[Compiz] Using "Group and Tab Windows" with more than one group causes hangs/freezes

[Tristan Schmelcher]

Binary package hint: compiz-fusion-plugins-extra

I have a Dell XPS M1710 laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS running mostly Gutsy, but with the Kernel/Compiz/X/NVIDIA packages installed from Hardy.

If I enable the Group and Tab Windows plugin and create more than one group, then the desktop will hang the next time that I do certain actions. For example, switching workspaces triggers it, as does switching windows with the Shift Switcher. It does not happen if I create only one group. The hang is characterized by:

- No updates to the screen
- No response to key presses or mouse clicks (though the pointer still moves and Ctrl+Alt+Fn still works for switching virtual terminals)
- compiz.real and Xorg run hot (i.e., take ~20-30% CPU each on my machine)
- compiz.real does not respond to kill -15 and must be kill -9'ed
- After killing compiz.real, Xorg takes 100% CPU and must be killed too

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 7.10
Release: 7.10
$ apt-cache policy compiz-fusion-plugins-extra
compiz-fusion-plugins-extra:
  Installed: 0.7.4-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.7.4-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.7.4-0ubuntu1 0
         -1 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.6.0+git20071121-0ubuntu1~gutsy1 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-backports/main Packages
     0.5.2+git20070928-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main Packages

[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01ce]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation GeForce Go 7900 GS [10de:0298] (rev a1)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:019b]

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

Confirmed in pure Hardy final. Now though, instead of Xorg taking 100% CPU after I kill Compiz though, it crashes and restarts. Everything else though is unchanged. The full Xorg log from the crashed session is attached. The backtrace is:

Backtrace:
0: /usr/bin/X(xf86SigHandler+0x7e) [0x80c780e]
1: [0xb7f4a420]
2: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libfb.so(fbOddTile+0x118) [0xb6e1cb98]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libfb.so(fbTile+0x8c) [0xb6e1cc5c]
4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libfb.so(fbFillRegionTiled+0x19e) [0xb6e1d2ee]
5: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libfb.so(fbPaintWindow+0x104) [0xb6e1d5a4]
6: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so(_nv000747X+0x32b) [0xb6f0520b]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting

Since nvidia_drv.so is on the stack, I'm opening this against nvidia-glx-new too.

[emulashun (emulashun)]

I'm also experiencing desktop freezes on my machines with more than one active group:

System 1
xxxxxxxx
Ubuntu 7.10
P4 3.0Ghz HT
1GB RAM (512MBx2)
Intel Video

System 2
xxxxxxxx
Ubuntu 8.04
Athlon 64 X2 4000+
2GB RAM (1GBx2)
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 (MCP61)

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

Also affects my other Hardy machine, a Compaq Presario R3000 laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce4 Go 440. Slightly different backtrace though:

Backtrace:
0: /usr/bin/X(xf86SigHandler+0x6a) [0x48402a]
1: /lib/libc.so.6 [0x7f9f8a746100]
2: /lib/libc.so.6(memcpy+0xe1) [0x7f9f8a790dd1]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libfb.so(fbBlt+0x9e4) [0x7f9f8755adb4]
4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libfb.so(fbOddTile+0x14c) [0x7f9f8756697c]
5: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libfb.so(fbFillRegionTiled+0x1db) [0x7f9f875670fb]
6: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so(_nv000647X+0x199) [0x7f9f88057cc9]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting

Changing to Confirmed in compiz-fusion-plugins-extra since emulashun sees the same thing with both an NVIDIA and non-NVIDIA graphics card.

[David E. Fox (dfox94085)]

Hey emulashun (and others)

Did you ever solve the problem? I too have an amd64 system (just got it two weeks ago). It is an ECS 6100-pm-m2 low-cost board with a dual core 5200 AMD 64, 2 megs of crucial ballistix.

I'm running Hardy Heron and the nvidia 169.12 driver, installed from the repositories, using module-assistant.

I'm getting some random freezes in 3D apps like stellarium (more so in the 0.10 development stuff from svn than the 0.9.1 that's in the repositories, and see some WAITs in my xorg.0.log. The freezes usually go away after a time, but sometime I have to quit the application.

But what's more disconcerting is that compiz (and it may be the driver) cause so many screen distortions (the text in windows get replaced with black streaks) that I'll eventually kill X or log out just to make my session usable again.

Adding a sample screenshot;

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

David:

I never did solve this problem, but it sounds like you probably have a separate issue. This bug _only_ occurs when using Group and Tab Windows and creating more than one group. And there's never any distortions like the kind you see. You should file a separate bug about the problems you're having.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi tpkschme,

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 the latest development release of Ubuntu? (ISOs are available from cdimage.ubuntu.com)

If it remains an issue, could you also attach a new /var/log/Xorg.0.log?
Thanks in advance.

The output of lspci -vvnn would also be worth having.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

Still occurs on Intrepid Ibex today. Attaching the requested info.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

Still occurs in Jaunty. It's gotten a little bit better though; the system doesn't fully hang, it will still respond to input eventually, just after a huge delay. So, for example, after creating two groups and switching workspaces it seemed to hang, but I got it to eventually switch back so that I could ungroup the windows, after which things returned to normal.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Karmic Koala. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/. Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

I've just created a bunch of groups and tabbed then together then tried several compiz effects and basic usage of my system on karmic and got no slow downs, freezes, or crashes.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

This bug report was filed against an old version of Ubuntu.
Can you confirm whether this is still an issue in natty?

If you don't mind, it would be very helpful if you could update the bug
report in launchpad to 'Fix Released' if it is no longer an issue for
you, or if it is still occurring under natty, please tag the bug 'natty'
so it's easier for us to track.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

Looks like the hangs are finally gone! I see lots of other UI issues with "Group and Tab Windows" though, but presumably unrelated.