs in Chrome and type a URL, but there was then a never-ending loading of the page.
- I could run a command in a previously opened terminal: I tried running the "apport-collect 1242408" suggested above, I then lost focus of the terminal but nothing more seemed to happen. Besides, I was not able to open any other terminal instance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Michal (michal-dobkowski)]

I have same issue on ubuntu 14.04 while copying 360gb from usb external drive with ext2 to another ntfs usb external drive.
System have period freeze's but in time going to be more and more until it's become totally unresponsive.

[Jacob Solvemybug (solvemysadbug)]

I have the same issue, that's the second time I'm trying to copy 250GB from a NTFS partition of my internal harddrive to my Ntfs external hard drive (usb3) and then it frozen after random time from beginnig...
I'm currently seeing the External drive del blinking so I'm waiting it stop and then I'll make SysReq....
This bug should be fix!
Ubuntu 17.04, kernel 4.10.~20, completly frozen : Ctrl-Alt-F1 isn't working...