Kernel locks up on boot sometimes after upgrade and switch from nvidia to nouveau driver

[b]

After upgrading my system to Trusty (from precise) I noticed high CPU loads in Xorg and render errors (Image attached). This occurred with all the Nvidia proprietary drivers available through "Restricted Drivers". This only happens on this machine with an old AGP GeForce Series 6 card (6600), and not on the newer machines with series 500 and 700 nvidia pci express cards.

After switching to Nouveau everything was fine for a while, no more CPU pegging from Xorg or render glitches. Then I bought a new monitor to replace the old CRT. So I switched from the VGA connector to the DVI-D connector (which I had never used before). Every once and a while the machine will fail to boot and hangs on the console. I've attached the console output when this happens as an image below. Compare the image to the corresponding output when the system boots normally:

Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.124786] nouveau [ DRM] DCB conn 03: 0211
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.124789] nouveau [ DRM] DCB conn 04: 0213
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.127639] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.127647] [drm] No driver support for vblank timestamp query.
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.127704] nouveau [ DRM] 0xD53B: Parsing digital output script table
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.177780] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.178050] firewire_ohci 0000:00:07.0: added OHCI v1.0 device as card 0, 4 IR + 8 IT c
ontexts, quirks 0x11
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.181405] nouveau [ DRM] MM: using M2MF for buffer copies
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.181426] nouveau [ DRM] Setting dpms mode 3 on TV encoder (output 3)
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.238853] firewire_ohci 0000:02:0c.0: added OHCI v1.0 device as card 1, 4 IR + 4 IT c
ontexts, quirks 0x1
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.244408] ata6.00: ATAPI: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-109, 1.40, max UDMA/66
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.252255] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/66
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.272014] ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.292022] nouveau [ DRM] Load detected on output B
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.292575] nouveau [ DRM] allocated 1920x1200 fb: 0x9000, bo ffff880124132000
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.292754] fbcon: nouveaufb (fb0) is primary device
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.313245] nouveau [ DRM] 0xD53B: Parsing digital output script table
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.383149] nouveau [ DRM] Setting dpms mode 0 on TV encoder (output 3)
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.383164] nouveau [ DRM] Output TV-1 is running on CRTC 1 using output B
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.383172] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 90x36
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.383708] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: fb0: nouveaufb frame buffer device
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.383716] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: registered panic notifier
Feb 16 08:55:22 insitu kernel: [ 8.383728] [drm] Initialized nouveau 1.1.2 20120801 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0
...

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-45.74-generic 3.13.11-ckt13
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-45-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.6
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Wed Feb 18 08:48:04 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-11-05 (1566 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100816.1)
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2015-01-01 (48 days ago)

[b (ben-ekran)]

This image shows one of the render glitches that happens when using the proprietary nvidia driver on this machine.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

B. Bogart, 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 test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p xorg 1423287

Please ensure you have xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information.

As well, given the information from the prior release is already available, testing a release prior to the development one would not be helpful.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[b (ben-ekran)]

The lock-up only seems to happen about once a month, and I can see no pattern to it's occurrence. I would have to switch to a test build for at least a month to even see if it is reproducible, which is inconvenient to say the least. Any other things I can try to debug the issue short of running a test build for a month?

[b (ben-ekran)]

Installed the LTS enablement stacks, we'll see if the bug disappears.

[b (ben-ekran)]

With the LTS enablement stacks installed, this issue still does occur.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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