[i915] OpenGL Screensavers Crash

[elyk]

Binary package hint: gnome-screensaver

My screensaver has been crashing intermittently. Sometimes the screen will flicker (as though changing video modes), then revert to the GDM login screen. Other times the display will freeze entirely, showing either a frozen image of the screensaver or a black screen with some white and blue patterns for the top inch or so (If it does it again I'll take a picture and post it). Once, I experienced a situation similar to bug #78449. I have timed the interval between locking and crash and it seems random. I think I have narrowed this down to the screensavers that use OpenGL - the "really slick" (rss-glx) family exhibits it most but I have also observed this in others such as hufo's tunnel. This appears to only happen when Compiz/Desktop Effects are running, but it is hard to say as it does not occur consistently - I will try leaving the screensaver running all night without desktop effects and report on the results. In all the latter two cases I am unable to switch to a virtual terminal to restart gdm, and am forced to do a hard reset (holding down the power button)
This is happening on a Dell Vostro 1500 with Intel GMA 3100 (965 chipset - I know its blacklisted for video problems but openGL rendering should be separate from xv playback), although I have also experienced a similar situation on an intel 810 chipset.
In the comments about bug #78449, I noticed a suggestion to manually set the amount of shared video ram in xorg.conf - is this a possible solution and if so what would be the recommended amount?

[Elliot Hughes (elliot-hughes)]

Hi,
Thanks for your bug report. While the second part of your bug is more of a question and would be better suited to answers, the first part is definitely a bug. A few questions, first off, your version of Ubuntu, and secondly whether or not this started happening after an update, or ever since you started using Desktop Effects, thanks alot.

[elyk (elyk53)]

I am using Gutsy Tribe 5, with all updates installed. Even since starting to use desktop effects, skyrocket was known to freeze occasionally, but I noticed the crashing with other screensavers and the resetting to the gdm login screen much more recently. To verify this, I will try booting from the tribe 5 liveCD and report whether this bug is experienced there as well.

[elyk (elyk53)]

I just tested with Lattice on the Tribe 5 liveCD, and the crash occurred then too, so this is not related to a recent update.

[Elliot Hughes (elliot-hughes)]

Thanks for your additional information. The status will now be confirmed.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

In order to get necessary informations to reproduce and fix that bug, can someone :

1. Provide names of screensavers that get you into troubles
2. Provide the output of this on a terminal : cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep -A 2 'Section "Device"'
3. Provide the ubuntu version name that you use

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Caco (caco-nabuo)]

I have the same problem with Ubuntu 7.10.

Almost all screensavers crash or freeze.

AMD 64 3500+ with ATI Radeon X600 Pro

Direct rendering active (retrieved with glxinfo | grep rendering)

Compiz active with Additional effects selected.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Caco : Thanks for providing these informations. Can you also tell :

1. Does this bug happens with compiz disabled?
2. What is the list of the screensavers that crash your computer?
3. Can you attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file to that bug report after you have reproduced the crash?
4. Can you give us the result of this command in a terminal : lspci -nn | grep VGA
5. Finally, Can you reproduce this issue with the latest Hardy alpha 5/6 release? You can try it from the LiveCD without installing Hardy to your computer.

Also, if your Xserver crash and that you know how to access your computer through ssh, it would really help developers if you can provide a Backtrace by following the instructions here : https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingXorg

Thanks for your contribution.

[Caco (caco-nabuo)]

1. Does this bug happens with compiz disabled?

No.

2. What is the list of the screensavers that crash your computer?

All except blank screensaver , floating Ubuntu and Fuzzy Flakes. Some screensavers just produce a blank screen, while others stop moving after 15 secs.

3. Can you attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file to that bug report after you have reproduced the crash?

Done. Used Hypertorus 4D screensaver.

4. Can you give us the result of this command in a terminal : lspci -nn | grep VGA

05:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV380 [Radeon X600 (PCIE)] [1002:5b62]

5. Finally, Can you reproduce this issue with the latest Hardy alpha 5/6 release? You can try it from the LiveCD without installing Hardy to your computer.

I tried Hardy alpha 5 (didn't find release 6) but after loading first phase (that where Ubuntu logo is shown) i get a BusyBox prompt (initramfs) and don't know what to do then.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Caco thanks for giving these detailed informations. Concerning the problem you have with the alpha 5 release, I suggest that you boot hardy LiveCD without splash and quiet from the bootline ( you can do this by typing F6 on the LiveCD menu and by erasing splash and quiet ). This way, you will have more detailed outputs about the errors linux kernel get. I also suggest that you try to type modprobe all_generic_ide at the busybox prompt to see if loading that module can let you boot the CD. You can continue to work on that bug here : bug 179336 (I'm subscribed to that bug too)

If you finally get some workaround to bypass bug 179336, it would be very great if you can try to reproduce the screenshot problem under hardy with compiz and the latest ATI restricted drivers enabled, they now work with compiz.

Thanks for your contribution!

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

elyk, can you please test this in Intrepid?

[shmengie (jbrown-podiatrybilling)]

I'm experiencing erratic lockups in Intrepid
Toshiba Satellite A105-S4184

[shmengie (jbrown-podiatrybilling)]

lspci -vvnn & Xorg.0.log

[bert (a-asawaroengchai)]

I've also experienced this problem on:

Ubuntu Edition: Ubuntu 8.04.1 desktop
Computer Platform: i386

Symptom: Computer locks after going into screen saver, can't get into terminal, hard power off. Been kicked out of X and back to login screen 2 times. Google Earth only worked once when first installed, maybe related to OpenGL?

Screen savers: BioF

FYI:

$ uname -a
Linux 2.6.24-21-generic #1 SMP Tue Oct 21 23:43:45 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
$ lspci -nn | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 03)
$ glxinfo | grep rendering
direct rendering: Yes
$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep -A 2 'Section "Device"'
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Please file separate bug reports for any other cards than Intel 965 chipsets. Otherwise there will be too many issues here. Although their symptoms are similar, the needed fixes are independent.

[christopherdstamper (christopherstamper)]

Confirmed on intel embedded G965, Ubuntu 7.04-8.04. Haven't tried 8.10 yet...

[Botond Szász (boteeka)]

I confirm this is also happening on Intrepid (up to date). It's not just the screensavers. Almost all apps that go in fullscreen mode (mostly games) crash X or worse, it locks up the machine (only resetting works).
Totem doesn't crashes X when in fullscreen mode, though.

Compiz is running.

lspci -nn | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 0c)

glxinfo | grep rendering
direct rendering: Yes

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep -A 4 'Section "Device"'
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Option "AccelMethod" "exa"
 Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
EndSection

lspci -vvnn
Attachment lspci.txt

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Thanks for your bug report. The symptoms provided indicate this is a problem with your video drivers and is being reassigned to the xorg package. For more information on problems with visual effects and video drivers see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/VisualEffects.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

A new major version of the -intel driver is now available in Karmic.

This version includes a major reworking of the acceleration
architecture, which resolves a huge number of issues. We do not know
whether it resolves the issue you reported.

Would you mind testing Karmic Alpha-2 and seeing if it is still a
problem? CD ISO images are available here:

  http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic/

If the issue can still be reproduced on karmic, please report here with
your findings, and attach a fresh Xorg.0.log from your test, and we will
be able to forward the bug upstream.

Otherwise, if the bug no longer exists in Karmic, let us know that as
well.

In the off chance you encounter different bugs while attempting to test
Karmic, please report those as new bug reports.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

It seems likely to me this bug is gone; the -intel driver has improved immensely in Karmic and a lot of bugs are being reported as no longer present. So hopefully that's the case here too.

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. I noticed that the package version your bugging is updated in Maverick. Please update via www.ubuntu.com repost a detailed error report, and update the bug status. Thanks!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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