[i845g] screen freezes when idle for a couple of minutes

[2late]

Binary package hint: xorg

OK, this is weird: the screen *used* to freeze when idle for a couple of minutes... BUT "idle" here actually means something like "no active cursor". Let me explain. Viewing pictures (forward/backward through keyboard) counts as "idle", as does moving the cursor. I tested this with applications open (Gnumeric, Firefox, Thunderbird) and closed. As long as there was a cursor active, (e.g. Abiword, Gnumeric when a single cell was open and a blinking cursor was present, Thunderbird when writing an email, Firefox with the cursor in a search field) the screen did not freeze, no matter how long I wait. The attached backtrace was with no open applications, the screen was unresponsive after no more than 5 minutes.
By "unresponsive" I mean:
  - the mouse pointer can move, but not select
  - the menus and launcher icons do not respond to couble click
  - the keyboard lights do not go on upon pressing CAPS LOCK
  - CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE does nothing
  - CTRL+ALT+F1 does nothing
  - I was able to SSH into the "sick" computer while the screen was frozen
  - I found no other way out but to forcefully turn off the computer by pressing the power button.
Now, I say this *was* so because the problem seems to have corrected itself in the course of preparing the Backtrace (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze#How%20to%20Get%20a%20Batchbuffer%20Dump%20%28-intel%20only%29, the only other thing I did was to install the SSH server via Synaptic). The problem is now gone. So, the backtrace info is from the "frozen" system, whatever info ubuntu-bug collected now is from the same system as it is now - apparently does not freeze anymore. Interestingly, the xfce4-panel seems to have been messed up in the process and did not launch anymore - had to reinstall and seems to be fine now.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Dec 13 12:35:20 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Dell Computer Corporation Inspiron 1100
Package: xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu10
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=6bb9d719-c0c6-4078-9330-ae59b24991f6 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=es_NI.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.53-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu10
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xorg
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic i686
XorgConf: Error: [Errno 2] No existe el fichero ó directorio: '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
XsessionErrors:
 (xfce4-mixer-plugin:1311): libxfce4mixer-CRITICAL **: xfce_mixer_get_track: assertion `GST_IS_MIXER (card)' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1342): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (xfce4-terminal:1414): Terminal-WARNING **: Unable to load terminal preferences.
 (xfce4-terminal:1583): Terminal-WARNING **: Unable to load terminal preferences.
dmi.bios.date: 10/18/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.bios.version: A32
dmi.board.name: 09U782
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellComputerCorporation:bvrA32:bd10/18/2004:svnDellComputerCorporation:pnInspiron1100:pvr:rvnDellComputerCorporation:rn09U782:rvr:cvnDellComputerCorporation:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 1100
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
fglrx: Not loaded
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No existe el fichero ó directorio
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-16-generic

[2late (luis-tercero)]

Forget I said it "fixed" itself. The screen froze pretty much as soon as I filed the bug report (could not even make it to the bottom of the page scrolling with the mouse) -- i.e. when I wasn't typing anymore.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

I have compiled three test kernels for finding the triggering commit that introduced these freezes on 845G into ubuntu. They can be downloaded from http://www.kvante.info/845Gfreeze/ . There is some more detailed information in the comments to bug 456902. If this bug is the same as bug 456902, the kernels with freezetest1 and freezetest8 should not cause the freeze, while the one with freezetest9 should cause a freeze. If this is not the case for you, we know that your bug is different from bug 456902 and we will have to do some additional tests.

I originally compiled the kernels on Jaunty, but tests by others seems to indicate that the tests can also be done in Karmic or Lucid. A problem with Karmic and Lucid is that the default kernel will cause a freeze while it doesn't in Jaunty.

[2late (luis-tercero)]

Hi,
thanks for looking at this problem. I was actually setting up the laptop to give it away and the machine is now gone. Sorry, I would've been glad to help find the bug. I tried installing xubuntu 9.04 but I also had trouble with that one, so in the end I went to 08.04 LTS (alternate installer) and that worked like a charm.
Again, thanks for your help. I hope somebody else with the same hardware can try this out.
Happy new year!

On Wednesday 30 December 2009 20:18:48 Geir Ove Myhr wrote:
> I have compiled three test kernels for finding the triggering commit
> that introduced these freezes on 845G into ubuntu. They can be
> downloaded from http://www.kvante.info/845Gfreeze/ . There is some more
> detailed information in the comments to bug 456902. If this bug is the
> same as bug 456902, the kernels with freezetest1 and freezetest8 should
> not cause the freeze, while the one with freezetest9 should cause a
> freeze. If this is not the case for you, we know that your bug is
> different from bug 456902 and we will have to do some additional tests.
>
> I originally compiled the kernels on Jaunty, but tests by others seems
> to indicate that the tests can also be done in Karmic or Lucid. A
> problem with Karmic and Lucid is that the default kernel will cause a
> freeze while it doesn't in Jaunty.
>
>

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

Okay, thank you. We have several reports of 845G freezes, and it is likely that this is the same as at least one of them. I just wanted to find out if some of them were different in this respect. I'm closing this bug report, since we won't have any possibility of going further.