[i845g] X11 with Intel graphics freezing repeatedly

[David Kelly]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

Ever since upgrading to Karmic Koala, my X server has been crashing on a consistent basis, usually about every 2-3 days. When the crashes occur, I am not doing anything out of the ordinary - usually just using Firefox, a console, or working in Eclipse. When the freeze happens, my mouse will move around the screen fine, but I am unable to click on anything or use the keyboard. Only a complete reboot gets it working again.

A few other notes: when first upgrading to Karmic Koala, my system would boot into a black screen and not allow me to login. Based upon the bug reports on this site I added i915.modeset=0 to GRUB.

I followed the instructions on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze to collect debug information and have attached it to this bug. Please let me know if you need any other information.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CurrentDmesg: [ 46.568012] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Date: Thu Nov 19 10:01:51 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c517 Logitech, Inc. LX710 Cordless Desktop Laser
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 2400
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=ed10f309-5e00-4808-97ed-0b2d5a10bbc2 ro i915.modeset=0 quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1563): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1563): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:1585): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1608): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
dmi.bios.date: 12/02/2003
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.bios.version: A05
dmi.board.name: 0G1548
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Computer Corp.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 15
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellComputerCorporation:bvrA05:bd12/02/2003:svnDellComputerCorporation:pnDimension2400:pvr:rvnDellComputerCorp.:rn0G1548:rvrA00:cvnDellComputerCorporation:ct15:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Dimension 2400
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-14-generic

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device [8086:2562] (rev 01)
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0160]

[David Kelly (davidkelly999)]

I had another freeze today, the new files are attached.

One other thing I forgot to mention: I can usually tell when a freeze is about to happen because the mouse cursor starts moving very slowly, kind of lagging behind where I am moving it. It usually freezes within an hour of noticing this.

[Alfrenovsky (alfredo-fing)]

Happens to me, with an old intel chipset 855/859.
The desktop hangs, mouse can move but no click response.
Keyboard doesn't works.
I can ssh to the PC. but can't stop gdm, nor chvt.

[David Kelly (davidkelly999)]

New freeze info for today attached

I am now going through the troubleshooting steps from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze. Here is what I have tried so far:

Compiz is already disabled
I believe AccelMethod and Accel options are ignored by this chipset, so I skipped these
I tried disabling DRI but only got a black screen, so I turned it back on
After today's freeze I added Option "AIGLX" "Off" to disable OpenGL indirect rendering acceleration.
I'll try this for a few days and see how it goes.

[David Kelly (davidkelly999)]

X froze again today - but in a different way. The picture on the screen became corrupted. The image basically black with some some random white static. I could kind of see the outline of my mouse as I moved it around, but nothing else was visible. I wasn't able to catch the debug info this time because it happened too soon after rebooting and I didn't get a chance to start X in debug mode. I will try to reproduce again.

[David Kelly (davidkelly999)]

Another freeze today. The mouse cursor started lagging and then about an hour X froze. After the freeze I modified my xorg.conf to disable power management with Option "PM" "Off".

[David Kelly (davidkelly999)]

Attached is more debug information after a freeze today.
Earlier in the day, Ubuntu released updates which included some modified X packages. This freeze happened after those new packages were already installed and the machine had been rebooted.
After the freeze I modified my xorg.conf to disable MTRR with "Option NoMTRR"

[David Kelly (davidkelly999)]

I've tried all the suggested fixes that I could from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze, but it is still freezing. Between the freezing and the mouse lag, the system is pretty much unusable. I will be either downgrading or switching to another operating system in the next few days. Hopefully there is enough detailed information here to help track down and solve this bug.

Thanks,
David

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

I have compiled three test kernels for finding the triggering commit that introduced these freezes on 845G into ubuntu. They can be downloaded from http://www.kvante.info/845Gfreeze/ . There is some more detailed information in the comments to bug 456902. If this bug is the same as bug 456902, the kernels with freezetest1 and freezetest8 should not cause the freeze, while the one with freezetest9 should cause a freeze. If this is not the case for you, we know that your bug is different from bug 456902 and we will have to do some additional tests.

I originally compiled the kernels on Jaunty, but tests by others seems to indicate that the tests can also be done in Karmic or Lucid. A problem with Karmic and Lucid is that the default kernel will cause a freeze while it doesn't in Jaunty.

[David Kelly (davidkelly999)]

After having these problems initially in 9.10, I downgraded to 9.04.

I have tried these freezetest kernels, in 9.04, for a few weeks now and have not had a single crash. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help troubleshoot this issue.