VLC freezes PC

[Rik.v.a.]

Binary package hint: vlc

This is a fairly fresh Kubuntu install on a brand new notebook.

I watch a video file in VLC (over smb:// usually) and suddenly the video freezes and the last half a second of the sound repeats over and over (like a scratched record).

The PC is completely frozen, not even alt+sysreq+b responds. I have to power cycle the machine.

It happens when playing video files, I've had this problem with both .AVI and .MKV files.
It happens quite randomly.

VLC is being used with the default settings.
KDE Desktop Effects are disabled.
The only change to vlc.desktop is that I've added this line at the bottom (this is missing in the package config, some other bug):
"X-KDE-Protocols=ftp,http,smb,mms,rtsp"

I use a notebook with an external VGA screen, this particular time I got a kernel-panic kind of output on my notebook screen. You can read it here: http://imgur.com/xTqfq

If you need any more info I'd be glad to help out.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: vlc 1.1.9-1ubuntu1 [modified: usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed May 18 16:50:43 2011
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: vlc
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

If it had been an error from the memory allocation, I would have agreed to blame VLC. But scheduling in atomic context can only be a kernel-side bug.

[Rik.v.a. (rik)]

Still, this only happens in VLC. I've tried other players: xine and smplayer don't freeze up.

It might be noteworthy to add that this freezing also happens on this same machine when running Arch Linux (on another partition).

I did a full memtest so I don't think this is hardware related.

[rom85 (rom85)]

I have quite similar bug either. Ubuntu 11.04 + latest updates till 7th June 2011. After opening ANY video file VLC displays it for about 3-4 minutes, after that swapping starts and PC hangs, only hardware reset helps. My videocard is ATI RADEON 9600. Totem or SMplayer don't hang, only VLC. What logs can I attach for diagnostics?

[Rik.v.a. (rik)]

Would it be considered bad practice if we changed the affected package of this bugreport back to VLC?