[nvidia] Gnome Shell freeze (page allocation failure in nvidia_modeset)

[Ben Cordes]

Sounds like a fairly common problem according to [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze): my display freezes, and while I'm still able to move the mouse around, I can't successfully click or type at any windows. It takes about 30 seconds for gnome-shell to restart, and then the clock starts running (and the system monitor starts updating) again.

This problem has been bugging me for a few months now, but I'm not sure when it started. It tends to happen in clumps; sometimes it will go several days without happening, but once it starts it often happens twice pretty quickly, and often a few times across a day. I haven't been able to isolate what causes it, but more often than not it has something to do with clicking on a window or tab in Chrome. (It definitely also happens in other applications, though.)

Every time it happens, dmesg contains a stack dump for gnome-shell ("page allocation failure"). I can provide gists of these dumps if that's helpful (and not already included in the apport data). So I'm not sure if this is actually an xorg thing or a gnome-shell thing.

% lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 20.10
Release: 20.10

% dpkg -l xorg* gnome-shell* | grep '^ii'
ii gnome-shell 3.38.1-1ubuntu1.1 amd64 graphical shell for the GNOME desktop
ii gnome-shell-common 3.38.1-1ubuntu1.1 all common files for the GNOME graphical shell
ii gnome-shell-extension-appindicator 34-1 all AppIndicator/KStatusNotifierItem support for GNOME Shell
ii gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons 20.04.0+git20200908-1 all desktop icon support for GNOME Shell
ii gnome-shell-extension-prefs 3.38.1-1ubuntu1.1 amd64 tool to enable / disable GNOME Shell extensions
ii gnome-shell-extension-system-monitor 38+git20200414-32cc79e-1 all Display system information in GNOME Shell status bar
ii gnome-shell-extension-system76-power 2.0.0~1602857239~20.10~914b531~dev all Gnome-shell extension for System76 Power Management
ii gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock 68ubuntu20.10.1 all Ubuntu Dock for GNOME Shell
ii gnome-shell-extensions 3.38.1-1 all Extensions to extend functionality of GNOME Shell
ii xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu15 amd64 X.Org X Window System
ii xorg-docs-core 1:1.7.1-1.1 all Core documentation for the X.org X Window System
ii xorg-sgml-doctools 1:1.11-1 all Common tools for building X.Org SGML documentation

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-7630.32~1605108806~20.10~7e52b13~dev-generic 5.8.17
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-7630-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.gpu0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/capabilities/gpu0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.mig: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/capabilities/mig'
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0000.01.00.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0000:01:00.0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend: suspend hibernate resume
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend_depth: default modeset uvm
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 455.38 Thu Oct 22 06:06:59 UTC 2020
 GCC version: gcc version 10.2.0 (Ubuntu 10.2.0-13ubuntu1)
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu50.1
Architecture: amd64
BootLog:

CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Nov 19 15:05:17 2020
DistUpgraded: 2020-11-16 10:15:57,099 DEBUG Running PostInstallScript: './xorg_fix_proprietary.py'
DistroCodename: groovy
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 3GB] [10de:1c02] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 3GB] [3842:6162]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-01-19 (1035 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20180105.1)
MachineType: System76, Inc. Wild Dog Performance
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-7630-generic root=UUID=e12a4ebc-6235-4471-a2da-3f9da9d48f74 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to groovy on 2020-11-16 (3 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 03/05/2013
dmi.bios.release: 4.6
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: KCH7710H.86A.0108.2013.0305.1638
dmi.board.name: DH77KC
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAG39641-400
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: System76, Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: wilp9
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrKCH7710H.86A.0108.2013.0305.1638:bd03/05/2013:br4.6:svnSystem76,Inc.:pnWildDogPerformance:pvrwilp9:rvnIntelCorporation:rnDH77KC:rvrAAG39641-400:cvnSystem76,Inc.:ct3:cvrwilp9:
dmi.product.family: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: Wild Dog Performance
dmi.product.sku: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: wilp9
dmi.sys.vendor: System76, Inc.
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.102-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.2.1-1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 20.2.1-1
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers-* N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.9-2ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200714-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

If you can move the mouse around then Xorg is definitely not frozen. It sounds like only gnome-shell is frozen.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It's possible the Nvidia driver does not support your unusual kernel version, so try using a regular Ubuntu kernel. Either way it looks like a bug specific to the Nvidia driver.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 1897659, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.