Comment 432 for bug 993187

Hello, I just arrived to this bug and read all posts, took me 5 hours yet to compile a summary:

Summary of ideas that seem to have fixed, or improved the situation of some people:
 #91 (install kernel 3.3.6)
 #112 (choose the right nouveau driver)
 #117 (install kernel 3.4.0)
 #165 (sudo intel_reg_write 0x2120 '0x1206800' in /etc/rc.local)
 #279 (USB ports)
 #321 (combination of i915.i915_enable_rc6=0 and i915.i915_enable_fbc=0) (also in #349)
 #336 (disable monitor power management)
 #370 (Win7 dual boot)
 #373 (use flash aid)
 #429 (stop OS fan management)

Summary of the 3 types of bugs:
(Sorry, I might definitely be wrong, the amount of information is too large for my poor brain, I still spend quite some time reading the 430 posts, and re-reading many)

bug 1) bug that freezes the graphics, but the mouse pointer is still moving
   most can still access the console ctrl-alt-F1, but not always...
   can reboot through CTRL+ALT+SysRq REISUB
   typically happens once every 5 to 20 min, impossible to work (sometimes once a day: #20, sometimes at boot time: #79)
   looks strongly correlated to Nvidia proprietary drivers (many cases), but may also affects Nouveau drivers (#3, #20, #79, #149)
   moving to the console may hard-freeze it all
   it looks like there is nothing in /var/log/syslog
   Posts describe solutions by:
      - #112 (choose the right nouveau driver)
   Changing kernel doesn't seems to help
   These people should join this bug:
      Nvidia, Complete freezes with only mouse pointer still moving (Please read #425 for more precise)
      https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1033263

bug 2) bug that freezes graphics and mouse
   last sound sample repeated continuously
   no mouse, no keyboard, no ctrl-alt-SysRq REISUB
   only reports about ssh not working, one post about ping working
   typically happens once every 1 to 8 hours
   looks correlated to SandyBridge and IvyBridge, but also affects people with: AMD Fusion (#373), Nvidia Nouveau (#277), ATI Radeon graphics with flgrx drivers (#49)
   some people have things in /var/log/syslog
   might loose data
   Posts describe solutions by:
      - using kernel 3.3.6 (#91), many success, but not always (see #120)
      - using kernel 3.4.0 (#117)
      - combination of i915.i915_enable_rc6=0 and i915.i915_enable_fbc=0 (#321), many success, but one (#401)
      - using Debian 6.0.5 (#124)
   These people should join this bug:
      IvyBridge, 64 bit System freezes (mouse, keyboard) (see #308)
      https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/999910
   Other comments:
      - Problem persists with regular Unity and Unity 2D desktop.
      - Problem does NOT occurr when using old Nvidia 8400GS discrete graphics card.

bug 3) bug that freezes graphics, but can still access the console ctrl-alt-F1
   post GC occurrence (5/6 ATI & 1/6 Xeon): ATI RV515GL, no proprietary driver; ATI Radeon X1400; ATI X1400; radeon X2300; Radeon HD 3200; VGA Xeon E3-1200 Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
   mouse might or might not move
   might completely freeze when going back to X
   might be related to compiz (#12)
   might loose data
   Interesting comments:
   - Still freezing, both with kernel 3.2.0.24 and kernel 3.3.6.
   These people should create a new bug report.

Obviously this is not complete, since other people fixed their problems using other ways... crazy bug!

Since I'm trying to have a full summary, here is another broad bug report for the records:
   Kernel Hard Freezing Very Often (see #279)
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/908335

More generally, as both an (external) programmer and an Ubuntu user I have to agree this is both:
- very very hard to track down where it can come from (the variety of messages is incredible)
- very very annoying this critical bug is not yet fixed (two month and you can't work well)