Comment 35 for bug 121653

It's not just z61m - I think this bug report just self-selected for z61m users. Other systems seem to be experiencing the same problem, so I think this is a more general problem. See:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/126214

ATI + fglrx + SLAB + x.org seems to be the common element, along with some as yet unclear other factor (Core 2 Duo?).

If this is widespread enough (as it's beginning to appear) it does beg the question of whether sticking with SLAB is the best choice for Gutsy, given that this breaks the "it just works" aspect of Ubuntu that is one of it's biggest strengths (and what caused me to switch from Gentoo, at least on my notebook). Non-functional power-management is a pretty serious issue for notebook users, who I'm guessing make up a decent chunk of the userbase. What alternatives are there to custom-compiling a SLUB kernel + modules? Could gutsy offer SLUB-enabled kernels and modules alongside the default SLAB-enabled ones temporarily until this is fixed upstream in fglrx? It's a bandaid and a royal PITA, but at least hardware would work as expected, and this wouldn't provide new fodder for "Linux isn't ready for the desktop" articles.

Sigh. Proprietary binary-only modules really *are* evil. And to think I originally developed a preference back in the day for ATI because they supported open-source drivers and NVidia didn't. At least things are slowly coming full circle.