Comment 0 for bug 888872

Summary: Unity 3D desktop crashes in Oneiric using ATI Mbility Radeon X1600

Problem:
There doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason to this, be it having Firefox running, opening a link in Chromium to open in a new tab or watching a .flv video clip, using the subcontextual menus of Thunderbird, or watching videos in Totem. The desktop crashes bringing one to the login screen. Sometimes the desktop crashes as it's appearing.

The last thing one sees is a black screen with text, and something about Pulseaudio, but I'm not sure it's an error as I see no red text (just white), and there's no time to read it before the login screen appears.

Steps to reproduce:
Login using Unity 3d.
Use your system.

Results
The desktop crashes
Login screen appears

Expected results:
No crashes.

Comments:
At one point I thought the problem was due to indicator-weather, but I removed it, and although crashes became less frequent, they increased drastically two days ago (after updating).

This behaviour was non-existent in Natty.

I went a whole day without this behaviour by logging in using Unity 2D, and went along using all the above apps to no crashes.

I noticed there is a history of problems with Radeon video drivers, but they didn't describe this type of crash, and they seemed to be fixed in Natty, which makes me think it might not be a regression.

The only other issue I can think of that might be related is that turning compiz plugins on and off (Widgets Layer, and Zoom Desktop), presumably the non-default one, crashes Unity. I looked into it and sources say that this could be an issue with my video card, which I find outrageous considering it's only a few years old (well within the 5 year margin for compiz support), which points to a faulty driver and/or lack of proper driver support.

System Info lists my graphics support as Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV530. I found that odd. Wikipedia says that the my video card, although based on the RV530, is NOT the ATI RV530. So, I don't know if it's a matter of the wrong driver being assigned and there's no longer a Xorg.conf file to check, so I'm at a loss.

Software
Release
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10

Compiz
Installed: 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu5

compiz-plugins-main
Installed: 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu5

uname -r
3.0.0-12-generic

Hardware
First generation (2006) Intel MacBook Pro (Intel Core Duo, aka Yonah based processor) with an ATI Mbility Radeon X1600 video card.