konsole locks up, Ctrl-Alt-F1 fails, apps will not launch

[Vik]

After using the KDE desktop (clean install, current updated Karmic) for a few hours, konsole stops responding to the laptop keyboard, USB keyboards and even kvkbd. New copies of the console cannot be launched via the launcher (bouncy icon, no app loads) or by Alt-F2.

When in this state it is not possible to bring up a text console using Ctrl-Alt_F1 -> F6 regardless of which application has the focus.

Other applications such as xchat continue to work and accept keyboard input from all sources, but many cannot be relaunched once closed. For example, konsole will not re-launch, kvkbd will.

If the K menu is used to logout, it is not possible to log back in again unless the machine is restarted, but the machine does not cleanly shutdown, freezing after it has killed rc.

This is repeatable, but not repeatable on demand.

Vik :v)

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Nov 4 14:08:34 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: kubuntu-desktop 1.154
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_NZ.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: kubuntu-meta
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors: (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2077): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

[Vik (vik-catalyst)]

The following is in ~/.xsession-errors and records the attempts to run konsole when the window manager is blocking Ctrl-Alt-F1 etc. If I SSH in to the machine I still cannot type at the command prompt. However SCP worked:

...
Xlib: extension "XFree86-Misc" missing on display ":0.0".
X Error: BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied) 10
  Major opcode: 2 (X_ChangeWindowAttributes)
  Resource id: 0x420001e
kscreenlocker(3153) LockProcess::stayOnTop: Window above screensaver, raising, erasing
Done processing 1 items
Playing WAVE '/home/vik/mh/sounds/sound_beep1.wav' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 22050 Hz, Mono
Couldn't find node center. Skipping rendering.
Couldn't find node center. Skipping rendering.
Playing WAVE '/home/vik/mh/sounds/sound_beep1.wav' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 22050 Hz, Mono
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_konsole.so
Couldn't find node center. Skipping rendering.
kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_konsole.so
<unknown program name>(3279)/: Communication problem with "konsole" , it probably crashed.
Error message was: "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply" : " "Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken." "

Couldn't find node center. Skipping rendering.
<unknown program name>(3285)/: Communication problem with "konsole" , it probably crashed.
Error message was: "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply" : " "Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken." "

[Vik (vik-catalyst)]

Please reassign to a general X bug. This problem can be caused in Gnome too. To make it happen quickly, just adjust the screen brightness using the Power manager applet in either KDE or Gnome on an Acer Aspire 9300 laptop (uses nvidia GeForce Go 7300).

WARNING! Once this is done, your system will become unusable as you will not be able to enter any console or enter console commands from X.

Last error in /var/log/messages is:

Nov 12 15:49:35 vik kernel: [ 1656.989134] ACPI Error (dsfield-0140): [CB04] Namespace lookup failure, AE_ALREADY_EXISTS
Nov 12 15:49:35 vik kernel: [ 1656.989157] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.AMW0.WMCA] (Node f700ecc0), AE_ALREADY_EXISTS
Nov 12 15:49:35 vik kernel: [ 1656.989178] ACPI: Marking method WMCA as Serialized because of AE_ALREADY_EXISTS error

Vik :v)

[Vik (vik-catalyst)]

I managed to get more verbose errors in /var/log/messages trying to launch bash under xfce4. This may hold more clues:

Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513550] bash D c08145c0 0 3469 1 0x00000000
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513561] f4159c44 00000046 f68f8000 c08145c0 f403a848 c08145c0 2c53382e 0000057d
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513577] c08145c0 c08145c0 f403a848 c08145c0 00000000 0000057d c08145c0 f4024000
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513592] f403a5b0 f4159cf8 7fffffff f4159cfc f4159ca0 c056f0d5 c01501f6 0000057d
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513610] Call Trace:
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513618] [<c056f0d5>] schedule_timeout+0x185/0x200
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513626] [<c01501f6>] ? run_timer_softirq+0x156/0x200
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513638] [<c016a125>] ? tick_dev_program_event+0x45/0xe0
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513649] [<c0133080>] ? __wake_up+0x40/0x50
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513657] [<c056edf2>] wait_for_common+0xa2/0x120
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513667] [<c013c5a0>] ? default_wake_function+0x0/0x10
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513675] [<c056ef02>] wait_for_completion+0x12/0x20
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513685] [<c01580cd>] flush_cpu_workqueue+0x4d/0x80
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513694] [<c0158170>] ? wq_barrier_func+0x0/0x10
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513703] [<c0158fd6>] flush_workqueue+0x36/0x60
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513711] [<c015900d>] flush_scheduled_work+0xd/0x10
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513720] [<c0385202>] tty_ldisc_release+0x22/0x70
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513730] [<c037f8e0>] tty_release_dev+0x340/0x500
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513743] [<c0487065>] ? apparmor_file_free_security+0x35/0x40
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513754] [<c01fd88a>] ? mntput_no_expire+0x1a/0xd0
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513764] [<c037fab2>] tty_release+0x12/0x20
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513774] [<c01e8cba>] __fput+0xda/0x1f0
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513782] [<c01e8de5>] fput+0x15/0x20
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513790] [<c01e53d7>] filp_close+0x47/0x70
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513798] [<c0146c93>] put_files_struct+0x63/0xb0
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513806] [<c0146d23>] exit_files+0x43/0x60
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513814] [<c0147dff>] do_exit+0x11f/0x2e0
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513823] [<c0152860>] ? dequeue_signal+0xb0/0x170
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513832] [<c0147ffa>] do_group_exit+0x3a/0xb0
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513842] [<c015403f>] get_signal_to_deliver+0x18f/0x300
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513851] [<c010304b>] do_signal+0x6b/0x160
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513861] [<c037dd44>] ? tty_read+0x94/0xb0
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513871] [<c037fc30>] ? tty_ioctl+0x0/0x620
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513879] [<c0153dda>] ? sys_kill+0x5a/0x60
Nov 17 11:40:41 kereru kernel: [ 6240.513888] [<c037dd44>] ? t...

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Looks like a kernel oops to me, so reassigning there.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Vik,

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/ .

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 473613

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.]

[Vik (vik-catalyst)]

I strongly suspect the proprietary Nvidia driver. I have installed the nouveau driver and the problem has gone away.

Vik :v)