unity in Precise freezes randomly, but pointer moves and can switch to tty

[esed]

Unity freezes randomly, every day or every two days, regardless of what I do, freezes occur while reading, watchig a video, coding, etc. I didn't notice that freezes occur after a specific action. I am able to move mouse pointer but without being able to perform any clicks, I can switch to tty, kill compiz, relaunch it and it brings back unity and everything goes back to normal till next freeze. This happens now in Precise, used to happen in Oneiric too. I had to install xfce alongside unity because unity became very unreliable. Freezes also happen when I boot Precise from Live USB.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.4.0+bzr2047ubuntu0+654 [origin: LP-PPA-unity-team]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-17.27-generic 3.2.6
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-17-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 1.94-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,mousepoll,wall,grid,move,vpswitch,resize,snap,imgpng,gnomecompat,regex,place,animation,workarounds,session,expo,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CrashDB: unity
Date: Sun Mar 4 20:00:11 2012
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2012-02-24 19:37:56.146945
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI M64-S [Mobility Radeon X2300] [1002:7188] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company 6910p [103c:30c1]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Compaq 6910p
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-17-generic root=UUID=dd06ade6-b2e4-4133-9095-abf5c0073779 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-01 (2 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 06/14/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 68MCD Ver. F.15
dmi.board.name: 30C1
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 68.35
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: CZC8334MYV
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr68MCDVer.F.15:bd06/14/2008:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPCompaq6910p:pvrF.15:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn30C1:rvrKBCVersion68.35:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP Compaq 6910p
dmi.product.version: F.15
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.0~bzr3025-r3034-p737~precise1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu33
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.30-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.1-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.1-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.99.901+git20120126-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Is that still an issue for you with Unity 5.8 ?

[esed (th3-fault)]

Yes, It happened yesterday.

[esed (th3-fault)]

How can I debug compiz using gdb from tty1? Would it reveal any useful information because compiz does not crash, it simply freezes?

[Alex Antão (alexcarlosantao)]

It also happens to me, but it freezes a lot. All process remain running, if I was watching a vídeo, the sound keeps running, for example.

I always have to go to tty1 ans make a lightdm restart.

My VGA card:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV516 [Radeon X1300/X1550 Series]
01:00.1 Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV516 [Radeon X1300 Pro] (Secondary)

[esed (th3-fault)]

Something weird happens, I'm able to reproduce bug when scrolling up and down a bit in one pdf ebook using Document Viewer, but not in other ebooks. The book with which I'm able to reproduce a bug is composed of scanned images (totaling ~182MB in size), what kind of impact it could possibly have?
I have tried to disable all animations and it didn't help.
My VGA is Radeon X2300

[esed (th3-fault)]

The freezes still happend after the last unity update. Is this happening only on a bit older GPUs like x1300 and x2300? I would like to see which GPUs other affected people have. Is it possible that there is a gpu-specific bug in Gallium 0.4 when running on ATI RV515 chips that causes compiz to freeze?

[ulpfr (pfeifer-wait)]

I have a X2300 and have the lockup several times a day. A solution for the problem would be very much appreciated.

% lspci -nn | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI M64-S [Mobility Radeon X2300] [1002:7188]

Also X11 does not come up initialy. It terminates with

[ 42.777] (EE) RADEON(0): [dri] RADEONDRIGetVersion failed because of a version mismatch.
[dri] This chipset requires a kernel module version of 1.17.0,
[dri] but the kernel reports a version of 2.12.0.[dri] Make sure your module is loaded prior to starting X, and
[dri] that this driver was built with support for KMS.
[dri] Aborting.

Starting lightdm after killing the failsafe server then works. This may very well have a different reason thoug.

[esed (th3-fault)]

 lspci -nn | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI M64-S [Mobility Radeon X2300] [1002:7188]

exactly the same VGA

Look what I just found:

http://web.archiveorange.com/archive/v/hhSc5npSMUYtNKZQuyrp

Scroll down a bit and take a look on this post:

"Try the following options in the kernel command line in grub:
pci=nomsi
noapic
irqpoll
and see if any of them help."

...and read till the end, it seems that these settings actually work!

Try them and post here yout findings, I'm also gonna try now

[esed (th3-fault)]

I have added pci=nomsi to kernel boot line and the problem whit freezes when scrolling in pdf book described above seems to be gone. Previous to adding pci=nomsi I could reproduce that bug at any given time by scrolling in document for 5-10 seconds, now I have been scrolling for 5-6 minutes and no freeze occured.

I'll continue to post updates

[esed (th3-fault)]

One day without freeze :) By this time I would have experienced lock up almost certainly

[esed (th3-fault)]

Still no freeze:) adding pci=nomsi solved the problem

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]