T41 overwhelmed by "composition" - hard hang

[ldlandis]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.5

Hi,

  By default, I had compiz "Visual Effects" = "Normal" selected
  (through Jaunty).

  When I updated to Karmic, when I would try to start Firefox (or
  several other applications), my T41 (actually, two of three units)
  would hang with a mostly translucent trapezoid. No mouse/key
  press had any effect on anything. I had to power down.

  I have three T41s running and experienced this on two of the
  three. The third did not suffer this anomoly. I discovered the
  only difference was that the working T41 had compiz "Visual
  Effects" set to "None".

  When I switched the other two to "None", things worked fine.

  I am running "/usr/bin/metacity --replace" and getting splendid
  response on my machine (with "Visual Effects" = "None").

  Later, on one of the T41s, setting gconf-editor->apps->metacity
  select compositing_manager ON yielded terrible performace
  (for Firefox), but it did not crash. Running with compositing_manager
  OFF, things are great.

  FWIW, under Intrepid/Jaunty, compiz effects worked but
  with karmic, it seems to push the capabilities a bit too hard,
  and ends up freezing.

  Perhaps the classification of what is discovered in the hardware
  is over-estimating the capabilities of the machine somewhat.

  NOTE: When karmic+compiz fails, what happens when I
  try starting Firefox (for example), a trapezoid shape (small
  side on bottom) is slightly visible (like the frame is flipping
  down to vertical) but all (mouse/keyboard have no effect on
  the cursor or selection of virtual terminal ctl-alt-F#). Only
  a power down works.

ldl@boGus:~/FWSLC/Billing-Xylo$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10
Codename: karmic

IBM ThinkPad T41 , model 23743HU

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Nov 3 06:42:18 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: firefox-3.5 3.5.4+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: firefox-3.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

[BitBurners.com (lasse-penttinen)]

Hey, thanks for pointing me to the right direction.

I can confirm you findings - I just didn't figure out that they are display related:
- Boot LiveCD, start Firefox --> Crash
- Boot LiveCd, click install --> crash
- Install from boot menu, 1st system boot, update manager opens --> crash

Thinkpad T41 (2373-NG9)

Ubuntus configuration with older Radeon chips has always been borked. Previously you needed to modify xorg.conf to get 3D acceleration, then in Jaunty you needed to edit it as incorrect configuration caused terrible performance, and now you have to disable it or the whole thing explodes.