Screen Corruption and crash after Gnome Shell login

[The Bright Side]

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit into Gnome Shell
2. Observe black flashing squares near Activities button

Observed results:
I'm on 11.10 Gnome Shell, and about once a day, there's a screen corruption around the "Activities" button right after boot: a random group of black squares flashing on and off.

If I continue working, the corruption will get worse, and the top of the screen fills with garbage spreading from left to right. See attached screenshots.

Eventually, Ubuntu crashes to the login screen.

Only occurs right after login. If it doesn't happen then, it never happens, so right now, when I see it, I log out and back in and I'm good.

Notes:
My PC is a desktop. Hardware:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Six Core Processor AM3 3.2GHZ
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 1GB Fermi 760MHZ

Software:
Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit
Gnome Shell
Nvidia 290.10 drivers

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-13.22-generic 3.0.6
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-13-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 290.10 Wed Nov 16 17:39:29 PST 2011
 GCC version: gcc version 4.6.1 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.1-9ubuntu3)
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,gnomecompat,move,water,regex,vpswitch,imgpng,place,mousepoll,grid,animation,resize,unitymtgrabhandles,wall,wobbly,session,workarounds,expo,fade,scale,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Sat Dec 3 10:41:20 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: nvidia-current, 290.10, 3.0.0-13-generic, x86_64: installed
DpkgLog:

ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 nVidia Corporation GF104 [GeForce GTX 460] [10de:0e22] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device [1458:34fc]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
JockeyStatus:
 xorg:nvidia_current - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, In use)
 xorg:nvidia_current_updates - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-13-generic root=UUID=e481fddc-5155-4fdf-b0fb-ef8e9a2c1e31 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
XorgConf:
 Section "Device"
  Identifier "Default Device"
  Option "NoLogo" "True"
 EndSection
dmi.bios.date: 05/20/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 080015
dmi.board.name: JW-A870T-UC3
dmi.board.vendor: JW Technology
dmi.board.version: V1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr080015:bd05/20/2010:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnJWTechnology:rnJW-A870T-UC3:rvrV1.0:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu6
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu26
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1

[The Bright Side (me-knowingme)]

This screenshot shows the garbage accumulating at the top of the screen when I continue working and e.g. typing text into Firefox.

[The Bright Side (me-knowingme)]

I found out that when this bug appears, what's actually happens is that there is a console "hiding" behind the GUI. When I type anything, then what I am actually typing is an input into the console.

So for instance, when these corruptions appear, and I type the letter "r" (without pressing ALT-F2 first), it will restart Gnome Shell.

It's a bit hard to describe, but it's basically a mixture between GUI and command prompt. The GUI is there, but the command prompt is there and working, manifesting as the corruption.

I don't know how to turn off the GUI to see the actual console, unfortunately. CTRL-ALT-F1 etc. only take me to other workspaces.

[The Bright Side (me-knowingme)]

I can now say that, when the corruption occurs, as soon as I press Enter, I am thrown back to the login screen (and then the bug is gone).

I have disabled the automatic login in Ubuntu (btw, changing account settings crashes Gnome Shell: panel and window decorations disappear, and it no longer responds to keystrokes like CTRL-ALT-DELETE), because I figure that if I have to go to the login screen every other time I boot, I may as well start out there.

Now, when the corruption occurs and I press CTRL-ALT-F1 to F7 to cycle through the consoles, about half of the screen is cleared, but the corruption stays.

I clearly remember seeing consoles displayed that way a couple distros ago: the graphics driver wouldn't properly switch to text mode, and show garbled pixel junk instead of the console.

I am now almost convinced that when this bug happens, Ubuntu boots into console mode, but overlays the GUI over the console in some way. I have no way of telling what the console is saying. There has to be some message there that explains what's going on.

If anybody is reading this, do you know how where Ubuntu's boot logs are? Is the log overwritten with each new boot?

[The Bright Side (me-knowingme)]

Another screenshot: when pressing CTRL-ALT-F7 (back to graphical mode), more corruption is visible. The bits I highlighted in red are a flashing cursor.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[joatmor (lhuppe)]

I have been having a very similar issue with Ubuntu 12.10 and Gnome Shell. I am not entirely sure but I think that I have now fixed it by replacing my video card. The old one was an ATI X1300 with 128 megs and the new one is an ATI HD4650 with 512 megs. I suspect that the old card was only marginally able to keep up with the systems's demands while the new one has no issue. Meanwhile, you can do an ALT-F2 and then type r and return to restart the Gnome Shell. Until I was able to replace my video board that worked for me every time. Hope that helps.

[Explorer (bkukushkin-gmail)]

I have faced the same thing on both Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.04 as well as on openSUSE 12.3 with darktable 1.2.2 and nvidia proprietary drivers (different versions: 304, 310) for GT430 card.

In my case systems froze completely so that I needed to reboot with the magic SysRQ keys or using the hard button. The garbage on the screen was quite the same, though I couldn't switch to the console to check it out. I would also like to add that in Ubuntu cases Xorg was glitching even after a reboot (after three or four of them, to be exact).

The crash happens from time to time, with no dependency on the number of photos in the roll or on the style and type of edits made to the photos.

I'm attaching an archive of two files made on the current Ubuntu 12.04 (as of 17.07.2013).

- darktable.debug is what I was able to record with $ darktable -d all command
- darktable.strace was made with $ starce -p [darktable pid]

The commands were executed in the background until the system froze and had to be rebooted.

Hope that this might help.

P.S. As for the moment, I removed darktable to prevent running it. In case it will be needed to reproduce, I will be glad to install it again.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

The Bright Side, 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? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p xorg-server REPLACE-WITH-BUG-NUMBER

Please note, given that the information from the prior release is already available, doing this on a release prior to the development one would not be helpful.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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