Xorg sometimes seems to crash when Plover is running

[Lars Rune Præstmark]

If I'm typing text into an application like gedit or Firefox using Plover, I occasionally get a screen freeze, then a black screen, and then I'm thrown back to the login screen, and all applications seem to get closed. I think I first noticed this in March 2021, but at that time, removing some Plover plugins that I had installed (system switcher and VLC controls) seemed to make it stop happen, at least for a while. There's also been some time in the middle where I rarely used Plover. It seems Plover isn't seeing anything going wrong. I'm using the version of Plover that's in Ubuntu's repositories. But now it seems to happen pretty often again.

Symptoms: The crashes only happen when I'm typing text using Plover. At random but pretty frequent times (I think it's more than once every 2000 words), I will press a chord, release it, nothing will happen for a moment (I think I've tried moving the mouse and finding it didn't move), then I briefly get a black screen and then I'm back at the login screen. No sign of being logged in. I can type my password on qwerty, Plover isn't running. And when I'm logged in, all applications, including Plover and the one I was typing into, are closed.

System: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Xorg: 1:7.7+19ubuntu14 (if I understood correctly how to get the version number)

Other: I got a software update today, and haven't had any crashes today so far, but I'm not sure Xorg was among the updated packages. And once I started typing this report and realized it could theoretically have been fixed today without me noticing, I decided to finish submitting the report so that I don't have to start over typing it. I'm typing it on qwerty so that I don't get any crashes while typing it.

I looked through the last part of Xorg0.log right after logging back in after a crash:

[ 13245.576] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard (/dev/input/event14)
[ 13245.576] (**) Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard: Applying InputClass "libinput keyboard catchall"
[ 13245.576] (**) Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard: Applying InputClass "system-keyboard"
[ 13245.576] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard'
[ 13245.578] (II) systemd-logind: got fd for /dev/input/event14 13:78 fd 25 paused 1
[ 13245.578] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:78
[ 13245.607] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard (/dev/input/event13)
[ 13245.607] (**) Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard: Applying InputClass "libinput keyboard catchall"
[ 13245.607] (**) Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard: Applying InputClass "system-keyboard"
[ 13245.607] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard'
[ 13245.609] (II) systemd-logind: got fd for /dev/input/event13 13:77 fd 25 paused 1
[ 13245.609] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:77
[ 13245.646] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard (/dev/input/event12)
[ 13245.646] (**) Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard: Applying InputClass "libinput keyboard catchall"
[ 13245.646] (**) Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard: Applying InputClass "system-keyboard"
[ 13245.646] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'Corsair Corsair K65 Gaming Keyboard'
[ 13245.648] (II) systemd-logind: got fd for /dev/input/event12 13:76 fd 25 paused 1
[ 13245.648] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:76
[ 27639.231] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.231] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:67
[ 27639.363] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.363] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:69
[ 27639.398] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.398] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:70
[ 27639.422] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.422] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:71
[ 27639.442] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.442] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:75
[ 27639.462] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.462] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:65
[ 27639.486] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.486] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:68
[ 27639.506] (II) UnloadModule: "libinput"
[ 27639.691] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 13:66
[ 27639.784] (WW) xf86CloseConsole: KDSETMODE failed: Input/output error
[ 27639.784] (WW) xf86CloseConsole: VT_GETMODE failed: Input/output error
[ 27639.784] (WW) xf86CloseConsole: VT_ACTIVATE failed: Input/output error
[ 27639.785] (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-96.109-generic 5.4.157
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-96-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.21
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Adgang nægtet: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed Jan 19 19:16:52 2022
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: focal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso [1002:15d8] (rev c2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Picasso [17aa:3801]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-05-21 (608 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
MachineType: LENOVO 81NH
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-96-generic root=UUID=3b6fb928-5262-4d6e-a9fb-22ca18065442 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/13/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: AGCN25WW(V1.08)
dmi.board.asset.tag: NO Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: LNVNB161216
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0J40700 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: NO Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Lenovo IdeaPad S540-14API
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrAGCN25WW(V1.08):bd11/13/2019:svnLENOVO:pn81NH:pvrLenovoIdeaPadS540-14API:rvnLENOVO:rnLNVNB161216:rvrSDK0J40700WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrLenovoIdeaPadS540-14API:
dmi.product.family: IdeaPad S540-14API
dmi.product.name: 81NH
dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_81NH_BU_idea_FM_IdeaPad S540-14API
dmi.product.version: Lenovo IdeaPad S540-14API
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.105-3~20.04.2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3~20.04.5
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3~20.04.5
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.13-1ubuntu1~20.04.2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200226-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It sounds like some part of the system has crashed. To help us find the cause of the crash please follow these steps:

1. Look in /var/crash for crash files and if found run:
    ubuntu-bug YOURFILE.crash
Then tell us the ID of the newly-created bug.

2. If step 1 failed then look at https://errors.ubuntu.com/user/ID where ID is the content of file /var/lib/whoopsie/whoopsie-id on the machine. Do you find any links to recent problems on that page? If so then please send the links to us.

3. If step 2 also failed then apply the workaround from bug 994921, reboot, reproduce the crash, and retry step 1.

Please take care to avoid attaching .crash files to bugs as we are unable to process them as file attachments. It would also be a security risk for yourself.

[Lars Rune Præstmark (lars-rune-praestmark)]

The crash took some time to happen again, but happened a moment ago. It does seem pretty inconsistent, and I was starting to think of unplugging the keyboard and plugging it in again to see if that would cause it, or reinstall those Plover plugins that seemed to make it happen much more often when they were installed than when they weren't. But now that it happened, I tried following the steps above.

So I followed step 1, and it exits without telling me an ID.

I followed step 2, and it shows several crashes, the most recent is in xserver-xorg-core, links to https://errors.ubuntu.com/oops/7990b650-763f-11ec-83e8-fa163e6cac46 and says it was received on 2022-01-15 20:01 UTC. I hope that helps.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks. That's now being tracked in bug 1958592. Although I don't have any additional info.