random freeze since upgrade

[Squaredge]

On my XPS M1330, since my last update to Intrepid, I have many random freeze.
My caps lock and num lock blinks together and I always must restart my computer (Can't access to new term ...).

This problem is present on my last kernel (2.6.27-7) and my 2 old kernels (2.6.24-20 and 2.6.24-21). I hadn't this problem before my update with these 2 kernels.

I suppose a problem with my network interfaces but I'm not sure ...

Here my lspci (ask me for more details) :
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400M GS (rev a1)
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
03:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)

[arno_b (arno.b)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.
This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage.
I have classified this bug as a bug in kernel.

[arno_b (arno.b)]

I meant 'linux' :p

[Squaredge (squaredge62)]

This bug seem to be a WiFi connection problem.
I have many troubles with it at work ... but not at home (very strange).
When i remove my Wireless connection at work : no freeze.

So this is my WiFi hardware :

0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection [8086:4229] (rev 61)
 Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:1121]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
 Region 0: Memory at f9ffe000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
 Kernel modules: iwlagn

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Squaredge,

Since you mentioned this appears to be related to wireless, you might want to try installing the linux-backports-modules package. It recently pulled in an updated version of the compat-wireless stack:

https://edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-backports-modules-2.6.27

linux-backports-modules-2.6.27 (2.6.27-7.3) intrepid; urgency=low

  [Tim Gardner]

  * Added iwlwifi firmware
  * Added the upstream compat-wireless-2.6 tree.
  * Updated compat-wireless to wireless-testing tag master-2008-10-14
  * Set CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY=y by default.

It may help here. Let us know. Thanks.

[Squaredge (squaredge62)]

Thanks for your post Leann !

After many search on this tracker, I definitively thinks this problem is due to my Wireless card.
Another ticket treat this bug and symptom are exactly the same with my current drivers : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/276990

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks Squaredge. So can you confirm that installing linux-backports-modules resolved the issue as it did for bug 276990 . Assuming that is the case, we'll go ahead and just mark this as a duplicate of that bug. Thanks.

[Squaredge (squaredge62)]

Since yesterday, No freeze (only 1 but between the package install and my reboot). Since this reboot, I've not freeze :)
I hope this will continue !

What exactly is this package ? Why is not include with kernel ?
Thanx a lot !

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks for the update. I'm marking this as a duplicate of bug 276990 .

Just to give you a little more information regarding linux-backports-modules . . . the purpose of the package is to typically provide post release updates to drivers. This helps avoid having to respin images etc. It's helpful as in your case because it can provide and alternative to users who need a slightly newer version of a driver. It's not installed by default because it should be an elective install and only used by those who need it. Usually the drivers provided in the main kernel should be sufficient and they also get more robust testing. But there's always the case, such as this bug, where we need to provide the newer drivers. Hope that helps. Thanks.

[Tom Jaeger (thjaeger)]

Leann Ogasawara wrote:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 276990 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/276990
>
> Thanks for the update. I'm marking this as a duplicate of bug 276990 .
>
> Just to give you a little more information regarding linux-backports-
> modules. [...] It's helpful as in your case because it can provide and alternative
> to users who need a slightly newer version of a driver. It's not
> installed by default because it should be an elective install and only
> used by those who need it.

But how are those who need it supposed to know that they do? It's not
like this is a problem that can be easily traced to the wireless driver.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

On Thu, 2008-10-30 at 17:12 +0000, Tom Jaeger wrote:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 276990 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/276990
>
> Leann Ogasawara wrote:
> > *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 276990 ***
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/276990
> >
> > Thanks for the update. I'm marking this as a duplicate of bug 276990 .
> >
> > Just to give you a little more information regarding linux-backports-
> > modules. [...] It's helpful as in your case because it can provide and alternative
> > to users who need a slightly newer version of a driver. It's not
> > installed by default because it should be an elective install and only
> > used by those who need it.
>
> But how are those who need it supposed to know that they do? It's not
> like this is a problem that can be easily traced to the wireless driver.

Hi Tom,

This issue was documented in the Intrepid Release Notes[1] so hopefully
some users can benefit from it's mention there and be directed to
installing the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package. Otherwise,
those who are involved with the triaging of these types of bug reports
can hopefully help direct bug reporters to try the package. Thanks.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidReleaseNotes#System lock-ups with
Intel 4965 wireless

[Tom Jaeger (thjaeger)]

Leann Ogasawara wrote:
> This issue was documented in the Intrepid Release Notes[1] so hopefully
> some users can benefit from it's mention there and be directed to
> installing the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package. Otherwise,
> those who are involved with the triaging of these types of bug reports
> can hopefully help direct bug reporters to try the package. Thanks.
>
> [1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidReleaseNotes#System lock-ups with
> Intel 4965 wireless
>
I understand that this is the official position, but I can't say I agree
with it.

In any case, could you set the importance of this bug to Critical or
High, so that people affected by this bug will at least be able to find
the report.

Sorry about the upstream tracker, this should be assigned to
intellinuxwireless, not linux. I assumed launchpad would fill in this
information from the URL.