Whole session crashes after opening LibreOffice in 15.04

[Patrik B.]

In 15.04 when opening Libreoffice I get:
starting version 219
[drm:radeon_acpi_init [radeon]] *ERROR* cannot find a backlight controller

and the whole session crashes.

The session didn't crash in 14.04.2.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+7ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-21.21-generic 3.19.8
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.1
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Thu Jun 25 10:26:14 2015
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: vivid
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: No
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Mullins [Radeon R4/R5 Graphics] [1002:9851] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:381a]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-06-20 (4 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
MachineType: LENOVO 80E3
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-21-generic root=UUID=db4352a7-efc2-4393-bfe9-7804d7eb71fc ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev'
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/08/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: A2CN23WW(V1.05)
dmi.board.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Lancer 5B2
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: 31900058 STD
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Lenovo G50-45
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrA2CN23WW(V1.05):bd07/08/2014:svnLENOVO:pn80E3:pvrLenovoG50-45:rvnLENOVO:rnLancer5B2:rvr31900058STD:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrLenovoG50-45:
dmi.product.name: 80E3
dmi.product.version: Lenovo G50-45
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.60-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.5.2-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.5.2-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.5.0-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917-1~exp1ubuntu2.2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.11-1ubuntu2build1
xserver.bootTime: Sun Jun 21 09:24:57 2015
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors: RADEON(G0): [XvMC] Failed to initialize extension.
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.17.1-0ubuntu3
xserver.video_driver: radeon

[Patrik B. (inoki-deactivatedaccount)]

Perhaps if someone could attach this bug to this one also: 1468668

It happened right after I posted this and it may contain even more data.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

Nothing LibreOffice does should crash X11, as such the bug is in X11 or its drivers. Nonetheless a clean reproduction scenario (like "1/ open attached document 2/ scroll to page 3 3/ select cells the the table on the top of the page" would be required for debugging.

[Patrik B. (inoki-deactivatedaccount)]

Björn, I cannot do any such debugging, because the moment I open any part of the Libreoffice suite the system completely crashes. This happens only with Libreoffice, no other program.

Christopher, I have tried to update my BIOS, but I am not running a copy of Windows on this machine and when I turned to Lenovo they just said I should install Windows. I opened up this thread at Lenovo's official boards https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Discussion/Ubuntu-14-04-2-BIOS-update-for-G50-45/td-p/2083148 asking for guidance on how to update my BIOS safely, writing down exactly what I've tried and without success, as the BIOS update for my laptop doesn't come with a flashing utility, just a standalone .exe file that cannot be run from a Live Session of FreeDos.

There is no Linux tool to help me with the upgrade and as we all know flashing BIOS is risky, especially if there is no specific tool. I have asked also via AskUbuntu if flashing via Windows 7 LiveCD would work, to this day I haven't received a response.

If there is a safe and easy to do method of upgrading my BIOS I will gladly do it, because currently I can't enable virtualization among other things.

[Patrik B. (inoki-deactivatedaccount)]

I found my old legit copy of Win 7 Ultimate, installed, wanted to update BIOS to the latest version, update failed and now the computer needs to be serviced.

I will report after I get it fixed.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

To clarify again: This is first and foremost a Xorg/driver bug. As the report claims this worked with Ubuntu 14.04 and presumably LibreOffice 4.2.x, but did not with Ubuntu 15.04 and presumably LibreOffice 4.4.x, it might be helpful to fix the bug in Xorg to test LibreOffice 4.4.x from the LibreOffice 4.4.x ppa on Ubuntu 14.04:

 https://launchpad.net/~libreoffice/+archive/ubuntu/libreoffice-4-4

Again: If the report is correct, this is shows that there is a bug in Xorg or its drivers. While there might be a bug in LibreOffice too, there is nothing in this bug report currently indicating that to be the case at this point.

[Patrik B. (inoki-deactivatedaccount)]

There were people responding on AskUbuntu having the same issue with the same configuration as me, and a couple of others as well.

I will try again once I get my laptop back and in the meantime perhaps more people will be able to reproduce the issue.

The issue was spotted even in kernel 4+.

Thank you so far.

[Patrik B. (inoki-deactivatedaccount)]

So Chris, I did as you said, had to re-install the computer for Windows and go back to Linux (safest way) went through the trouble of almost breaking my computer due to what seemed as a broken update for my BIOS, but luckily was only a config reload failure, which I managed to restore.

The output of the command suggested is:

A2CN36WW(V2.04)
04/30/2015

That's my current (latest) BIOS version, no additional ones provided.

I again attempted to launch any part of Libreoffice, but the same happens, i.e. I launch Libreoffice > dark screen > system crash > I am greeted with the login screen again. I get no text on the blank screen.

System fully upgraded, latest kernel, updates, everything.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Patrik Bubák, just to clarify, would you have a crash file in /var/crash after the session crashes?

[Patrik B. (inoki-deactivatedaccount)]

Chris, I am attaching my crash file.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Patrik Bubák, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. However, your crash report is missing.

Please follow these instructions to have apport report a new bug about your crash that can be dealt with by the automatic retracer. First, execute at a terminal:
cd /var/crash && sudo rm * ; sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo service apport start force_start=1

If you are running the Ubuntu Stable Release you might need to enable apport in /etc/default/apport and restart. Now reproduce the crash, then open a terminal, navigate to your /var/crash directory and file your report with:
sudo ubuntu-bug /var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash

where _my_crash_report.crash is the crash you would like to report. By default, this sends the crash to the Ubuntu Error Tracker infrastructure, which is different than Launchpad. For more on this, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ErrorTracker .

However, if after doing this you would still like to have a crash report posted to Launchpad, for example to ease triage and add others to your report, one would need to open the following file via a terminal:
sudo nano /etc/apport/crashdb.conf

and comment out the line:
'problem_types': ['Bug', 'Package'],

by changing it to:
# 'problem_types': ['Bug', 'Package'],

Save, close, and try to file the crash report again via:
sudo ubuntu-bug /var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash

I'm closing this report since the process outlined above will deal with this issue more efficiently. Also, please do not attach your crash report manually to this report and reopen it. Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Patrik B. (inoki-deactivatedaccount)]

Chris, I don't understand what could I possibly do wrong, since I did exactly what was asked of me - right after the crash I opened /var/crash via Nautilus as root, found one error report that was a huge file (5 MB) and uploaded it here.

The settings for automatic bug reporting via Apport are always the first thing I set up on my Ubuntu system for immediate upload to Launchpad - it's the way this bug report was uploaded.

I will do what is asked of me and open Libreoffice for it to crash again and have Apport collect the data and generate a new one. I wanted to skip this step initially not to flood Launchpad with duplicates.

I will file a new bug report soon.

Thank you.