[i965GM gma3100] Kubuntu: X freezes when mythtv idle >10 min, since Apr 1st

[Gunni]

[Problem]
Freeze occurs only when system is idle between 10 minutes and several hours.

Began: Around April 1st

[Original Report]
Kubuntu Jaunty 64bit, Acer Laptop with gma 3100 Chipset:

When running mythtv after some random time xserver freezes. I can not specify when it happens, but when i start watching, fall asleep, every morning xserver is frozen, sometimes i am still awake when it freeze, so it is between 10 minutes and some hours.
Machine is unresponsive for key pressures after the freeze, like "Ctrl+Alt+F1" or "Ctrl+Alt+Backspace"
ssh to the machine possible, so i will post some logs from the yesterday evening freeze.

[Gunni (fgunni)]

Oh, one thing i forgot to mention: Bug occures since around April, 1st, so it seems to be a regression to me.
Attached the log of gunni@laptop:~$ sudo intel_reg_dumper > reg_bad.txt

[Gunni (fgunni)]

Now i got the same behaviour like in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/353898 for one time. Mouse coursor moves, but no raction to clicks or keyboard. But that was one time only, the other bug appears more often.
Attach some more files now:

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I notice you have this set in your xorg.conf:

Option "TripleBuffer" "true"

Does it have any bearing on the freeze issue if that option is removed? I've not seen this option typically used, for what reason did you add it?

[Gunni (fgunni)]

> I notice you have this set in your xorg.conf:
> Option "TripleBuffer" "true"

That was only for testing if a different bug still exists. I once added it a long time ago, as i read it could improve performance with compositing on. Then there was a bug, and i disabled that option, to bug not occur.
So this bug is not affected by this option as it also occures when triplebuffer is disabled. I will disable it as it does not give any improvement for me.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

There is bug 331596 which describes a freeze when TripleBuffer is turned on, however it is triggered by sleep/resume rather than idle.

Even so, since your original config and logs were done with this set on, if you are certain your freeze is not due to this option, I'd ask that you re-upload your files after reproducing the freeze without that option set.

Also, you mention compositing. kwin I gather? Some freeze bugs occur only with that enabled, others occur regardless of how it's set. It would help us in classifying your freeze bug if you could test without compositing enabled for some time and see if that eliminates the freezing.

In the original bug report, you mentioned seeing this with mythtv. Can you reproduce the freeze with mythtv not running? This may help us classify your bug more specifically as well.

[Gunni (fgunni)]

I disabled triplebuffer again. So when next crash occures, i will add the needed info.
It can last a while, as yesterday i had no freeze (triplebuffer was enabled at that time). So as freeze is not reproducable, it may be some time till i post.

[Gunni (fgunni)]

So heres the info for triplebuffer disbled:

[Gunni (fgunni)]

So mythtv is not responsible. I started the laptop, only started firefox, and now, some hours later the same freeze.
Btw. tried "sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart", and that does not help, still black screen.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 10:38:02AM -0000, Gunni wrote:
>
> ** Attachment added: "intel_reg_dumper (triplebuffer disabled)"
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/25241193/reg_bad.txt

Thanks, attach your /var/log/dpkg.log as well. We'll see what changed
for you around 4/1. (You're certain the freezes occurred starting 4/1
and not, say, 4/3?)

[Gunni (fgunni)]

Sorry, i dont remember exactly if it was around 04/01 or 04/03. But ARAIR i would say it should be 04/01 but dont knock me down on that.
Attached dpkg.log

[Andres Mujica (andres.mujica)]

hmmppf, it wasn't caused by mesa. The update was applied 04/10, the bug was reported 04/08 and the symptoms around 04/01

but xserver-common, xserver-xorg-core and related packages were installed from 04/01

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Gunni, there was a mesa update on 4/3 which I strongly believe are the source of freezes several of us are seeing.

Freezes before this date would obviously be unrelated though, which suggests your bug may be something different.

In any case, it should be easy for you to test: Downgrade your mesa to version 7.3 and see if the crashes go entirely away, or if they still persist. Let us know here either way.

[Gunni (fgunni)]

Update: Disabling compositing in KDE 4 does not help.

Bryce: How do i downgrade the package?

[Andres Mujica (andres.mujica)]

gunni check at

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/359392/comments/13

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hmm, well I'm fairly sure I am reproducing bug 359392, but I find it does *not* happen during idle, only while the system is in use (out of 5 freezes, all 5 occurred while I was doing something on the system, and I've left the system on overnight every day the past week).

So... since your bug happens after idle, for now I'm going to consider it an independent bug from 359392.

I'm dropping the priority to medium because so far we have only one report of it. However, it's still on my radar and I hope to get to it in karmic. Meanwhile if you notice anything interesting or discover data/workarounds/patches that could assist in analyzing this, please keep the bug updated and I'll investigate.

[Gunni (fgunni)]

I will keep you informed on news. Maybe if bug 359392 is fixed, my bug disappears, too. If i find the time on weekend i try downgrading mesa (but can not promise, as its a really busy weekend)

[Andres Mujica (andres.mujica)]

no need to downgrade, as we now that it wasn't that upgrade specifically. However if you've got the time please check the bug #359392 already mentioned and specially the comment https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/353898/comments/18 and run the repro.sh and metacity_stress.sh scripts there?

also please follow the instructions from https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-freeze-test/

[seldon7 (ubuntu-pengo)]

Wonder if this is the same bug I get.

After upgrading to the final Jaunty Beta and also the RC Candidate mine crashes after several hours idle giving me an unresponsive black screen. Intel Pentium 4 3GHz, with 6800GS graphics card.

Predictably occurs if I'm downloading from an ftp server overnight. In the morning, it is always crashed to a black screen.

Doesn't occur while running Intrepid (I never ran earlier Jaunty versions, so can't say about them)..

Is there any way I can gather info about this crash? Not sure how to. If I can telnet / ssh to the box, what commands should I type while its otherwise unresponsive?

Could be unrelated, but prior to crashes Ive sometimes noticed 'tracker-indexer' seems to be chewing up most of the system CPU for hours on end.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

> I will keep you informed on news. Maybe if bug 359392 is fixed, my bug disappears, too.

Gunni, 359392 has a workaround uploaded to jaunty-proposed. Can you please test to see if your bug disappears with this, too?

[Gunni (fgunni)]

The last 3 days there was no freeze, after i enabled the jaunty-proposed repo. Should we close here, or wait some more days?

[seldon7 (ubuntu-pengo)]

My crashing may have been due to bad RAM. Please disregard my report.

[Gunni (fgunni)]

Bug does not occur anymore since bug 359392 is fixed. So we can close here?

[Andres Mujica (andres.mujica)]

sure!, thanks gunni for reporting back.