Xorg freeze, blank screen, mouse moves, VT works

[Alex Wolfson]

Once in a while system has Blank screen with mouse cursor visible and movable. Ctrl+Alt+F1 switches to working VT, I have seen it on Unity and Unity-2d. I have seen it on Dell and Lenovo Laptops with UMA graphics. Can not say if discrete graphics has the problem or not

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
DRM.card0.DP.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.DP.2:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.DP.3:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.HDMI.A.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.HDMI.A.2:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.HDMI.A.3:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1440x900 1440x900
 edid-base64: AP///////wAwrjZAAAAAAAETAQOAHhN46vzFl1dWkSUgUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBkiegilGEFDAwIDYAL70QAAAYkSeg0FGEpDAwIDYAL70QAAAYAAAADwCVCjKVCigWCQAGr1YwAAAA/gBCMTQxUFcwNCBWMCAKAEU=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Wed May 25 16:05:27 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:215a]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Beta amd64 (20110413)
MachineType: LENOVO 2537CTO
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=92c5b85b-7392-463d-88a5-84b3becc8de8 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/25/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 6IET74WW (1.34 )
dmi.board.name: 2537CTO
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:bvr6IET74WW(1.34):bd10/25/2010:svnLENOVO:pn2537CTO:pvrThinkPadT410:rvnLENOVO:rn2537CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 2537CTO
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T410
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu13
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7

[RedSingularity (redsingularity)]

Looks like you have an intel card installed. Assigning package for intel.

[James Ferguson (jamesf)]

I've noticed this typically when changing screen setup - most frequently docking or undocking laptop with external monitor attached to dock. Most recently I was waking from suspend when inserting into the dock. Asking a bit much, perhaps ;)

[Christopher Townsend (townsend)]

I've had this happen at least half a dozen times on my Lenovo T410 w/ Intel graphics. Every time this has happened is after the screen blanks from power management and then I move the mouse to wake up the screen. All I get is just the mouse cursor. No login box or anything else. This is without docking and/or undocking laptop.

As Alex pointed out, VT does work and I can login to the command line.

[Tony Espy (awe)]

Same here on my Thinkpad 410s.

Just started happening in the last few days... I haven't yet tried to isolate what update caused this to happen, but this is a pretty serious regression.

[Magnes (magnesus2)]

I have the same problem on Samsung RF511.

[bitinerant (bitinerant)]

I have this maybe twice a month since 11.04--black screen with active mouse pointer. After typing my password, mouse pointer changes as I move it to different parts of the screen. Banshee keyboard shortcuts work to start/stop music.

I eventually discovered that I could recover without a reboot via ctrl-alt-F1, log in, type "killall -9 compiz", ctrl-alt-F7, and wait several seconds.

This is a dual-screen Dell desktop and I never connect or disconnect screens.

$ lspci |grep -i graph
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

These two pages describe what seems to be the same issue:
  * https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+question/156524
  * http://askubuntu.com/questions/43502/black-screen-except-for-mouse-cursor-on-thinkpad-edge-15

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hey awolfson,

You filed this bug report against natty, but I see it's still open and
doesn't appear to have much activity recently. So, now that oneiric
is released and stable, this may be a good point for you to upgrade
and re-test if this issue is still present there.

If it's solved in the new release and you think it's worth backporting
the fix, please indicate that. Or if having the fix in the new release
is good enough, feel free to close out the bug (or let us know and we'll
close it.)

If it's not solved, leave the bug report open. I can't promise we'll
get to it (we get way more bugs filed than we can usually get to), but
your testing and feedback can help out if and when we do.

[Alex Wolfson (awolfson)]

I don't see it happened in oneiric anymore.
I don't know if it worth the effort to backport it to natty, assuming, that it is not clear what the fix was.g

As for me personally I don't mind to close a bug

[Alex Wolfson (awolfson)]

Forgot to mention - when I filed a bug, looks like everybody around had this problem. Nobody has it with oneiric now as far as I can tell

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xserver-xorg-video-intel (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]