[Gutsy] desktop and keyboard freezes while mouse is moveable

[unggnu]

Binary package hint: linux-source-2.6.22

I am not sure if it is kernel problem but it seems so.
I had this two times in Gutsy. After some time the desktop and keyboard freezes while the mouse is still move able but nothing reacts to clicks. Another interesting point is that the first time an audio file runs along without problems in totem until it finished and the second time a video in vlc window. I could watch it normally except that I had no influence.
The only keys that are still working are acpi ones like brightness (which calls sonybright acpi scripts) and the hibernate button. The laptop really went down to sleep without problems and resumes fine but it was still not possible to do anything. The video runs along too after resume except the audio but this is a general gutsy problem (under normal circumstances I had to restart the video program to get sound again).
I have a Sony TX2 Laptop with Gutsy and the latest updates. I am using compiz and the i810 driver because of the intel xv problem. I have heard in #ubuntu+1 that I am not the only one with this problem so it doesn't seem to be only hardware specific.

[Amit Kucheria (amitk)]

Could you try disabling desktop effects (compiz) and reporting if this problems still exist?

From dmesg, it doesn't look like a kernel problem. Does your numlock light blink?

[unggnu (unggnu)]

I had this again after some suspend and resumes with compiz. In IRC channel someone reported that he had the same issue altogether two times after resume.
I guess this is a compiz issue. I have disabled it for now and try some extensive suspend and resume tests.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

I had nearly the same issue without compiz two times but unlike the problem with compiz it was still possible to switch to console with ctrl + alt + f1 and login and restart gdm. Without restart it was possible to switch back to X (F7) but the same issue was still existent. Everything else was the same so it looks more like a xorg problem.
It often happens after resume from suspend so it should be easily reproducible after some wakeups.
Btw. on Intel hardware the i810 driver should be used since intel driver crashes the whole laptop for me several times before suspend but I had the mouse freeze with i810 and intel driver.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

Typo: Of course I mean keyboard freeze. Mouse is still moveable.

[Tuomas (tuma+sec)]

I have the same problem on Dell Latitude D420 with i810 driver. Compiz is being used and sometimes after suspend-to-ram the problem appears. Usually then going again to suspend and back helps for me (at least if tried many times, with some try mouse&keyboard starts to work again). Problem seems to appear quite randomly. Really irritating bug.

[michelem (michele-marcucci)]

Same problem here with same driver (i810, Dell D610) using Compiz after upgrading to Gutsy months ago.
I noticed I cannot use ctrl-alt-f1 too because I get a black screen without any way to come back into Gnome session. Only reboot is needed (neither restarting gdm from an ssh connection works).
Did someone try with a fresh install of Gutsy?

[Tuomas (tuma+sec)]

I had this problem already with Feisty and unofficial beryl installed.
Upgraded to Gutsy beta from that. ctrl+alt+f1 doesn't work for me
either when this bug appears, but as I said, suspend-to-ram and
back is my "workaround" - probability to get mouse&keyboard back
to work is about 50% with each try. :)

[Tuomas (tuma+sec)]

Oops. My comments were conserning a little bit different buggy behaviour, because in my case, mouse is not moveable.

I have had also this bug some time, such that mouse was moveable (I mean, perfectly as described). It is much more rare case, and I don't remember any more when it happened last time.

[climatewarrior (gabrieljoel)]

I have the same exact problem here. Im using the experimental modsetting driver and my video card is the intel 855gm. When i disable compiz fusion suspend works perfectly. I had compiz fusion on feisty and suspend worked there too. Im running gutsy release candidate.

quote

Also of note.

This bug happens on any screen blanking event, not just after suspend. Keyboard works fine on unlocking password prompt, but then the screen remains blank and the keyboard doesn't work at all. Caps lock, Ctrl-alt-Backspace, nothing.

end quote

same here too

I can also move the mouse when the screen is blank

Thank YOu! all

[d11 (darviperez)]

the same problem. i have a intel 945gm working with intel driver, also i tried with i810 and the same. desktop freeze and mouse is still working.

[Fridley (fridleyjames)]

Same prob. Had this issue in fiesty too but had hoped it would have been fixed in 7.10

Guess not. Glad I am not alone. Have tried turning off all effects and using a non-ff browser with no effect. Even bough new 2gb ram to make sure I had "enough" to keep it stable.

I do have a ATI 9600 All in wonder which I have though might have some impact, but cant find anyone with solutions. It seems that it is happening to all users not just ATI so I guess thats not it...

Did a fresh install of Gutsy (formated the hard drive partition (have home partitioned separately) not that I think it would have made a real difference...

Look forward to being able to tell my wife that Ubuntu is stable (so she can stop telling me to go and by vista,,,)

Cheers in advance..

[Matjaz (matjaz-urlep)]

I have the same problem on a Thinkpad R52. Strangely I had the same problem with Kubuntu 6.06, but not with Kubuntu 7.04. At first I thought it had something to do with video drivers (I used opensource radeon driver with 6.06 and fglrx with 7.04), but it doesn't make any difference with Kubuntu 7.10. I can still use the keyboard, if I press each key for about 2-3 seconds. My only solution for now is to restart X with Ctrl + Alt + Backspace.

[Fridley (fridleyjames)]

The only difference it seems is that my keyboard dies completely (no ctrl+alt+backspace). Can only hard reboot.

[Matjaz (matjaz-urlep)]

@Friedley: Even if you press and hold Ctrl for 2-3 seconds, then Alt for 2-3 seconds and finally Backspace for the same amount of time? That's how I do it.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

I had this issue again but without compiz so I was still able to change to console and restart X with strg + alt + backspace. I have attached the xorg.0.log.old.

[Sreejith M (sreejith-sasi-mangalath-gmail)]

I'm having the exact same problem since yesterday evening and this has happened trice since then. I've a Dell inspiron 600m with gutsy and compiz. video card is ATI

[Chris Murphy (chrismurf)]

Same Issue on a Dell Latitude D620, with nVidia Corporation G72M [Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300] (rev a1), and the binary NVIDIA drivers. Screen is still refreshing; I can receive IM's for instance. I can move the mouse pointer around. I simply cannot click or type.

[Chris Murphy (chrismurf)]

A thought - what plugins do you all have enabled on Compiz? The first time this happened, I think it was related to things I was doing with the "Group and Tab Windows" plugin. I'm wondering if it's a bug in that.

[hronir (hronir)]

I have the same problem, with my ATI card and non-proprietary drivers.
For me, the Matjaz's trick does not work: pressing and holding for seconds keys does not send any signal and the only thing I can do is hard reboot.

[ArShAm (arshamshirvani)]

Ok
I've reached to a safe zone now
I must say kernel noapic nolapic acpi=off apm=power_off pci=assign-busses didn't help

I have a fresh installed gutsy , and I managed to download these packages from feisty release :

x11-common_7.2-0ubuntu11_i386.deb
xorg-dev_7.2-0ubuntu11_all.deb
xserver-xorg-input-all_7.2-0ubuntu11_i386.deb
xorg_7.2-0ubuntu11_i386.deb
xserver-xorg_7.2-0ubuntu11_all.deb
xserver-xorg-video-all_7.2-0ubuntu11_i386.deb

Now almost 1 hour and 30 mins I don't have any freeze at all , ( it was at least 10 mins )

My kernel version is : 2.6.22-14-generic

Only 2 condition :
I have disconnected my external USB HDD , I will try to connect it in next 6 hours and see if it is about the ehci module or not
I will try the latest 2.6.23.1 tomorrow again to see if there is problem or not

But without compiz , I have no freeze at all

Computer specs :
GC : intel 915GM
CPU : centrino 1.6
RAM : 1GB

Programs that are running currently :
swiftweasel ( firefox )
Wingide ( Python based IDE )
ZDE ( Zend Studio , a java based program )
Amarok
CSM
Konsole
Gaim
Skype
vlc

[Carlos Tasada (ctasada)]

Hi guys,

I've exactly the same problem but I found that it only happens when I start using a torrent software (tested with deluge and ktorrent). Then, looking into the /var/log/kern.log I find tons of these message:

Nov 12 20:43:34 Main-Computer kernel: [ 1428.000000] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth1: transmit timed out
Nov 12 20:43:34 Main-Computer kernel: [ 1428.000000] bcm43xx: Controller RESET (TX timeout) ...

I've installed a Linksys WMPC54G using the bcm43xx-fwcutter method, and everything else seems to work fine.

the lscpi exit is: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

Now I'm trying to use card with ndiswrapper that's how was working in Feisty.

Hope it helps. If you need more info, I'll be glad to help.

[ArShAm (arshamshirvani)]

Ok
I went to sleep , and came back , omg , everything in stable mood!
just one thing:
Everytime the freeze occurred a sound like what I set to incoming message for gaim is heard , right the time the freeze.
so the only thing I haven't run was gaim
now for next 24 hours I will test that

Including , I used another kernel : 2.6.22-14-386

Computer specs :
GC : intel 915GM
CPU : centrino 1.6
RAM : 1GB

Programs that during last 24 hours ( without any crashs ):
swiftweasel ( firefox )
Wingide ( Python based IDE )
ZDE ( Zend Studio , a java based program )
Amarok
CSM
Konsole

[ArShAm (arshamshirvani)]

Ok
I had 3 freeze in a row for less than 10 mins
In the first one , every programs I had to run were open (amarok , gaim , skype , firefox , wingide , zend studio , acrobat reader )
The second and 3rd , only the gaim with compiz

I observed in some incoming messages from gaim , I have the freeze
Maybe some plugins in gaim needs to do something that causes the crash

In the other situations that I had 24 hours stable , I had gaim with no incoming messages , but lots of java/python/native programs running

System specs:
Centrino 1.6
1GB RAM
External USB HDD attached
GC : intel 915GM

Kernel : 2.6.22-14-386

I have gutsy , but manually installed these packages from feisty repos :
x11-common 1:7.2-0ubuntu11
xserver-xorg-input-all 1:7.2-0ubuntu11
xorg 1:7.2-0ubuntu11
xserver-xorg 1:7.2-0ubuntu11
xserver-xorg-video-all 1:7.2-0ubuntu11

I hope these informations help

[unggnu (unggnu)]

I have changed it to synaptics since it seems to have something to do with my Touchpad according to Xorg.0.log and it never happens for me with USB mouse. Can anyone confirm that this issue is Touchpad related?

@climatewarrior
Your issue seems to be a driver problem listed under Bug #108056.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

Ok, it seems to be a graphic driver issue. I can always reproduce it with a wine game. Mouse is moveable while keyboard doesn't work except of the acpi keys like brightness & Co.
I have an Intel 915 card. Here are some reports with other cards like Ati but maybe this are other issues.

[ChrisTomalty (christomalty-deactivatedaccount)]

Ok, so I downloaded the stuff that the guy 6 posts above me suggested. One problem: How do I roll back? I don't want to remove the newer packages in Synaptic, but is that what I have to do? The package installer isn't letting me install because it's older.

[odaagan (teitur-arnarson)]

I had this problem after installing gutsy: All of a sudden everything froze (including keyboard) except from the mouse pointer. However, after making two changes the problem hasn't occurred for two days now. I recalled the following.

1. At my first login after installing gutsy I got a question from "restricted driver manager" if I wanted to use ATI accelerated graphics driver. At that time I enabled that option. After disabling this driver two days ago my computer hasn't frozen down.

To disable the driver: System -> Administration -> Restricted drivers manager.

2. I did in fact one more change that is less likely to be related to the problem. Immediately after installing gutsy I removed all default directories in my user folder, i.e. Documents, Videos, Music etc. and they all ended up in the ~/.Trash directory. Two days ago I moved them back to their original location, but as I said, this is unlikely to be related to the problem.

I will post here again if my computer starts freezing again even though the graphics driver is disabled.

Details: I run gutsy on a LG LM70 Express. Graphic card, I don't know, probably listed in lshw but that one is written for hardware developers.

[ArShAm (arshamshirvani)]

You'd better name the guy

Copy them into a directory
cd THERE
dpkg -i *

and you're done

If you want to roll back , just go to aptitude , and you will find the updates , very simple , update them

You will loose nothing

[hronir (hronir)]

Trying to install those feisty packages, I end up with a lot of dependency which would force me do downgrade a lot of other packages. Am I supposed to follow the full dependency? packages are really a lot, for example:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xorg-dev:
 xorg-dev depends on libxevie-dev; however:
  Package libxevie-dev is not configured yet.
 xorg-dev depends on libxfont-dev; however:
  Package libxfont-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxkbfile-dev; however:
  Package libxkbfile-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxkbui-dev; however:
  Package libxkbui-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxmuu-dev; however:
  Package libxmuu-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxres-dev; however:
  Package libxres-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxss-dev; however:
  Package libxss-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxtrap-dev; however:
  Package libxtrap-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxtst-dev; however:
  Package libxtst-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxv-dev; however:
  Package libxv-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxvmc-dev; however:
  Package libxvmc-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxxf86dga-dev; however:
  Package libxxf86dga-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxxf86misc-dev; however:
  Package libxxf86misc-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on libxxf86vm-dev; however:
  Package libxxf86vm-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-bigreqs-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-bigreqs-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-evie-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-evie-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-fontcache-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-fontcache-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-gl-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-gl-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-record-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-record-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-resource-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-resource-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-scrnsaver-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-scrnsaver-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-trap-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-trap-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-video-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-video-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-xcmisc-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-xcmisc-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-xf86bigfont-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-xf86bigfont-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-xf86dga-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-xf86dga-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-xf86dri-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-xf86dri-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-xf86misc-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-xf86misc-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on x11proto-xf86vidmode-dev; however:
  Package x11proto-xf86vidmode-dev is not installed.
 xorg-dev depends on xserver-xorg-dev; however:
  Package xserver-xorg-dev is not installed.
dpkg: error processing xorg-dev (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up xserver-xorg (...

[unggnu (unggnu)]

I could always reproduce this bug with a game in Wine. After game start in 3D mode mouse is still moveable but keys except of acpi doesn't work anymore but it was still possible to ping the laptop and use ssh. I have created a back trace with GDB according to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingXorg .
I have to kill X in gdb with ctrl + c to got a back trace because it doesn't really crash.
There seems to be nothing in Xorg.0.log.old which seems to have something to do with this issue.

Versions (both with accordant dbgsym packages):
xserver-xorg-core: 2:1.3.0.0.dfsg-12ubuntu8
xserver-xorg-video-intel: 2:2.1.1-0ubuntu9

[Daria Michalska (sansana)]

I have the same problem. I have compiz running. In my case the only thing I can do when the bug appears is moving the mouse around the screen. The keyboard is completely dead, I can't even do ctrl alt backspace or turn numlock on/off.

I hope this is going to be fixed soon, because the OS is unusable with this :(

[unggnu (unggnu)]

@Daria Michalska
Which graphic card do you have? Is it possible to change to console with ctrl + alt + f1 when you don't use compiz?

[Daria Michalska (sansana)]

I have intel gma950 at sony vaio n11s laptop. I will try ctrl + alt + f1
when the bug appears, because surprisingly it did not appear recently.

[gerryk (gerryk)]

This seems similar to a problem I've been experiencing.
Sony Vaio, FJ1Z, Intel 915 with intel xserver.
If it is the same bug, to reproduce it, select some text and click-drag the selected text.

When X freezes, the machine is still accessible via ssh and top shows no processes pegged. X.log has no errors either.

[hronir (hronir)]

I guess the problem is related to the HW of the graphic card. In fact if I start compiz-fusion after a fresh boot (after the laptop was off for a a long period), it last for a quite long time (tens of minutes) before freezing. On the contrary, when I restart compiz after the reboot, it takes a few minutes for freezing, just as the card was already "hot"...
Just a hint...

[Daria Michalska (sansana)]

Dragging the selected text works just fine. What's more I didn't have any
problems with this bug since I posted on launchpad about it. That's odd.

[Nick Davis (argoneus)]

Ditto for me. I have an Athlon 64 3400+ with a Radeon 9800 Pro video card using xorg drivers. The crash seems to occur randomly... I have Compiz enabled with several effects, and have been sleeping/resuming my machine as well. The GUI will sometimes report "an error occurred while putting this computer into sleep mode", but I can't find any evidence in the logs (dmesg, /var/log/messages, kern.log). Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

[Nick Davis (argoneus)]

i guess i should mention the behavior i experience is similar to that mentioned above: my desktop and keyboard are completely unresponsive, but i can move the mouse pointer... i can't click or type anything though, and none of the key combos (ctrl + alt + backspace and friends) work. this seems to happen unpredictably.

[unggnu (unggnu)]

At least the bug which happens through this wine game seems to be fixed in current Hardy. There is another graphical issue with Hardy which doesn't happen with Gutsy but this has nothing to do with this issue.

[Andy Clark (andy-leclark)]

Trouble here too.
Kubuntu Gutsy 64, Compiz, nvidia proprietary driver.

Every so often the keyboard stops responding. Num lock doesn't even toggle. Mouse still works.

Logging in remotely and killing compiz ("killall -KILL compiz.real") allows the keyboard to function again. At that point it's just an "Alt-F2" -> "compiz --replace" to be back to normal.

[Martin Schwenke (martin-meltin)]

I'm seeing a similar X-related lock-up several times a day under moderate usage. However, if I change desktops using Ctrl-Alt-Left/Right then the mouse and keyboard start working again. Is anyone else seeing this?

This would point to some sort of bizarre window manager bug... or perhaps an X bug that can be worked around by the window manager sending some sort of refresh event when desktops are switched.

This is with Gutsy, GNOME and recent Intel graphics (sorry, not sitting at the machine right now). No non-standard packages...

[Martin Schwenke (martin-meltin)]

Actually, I got it wrong: for me keyboard is fine. The mouse simply stops working and functions again after switching desktops.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Most of you seem to be having intel graphics. The rest should check the respective package for similar bugs.

Please try Hardy alpha3, which for starters has a newer mesa stable branch snapshot.

[Andy Clark (andy-leclark)]

The problem has gone away for me. It's been stable for a few weeks now. However I have no idea which update to Gutsy fixed it. I'm still running Kubuntu Gutsy 64, Compiz and the nvidia proprietary driver.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

ungnu, Andy, and Martin, thanks for confirming the issue has gone away. Closing as fixed.

[Kris (kris333)]

I'm not entirely sure this should be closed as fixed. I'm currently running Gutsy on a ThinkPad T40 (ATI Mobility 9000) and a workstation (ATI X600), both using the non-proprietary ati driver. Both systems seem to freeze at random, exhibiting the exact symptoms described above: everything except the mouse cursor freezes. The only thing I can do is hard-reboot. Without compiz, everything works as expected.

[hronir (hronir)]

The same for me!
(Gutsy on a laptop with ATI X600...)

[Kris (kris333)]

hronir, are you using the proprietary fglrx or the free ati driver?

[hronir (hronir)]

non-proprietary driver, automat.
thanks,

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

This bug was about intel. Check the ati or mesa bugs for a duplicate.

[leogps (leogps)]

I am seeing this and I am on Ubuntu 19.10. I have an Nvidia 1660Ti with the driver 435.21.
When I use Nvidia drivers, I do not see this issue.
If I select the new "on-demand" option under Prime-Select or even the Intel(Power-saving) option, randomly but quite consistently I see that the display freezes. Mouse works, ssh works, nothing in the logs points to a cause though.
The laptop is Legion-Y545 with Intel 9750h processor. Works fine on Windows where nvidia graphics card is used on demand and Intel discrete chip is used most of the time.

Major concern is the battery, while on intel chipset, I get really good battery but when I switch to Nvidia, it uses a lot of battery, I would want to be able to enable "on-demand" feature to save battery when needed.

Latest Intel xorg driver is installed:
2:2.99.917+git20190815-1