[fglrx] Blank screen when fast-user-switching

[Gabriel M.]

Binary package hint: fast-user-switch-applet

Using Fast user switching or the Guest account produces a blank screen. I have the fgrlx driver and compiz on default settings (this is a fresh install of Intrepid 32 bits, actually.)
Occasionnaly the blank screen seems to be a complete kernel freeze: Alt+SysReq+R, E, I, S, U, B didn't work when I first reported the bug, but recently I tried again and I could use the "magic keys".

This kind of bug can easily destroy your OS and/or your data (imagine trying fast user switching right after working on a university paper for an hour and forgetting to save).

[Edit: removed some unnecessary stuff, updated description]

Is any more information needed?

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: fast-user-switch-applet 2.24.0-0ubuntu6
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=fr_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: fast-user-switch-applet
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-11-generic i686

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

That's not a fast-user-switching-applet bug

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Not enough information to troubleshoot as an xserver issue. See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Reporting for instructions on reporting X issues.

[Stapel (wstapelberg)]

I have the same problem. Also using fglrx driver, but it happens with compiz disabled as well. I can easily reproduce the problem but to get my pc in a working state again I have to do a cold boot. I can't even get to a cl with <ctl>+<alt>+F1.

How can we debug this problem further? I am more than willing to help. I suspect the fglrx driver is at fault here.

[abatcher (geens-toon)]

Duplicate of bug 290704 More comments can be found there.

Maybe fast-user-switching is not the cause of the problem. As far as I understand, it uses xinit to start a new x server on another display/vt. Starting an xterm on display :1 and vt8 makes my computer crash the same way.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Gabriel,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid.

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 325133

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[nordicnurse (nordicnurse)]

I seem to have this problem as well. fglrx driver in use, Ubuntu 11.10, graphics card Mobility Radeon HD 4300 Series. When switching user, system grinds to complete halt. However, I can ssh in.