Flash fullscreen mode can cause X to freeze the display

[Pedro Côrte-Real]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

When moving to fullscreen in a flash based website (youtube or hulu) the xserver will sometimes stop updating the screen. The mouse can still move but the screen no longer updates even though the audio is still working and input events are functional (pause/play on hulu still works for example).

I am using Google Chrome as my browser.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.12.0-1ubuntu5.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-25.44-generic 2.6.35.10
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-25-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1024x768
 edid-base64: AP///////wAwrgBAAAAAAAAPAQOAGRJ46u11kVdPiyYhUFQhCAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBKBUAQEEAJjAYiDYA9rkAAAAY7RAAQEEAJjAYiDYA9rkAAAAYAAAADwBhQzJhQygPAQBMo1hKAAAA/gBMVE4xMjFYSi1MMDcKAAA=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Sat Feb 12 23:24:14 2011
DkmsStatus:

EcryptfsInUse: Yes
MachineType: LENOVO 7673CR8
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-25-generic root=UUID=7e1b8cc5-9055-41c8-bd30-ddde4717884c ro processor.max_cstate=2 quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
dmi.bios.date: 03/12/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7NETC0WW (2.20 )
dmi.board.name: 7673CR8
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7NETC0WW(2.20):bd03/12/2009:svnLENOVO:pn7673CR8:pvrThinkPadX61:rvnLENOVO:rn7673CR8:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 7673CR8
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X61
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.35-25-generic

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

I have exactly the same problem with Ubuntu 10.10 and Firefox - all updates included.
This is a Samsung Notebook with intel Centrino and i915 hardware.
The problem appears with fullscreen Flash videos: Screen is not updated anymore, anything else seems to work (sound, Esc).
The strange thing is that on a fresh install (Oktober 2010) the problem did not always appear. But recently this issue appears always.
Maybe this is related to recent updates of Flash or intel-drivers.

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

I experimented to check the situation in more detail and made the following observations:
Test: Xubuntu running live from the CD-rom.
Result: Flash runs well in full-screen.

Test: Installing the original (at releas of Ubuntu 10.10) Flash player.
Result: Full-screen Flash video works sometimes / but sometimes a restart of Firefox is required to make it work.

Test: Switching of compiz (no effects).
Result: Full-screen Flash video seem to work reliable.

So there are several "players" involved:
- intel-driver (that has reported problems)
- flash-player (that potentialy uses cababilities that the driver does not provide reliably)
- compiz (again, potentialy uses broken cababilities of the intel driver)

@Pedro Corde Real: Could you check if Flash-full-screen video works if you disable compiz

[Pedro Côrte-Real (pedrocr)]

I'm not running compiz at all so this bug applies without it. The way the problem is most easily triggered is by trying to change virtual desktop when flash is already fullscreen. That seems to lock the screen contents and I haven't been able to recover from it without killing X.

[kanito8a (kanito8a-gmail)]

I have this problem too. HP probook 4310s .

Mame and Flash fullscreen: Freezes system when I use compiz or metacity whithout composition activated.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

This bug appears to involve a freeze of Xorg, probably due to a GPU
lockup in the kernel drm code, in a version of Ubuntu before
natty (or we couldn't determine the version from the report).

The X team has been investigating GPU lockups in Intel's video driver
during the natty development cycle. Many of these issues are now either
resolved or at least well understood. There are also better tools for
capturing and diagnosing these problems, but these tools are either
unavailable or incomplete in older versions of ubuntu, so debugging this
issue on pre-natty versions is unlikely to be productive. We're closing
out the bug report for this reason.

However, you may not yet be ready to upgrade to natty. It turned out
that a large number of these freezes were solved by updates to the
kernel. Thus, updating your kernel may be a workaround for you.
Updated kernel packages are available a variety of places, such as:

  http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

If you find a newer kernel fixes it, and think the fix should be
backported to earlier Ubuntu versions, please file a request against the
linux kernel in Ubuntu, indicating the broken and the fixed kernel
versions.

If it does not fix it, and you do not wish to upgrade to natty, please
follow up through technical support channels (e.g. http://askubuntu.com
is a good place for free support for older Ubuntu versions).

On the other hand, if you find after upgrading to natty and updating to
latest that you still experience GPU lockups, please reproduce the
problem, ssh into the frozen machine, and collect the file
/sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/i915_error_state and the output of 'dmesg >
dmesg.txt', and attach both to a new bug report.

[Sundberg Pauli (susundberg)]

At least in my case upgrading kernel to "2.6.37-020637rc2-generic" from mainline did not do any good.

Fullscreen flash still freezes allways but sound works ok.

I have also tried all the /etc/adobe/ and export env-variable stuff described in other threads -- no help.

[blah (dhbabey)]

I'm seeing the same problem as well... Can anyone confirm/report whether upgrading to natty fixes the problem?