Ubuntu stops responding

[Grey Nicholson]

Every so often Ubuntu stops responding completely.

Music continues to play, but the screen doesn't update. It's impossible to move the mouse, and Ubuntu doesn't respond to any keypresses, except sometimes SysRq+E. After a hard reset, everything works as normal for a while until this reoccurs, usually after a few days' uptime.

I don't know what causes Ubuntu to stop responding. In the most recent reoccurrence, I had just clicked a link in Chromium. The page began to load and then Ubuntu froze again.

What can I do to gather more data, given that every time this happens I have to hard reset before I can do anything else?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-24-generic 2.6.32-24.38
Regression: No
Reproducible: No
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.38-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 0/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: greg 1359 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: greg 1359 F...m pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf3db8000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC269'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,10438330,00100004'
   Controls : 12
   Simple ctrls : 7
Date: Sun Jul 25 11:59:41 2010
Frequency: Once every few days.
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=189a102f-ef99-4fcb-9a51-17e554a96384
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer INC. 900A
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=61061224-4cdd-4684-8257-5d4f5464b302 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34.1
SourcePackage: linux
dmi.bios.date: 09/24/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0607
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: 900A
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: x.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0x00000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTek Computer INC.
dmi.chassis.version: x.x
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0607:bd09/24/2008:svnASUSTeKComputerINC.:pn900A:pvrx.x:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rn900A:rvrx.xx:cvnASUSTekComputerINC.:ct10:cvrx.x:
dmi.product.name: 900A
dmi.product.version: x.x
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Greg,

If you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu development release http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Grey Nicholson (greytheearthling)]

This still applies to latest Maverick.

I haven't tested any third-party kernels.

[Grey Nicholson (greytheearthling)]

Ubuntu 10.10 still freezes up after a few hours left alone.

Other than installing an unsupported kernel, what can I do to gather log info to find the culprit?

[Agronskey Hooper (redxsage)]

I am experiencing a similar issue with Ubuntu 10.10 installed on my system. It seems to be rather random, but happens due to clicking things with the mouse - whether icons, on-screen buttons or menu options. It also happens when dragging or resizing windows or clicking their scrollbars. The system will just hang, frozen, indefinitely. I found out accidentally that by tapping the power button on my system a shutdown menu appears and the mouse is magically available again.

A minor caveat... Now this is an extremely cheap, rather basic optical mouse that I got somewhere for around 10 bucks. I have suspected for a couple of weeks that the left mouse button may be going bad. Sometimes using the button would achieve nothing at all, while in some programs what was intended as a single click was interpreted as a double click instead. So I'm going to replace the mouse and hope that solves the issue.

I hope this helps!

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Greg K Nicholson, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please capture any oops following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Capturing_OOPs ? As well, can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Ricardo Gentil de Araújo Pereira (rhalah)]

I think I'm affected by this bug too.
What I can say about it, plus the info already here, is that it seems it's related to high RAM usage or I/O activity. I'm observing that almost all the times it occurs when I'm on Chromium and using almost all the available RAM. Suddenly, BANG! Hard reset needed (or plenty of patience to wait indefinitely).

Of course Chromium is a principal suspect here (I'll keep using Firefox for a while, so I can test this), but in my opinion the OS needs to be free of such things and Ubuntu should keep a last resort I could use, at least a way for me to open system monitor and close any suspect I have.

I tried going to terminal so I could try to kill Chromium (the suspect) but even on terminal the system is unresponsive (it took me almost 10 minutes after I pressed the keys ctrl+alt+Fn and getting to terminal). Once I'm there, even to type a character takes many seconds.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Ricardo Gentil de Araújo Pereira, please file a new report by executing the following via the Terminal and feel free to subscribe me to it:
ubuntu-bug linux

Thanks!

[Ricardo Gentil de Araújo Pereira (rhalah)]

Hello, Christopher! Did it on Bug #1010554
As I said there, I'll try to help better.