Characters breaking up

[SteVe Cook]

Problem occurs anywhere between a few minutes and one hour after boot. This doesn't appear to be caused by any particular app. It then rights it's self after a minute or two. Occasionally, however, it locks the machine up. Mouse ponter moves but can't click on any thing and keyboard is dead. REISUB functions to reboot system.
Problem not seen with Ubuntu only Lubuntu.
See attached screen shot.

Possible workaround if affected: Use fbdev or vesa drivers.

Update: possibly resolved with software update.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: lubuntu-desktop 0.34
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.28-generic 3.2.9
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic i686
ApportVersion: 1.94-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Mar 5 22:24:18 2012
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha i386 (20111129.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: lubuntu-meta
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-02-10 (24 days ago)

[Phill Whiteside (phillw)]

To be honest, I'm not sure what lubuntu could do to cause that. Hand on heart, I think it is a hardware issue. In a rough area of testing, I'd run the memtest from a live CD for a couple of hours, check the SMART status of the hard drive, get a vacuum cleaner to at least the exhaust fan of the computer. If you are happy to open the computer up, then giving the insides a good clean (e.g. the fluff that builds up on the airflow and the fan for your graphics chip.

[SteVe Cook (yorvyk)]

This was all done before I reported the bug. This machine also has Lubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu Precise, CrunchBang and Fedora 16 LXDE on it, non of which show the fault. I've also run the beta1 live CD just to see if any of my customisations could cause it and the problem still appears. According to sensors there is no over heating problems and the CPU fan is increasing speed as the CPU temp starts to rise. I'm currently running with a different video card but the same (Nouveau) driver to see if it's the video that is causing it.

[SteVe Cook (yorvyk)]

This has altered over time to the characters just disappearing on apps and menus but not lxpanel, the icons remain. I think I've narrowed it down to the nouveau driver and GeForce2 MX400 & MX440. It doesn't occur with fbdev or vesa drivers.

[SteVe Cook (yorvyk)]

I resurrected this machine and carried out updates to it and it has run for about a week with out showing the problem with either video card. No sign of the problem on Quantal either.

[Dave Kokandy (drkokandy)]

Thank you for reporting this issue and working to improve Lubuntu. I have added to the description your possible workaround and the fact that this may have been resolved with updates. If you are still encountering these issues, please add an update to this bug.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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