Screen freeze when watching video in VLC or Firefox

[John Tollendal]

Screen freezes when I watch video in VLC media player or viewing media on browser like Firefox. Moving mouse is of no use and Ctrl + Alt + T short cut does not launch terminal. But I Could hear the audio even after screen freeze.

If I press Ctrl + Alt + F1 and wait for several minutes switches to console. I then kill the 100% cpu process (like VLC or Firefox) then switching to GUI (CTRL-ALT-F7) brings back the screen and I am able to work as usual or sometimes returns to login screen.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-image-3.13.0-63-generic 3.13.0-63.103
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-63.103-generic 3.13.11-ckt25
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-63-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.12
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: john 25483 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: john 25483 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Fri Sep 4 02:16:28 2015
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=a2axxxxx-f1b1-xxxxx-8bfc-5437xxxxxxx
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-11-25 (1012 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120817.3)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 965P-DS3
ProcFB:

ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-63-generic root=UUID=xxxxe1f-8adf-4f5a-xxxx-02eba23xxxx ro quiet splash
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-63-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-63-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.127.15
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-08-21 (378 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 06/25/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F14
dmi.board.name: 965P-DS3
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF14:bd06/25/2009:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pn965P-DS3:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rn965P-DS3:rvr:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: 965P-DS3
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a prior kernel version where you were not having this particular problem?

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.2 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'.

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/v4.2-unstable/

[John Tollendal (johntollendal)]

update and answers to questions from jsalisbury

1) issue start happening (getting freezes) after update/upgrade, if I remember correctly, right after kernel 3.13.0-58
2) So many freezes that I had to downgrade Nvidia driver 346.82 to Nouveau for work around, so I had to trade stability instead of hardware acceleration for now.
3) with Nvidia driver 331.x also had some flash video crashes with firefox
4) please not that I am using 32bit kernel, since I am updating/upgrading from main distributions since Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120817.3)
5) yes I can test the a new kernel, but I need a detailed "how-to" so I can safely return to my active version if it goes bad, because this is my main desktop with many critical work/files stored on it (even with backups I must be able to recover fast).
5.1) I need to have proprietary or out-of-tree modules (ex. vitualbox, nvidia, etc.) so this could be really hard for me to do and be able to recover my prior installation, can I do a USB drive install for the tests ? Can you help me create the test USB stick ?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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