Comment 324 for bug 889706

I have a similar/related problem that began occuring after upgrading to ubuntu 12.04, but mine occurs during boot. Approximately 1 out of 5 times, the boot fails with a segfault in libfreetype.so.6.8.0 when gnome-shell starts up. It exibits 2 different symptoms. To recover from either, I ctrl+alt+f2 login and reboot. Have not tried any of the other restart options or fixes yet, but will report results when available. Once system is started correctly, I have never had gnome-shell crash on me. The relevent sections of the dmesg output is shown below.

System configuration: ubuntu 12.04 x64, AMD 955 x64 processor, 8 GB ram, Nvidia card with proprietary drivers, and dual monitor setup

Symptom 1: background displayed, but no title bar or cursor displayed (here is associated dmesg)

[ 21.586996] r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link down
[ 21.587011] r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link down
[ 21.587730] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 21.588063] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 21.616534] init: kdm main process (1846) killed by TERM signal
[ 21.619658] init: gdm main process (1875) killed by TERM signal
[ 21.722958] vboxdrv: Found 4 processor cores.
[ 21.723167] vboxdrv: fAsync=0 offMin=0x482 offMax=0x1938
[ 21.723215] vboxdrv: TSC mode is 'synchronous', kernel timer mode is 'normal'.
[ 21.723216] vboxdrv: Successfully loaded version 4.1.16 (interface 0x00190000).
[ 21.929098] vboxpci: IOMMU not found (not registered)
[ 23.827735] r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link up
[ 23.828553] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 29.975832] show_signal_msg: 42 callbacks suppressed
[ 29.975836] gnome-shell[2766]: segfault at ffff3774 ip 00007fd430051c6f sp 00007fff09715860 error 4 in libfreetype.so.6.8.0[7fd42fff7000+96000]
[ 34.064017] eth0: no IPv6 routers present

Symptom 2: background displayed, title bar displayed, network icon showing red, no cursor displayed

[ 21.668011] r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link down
[ 21.668017] r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link down
[ 21.669224] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 21.669922] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 21.697989] init: kdm main process (1788) killed by TERM signal
[ 21.699976] init: gdm main process (1818) killed by TERM signal
[ 21.774952] vboxdrv: Found 4 processor cores.
[ 21.775267] vboxdrv: fAsync=0 offMin=0x4ef offMax=0x26b8
[ 21.775315] vboxdrv: TSC mode is 'synchronous', kernel timer mode is 'normal'.
[ 21.775316] vboxdrv: Successfully loaded version 4.1.18 (interface 0x00190000).
[ 21.980970] vboxpci: IOMMU not found (not registered)
[ 23.726876] r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link up
[ 23.727662] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 27.805113] show_signal_msg: 42 callbacks suppressed
[ 27.805117] pool[2676]: segfault at 8 ip 00007f116ee56a23 sp 00007f1132feb990 error 4 in libfreetype.so.6.8.0[7f116ee07000+96000]
[ 33.936004] eth0: no IPv6 routers present