Comment 11 for bug 250695

Update:

I finally remembered to run rhythmbox from the terminal and induce this problem. Without debug set (-d option), nothing interesting at all happens. With debug mode set, something interesting happens: nothing. That is, during the bug, output to the terminal just stops.

I start playing a song, and you start seeing lines like the following:

(20:27:59) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 4:215(0)]
(20:27:59) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 4:215(0)]
(20:28:00) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 4:215(0)]
(20:28:00) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 4:215(0)]
(20:28:00) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 5:215(0)]

However, when I induce the problem and cause the system to free, output to the terminal temporarily stops and is never recovered (notice the jump in system time):

(20:28:01) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 5:215(0)]
(20:28:01) [0x80dc408] [rb_shell_window_configure_cb] rb-shell.c:1600: storing window size of 1279:750
(20:28:01) [0x80dc408] [window_focus_cb] rb-mmkeys-plugin.c:118: window got focus, re-grabbing media keys
(20:28:01) [0x80dc408] [rb_shell_window_configure_cb] rb-shell.c:1600: storing window size of 1279:750
(20:28:01) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 5:215(0)]
(20:28:01) [0x80dc408] [window_focus_cb] rb-mmkeys-plugin.c:118: window got focus, re-grabbing media keys
(20:28:26) [0x80dc408] [tick_cb] rb-shell-player.c:3223: tick: [file:///media/sda2/music/Jack%20Johnson/Brushfire%20Fairytales/Jack%20Johnson%20-%201(01)%20Inaudible%20Melodies.MP3, 31:215(0)]
(20:28:26) [0x80dc408] [window_focus_cb] rb-mmkeys-plugin.c:118: window got focus, re-grabbing media keys

Note that music DOES continue to play during this system freeze, in spite of the lack of terminal output.