Ubuntu 14.04 system with Radeon HD 6330M hangs regularly, especially when using Google Chrome

[Lucas Partridge]

I'm reporting this bug at the request of <email address hidden> at https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=404357#c34 . Please see https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=404357 for details. The appropriate package for this bug might be xserver-xorg-video-ati but that's a guess.

Summary:
Using Google Chrome 36+ on an ubuntu 14.04 system with an AMD Radeon HD 6330M graphics card has been regularly causing system hangs. These appear to be particularly likely when playing Flash-based games such as those on Facebook. Scroll up and down using the vertical scrollbar or the mousewheel and chrome will segfault.

WORKAROUND: Use fglrx.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-35.62-generic 3.13.11.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-35-generic i686
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.3
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Sep 10 19:29:10 2014
DistUpgraded: 2014-07-06 18:19:11,036 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Robson LE [Radeon HD 6330M] [1002:68e5] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Tul Corporation / PowerColor Cedar [Radeon HD 5450] [148c:5450]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-19 (326 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20130213)
MachineType: MEDIONPC MS-7366
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-35-generic root=UUID=57c8f83f-22f9-4998-9943-259a1df235a0 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-07-06 (66 days ago)
XorgConf:
 Section "Module"
  Load "glx"
 EndSection
dmi.bios.date: 01/08/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A7366NM7.20E
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: MS-7366
dmi.board.vendor: MEDIONPC
dmi.board.version: 2.2
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrA7366NM7.20E:bd01/08/2008:svnMEDIONPC:pnMS-7366:pvr2.2:rvnMEDIONPC:rnMS-7366:rvr2.2:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: MS-7366
dmi.product.version: 2.2
dmi.sys.vendor: MEDIONPC
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11.2+14.04.20140714-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Wed Sep 10 19:00:35 2014
xserver.configfile: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2.1
xserver.video_driver: radeon

[Pieroxy (pierregrimaud)]

Same problem here. This affect apparently pretty much everyone with open source amd drivers (I am running x86_64) as far as I can tell. What details can we help gather to help a resolution on this?

[Pieroxy (pierregrimaud)]

It seems to me that this problem appears much more frequently with Chrome, but I've had it also with Firefox. It's only been a couple of weeks though, everything has always worked fine for me until a system update two weeks ago. I have a Radeon HD 4350/4550.

To speak very bluntly, it makes Ubuntu almost unusable for me with at least one Xorg freeze per day when I don't use Chrome - with Chrome it more like a freeze per hour of usage.

[Lucas Partridge (oakwing)]

@Pieroxy - have you tried the proprietary AMD drivers instead? I'm fed up with system hangs too, so if the proprietary drivers don't work better I may even go back to ubuntu 12.04 where I didn't have these problems. Too early to judge the proprietary driver though; I've only just switched from the open source one.

[Pieroxy (pierregrimaud)]

AFAIK, proprietary drivers don't support my old chipset.

[Lucas Partridge (oakwing)]

@Pieroxy - Sorry to hear that because I've had no system hangs since I switched to the proprietary AMD drivers 5 days ago. Maybe you could buy a newer graphics card; they don't cost that much if a low-powered one is sufficient for your needs. (Unless you were referring to your motherboard...)

[Carlo Cavalieri D'Oro (carlodoro88)]

After the update of Google Chrome to version 38.0.2125.101, everytime I watch a video on youtube, after few time, the screen becomes black as freezed and after other seconds ubuntu goes in crash completly then I must reboot the pc manually.
I have ubuntu 14.04 with intel graphic card integrated.

I also tried to disable the Acceleration hardware in chrome://flags, but the problem is always the same.

I guess it could be a problem of Google Chrome rather than of Xorg which is quite stable.

I hope that someone can fix this bug soon. With the previous version of Chrome, I didn't have this problem.

This bug report is like to Bug #1369222 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1369222)

[Lucas Partridge (oakwing)]

@carlodoro88: There already is a bug raised against chromium - https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=404357 . In fact I was asked by the chromium people to raise this bug!

There appears to be a strange interaction between the open-source drivers for AMD cards and Xorg (the version used in ubuntu 14.04) and Google Chrome. Sometimes I got crashes with Firefox instead of Chrome, but much less often. I suspect Chrome works with graphics in such a way that it's more likely to trigger the crash. I can't remember if Chrome was always like this on ubuntu 14.04 or only in more recent releases of Chrome (36+).

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Lucas Partridge, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. As per http://www.medion.com/gb/service/_lightbox/treiber_details.php?did=8140 an update to your computer's buggy and outdated BIOS is available (4.0c). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BIOSUpdate does it change anything?

If it doesn't, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful. As well, you don't have to create a new bug report.

Once the BIOS is updated, and the information above is provided, then please mark this report Status New.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Lucas Partridge (oakwing)]

Hi Christopher - thanks for following this up.

As the machine was a dual boot with Windows Vista (32 bit) I rebooted the machine into Windows to perform the BIOS upgrade. I ran the .exe file you pointed me at, then ran the 32-bit version of flash.bat from a DOS prompt. The old BIOS was erased and the new one appeared to be written ok. Then the machine was shut down by the program. However it won't boot up again! All I get when I switch the PC on is a low humming noise that lasts indefinitely. I see nothing at all on the screen - no BIOS info, nothing. I'm writing to you from a different machine now.

So it strongly looks like the BIOS upgrade failed:(. I have to go to work now but I'm hoping you'll be able to advise me on how to recover the machine when I get back. Presumably there's some way of getting a BIOS onto a new PC before any OS is installed since the BIOS has to be there first? I'm happy to try with the new BIOS again, or, if that fails, somehow get hold of the original BIOS version again. But right now my smoothly working machine has been transformed into an almost dead lump of metal:(.

Thanks, Lucas.

[Lucas Partridge (oakwing)]

OK, I've cleared the CMOS data by setting the appropriate jumper on the motherboard. I've also taken out the CMOS battery for a while. But I still can't boot the PC - I still see nothing on the screen. I've also burnt a CD with SystemRescueCD on it. I can put it in the PC's drive but it won't boot from it. To my mind this all suggests the BIOS was flashed successfully but that the new version is incompatible. Do you have any ideas on how to proceed please? Is it possible to flash the BIOS chip with the original BIOS version I was using?

[Lucas Partridge (oakwing)]

Unfortunately it looks like you pointed me at the wrong BIOS update version. Based on the MSN number on the back of my PC (10011367) I should have flashed it with the one at http://www.medion.com/gb/service/_lightbox/treiber_details.php?did=8289. My fault for not double-checking your recommendation I guess. Still trying to recover the machine:(.

[Lucas Partridge (oakwing)]

Unfortunately the motherboard was trashed by the incorrect BIOS update. After 2 weeks and quite a bit of money I now have a new system - but using a different motherboard and a different graphics card (Nvidia this time). The guy who fixed the system thought the previous AMD card was broken, although I had seen no sign of that myself. Since my system has changed so much I can no longer provide you with debug info on this issue. So feel free to close it unless you think someone else will have a similar setup and be able to provide you with the relevant info.

I'll be much more careful upgrading my BIOS in the future; i.e., I won't unless I absolutely have to!

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Lucas Partridge, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1367870/comments/13 regarding you no longer have the original hardware. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.

[Guram Savinov (guram-savinov)]

Please reopen the issue. because I have this problem on my laptop.
I can provide you with information needed to try to resolve this problem in AMD drivers.

AMD radeon HD3650 mobile graphics
Ubuntu 12.04.5
linux-generic-lts-trusty 3.13.0.48.42
libegl1-mesa-lts-trusty 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.2~precise2
linux-firmware 1.79.18
xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-trusty 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1~precise1

dmesg.log file has been attached, it contain error messages about this bug.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Guram Savinov, it would help immensely if you filed a new report (not reopen this one) via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug xorg

Please ensure you have xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information.

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.