Comment 6 for bug 688944

People should be aware that lack of libsensors support may result in serious instability. I wasn't aware of this aspect of the issue until some time had passed since I compiled my own gkrellm with libsensors support.

My intrepid installation was rock solid. Upon upgrading to jaunty I began experiencing unexpected, seemingly random, freezes to black, in which nothing worked and all I could do was cold boot. These freezes to black occurred in clusters sometimes, sometimes weekly, but I could always expect one at least every two weeks. There was never anything I could point to in any of the logs. One moment everything was fine, the next, I was down. It wasn't a kernel panic, it wasn't my memory. I couldn't figure out what it was. I learned to live with it, through jaunty, karmic, and into lucid.

On the day I discovered gkrellm didn't have libsensors support and compiled my own, I experienced two freezes to black in succession while surfing for answers to the gkrellm issue. Since I compiled gkrellm with libsensors support I have not had a single episode - not one. Within the time immediately following, there were no otherr changes.

It is known that issues with sensors can cause freezing. I experienced regular freezing from jaunty into lucid. I experienced no furtherr freezes after compiling gkrellm with libsensors support. I think it is reasonable to make the connection.

Before I compiled my own gkrellm, I had lm-sensors installed and configured.

It seems, the action taken by whomever, to protect the unwary from gkrellm's libsensors support, created another problem (at least for someone with my configuration) that must be at least as dangerous as the issue they were trying to protect us from. I must say, it is a real pleasure not to have the niggling presence in the back of my mind that at any moment what I might be doing could end abruptly in a black screen.