video problems crashing system

[doctordruidphd]

I seem to be having serious video problems. They do not occur on maverick, lucid or aptosid, so I suspect driver or other problems with natty.

The problem occurs if I change colors in SystemSettings > ApplicationAppearance>Colors.
Changing colors, then hitting apply, causes the screen to blink, then what looks like static appears on the screen. Sometimes it goes away, sometimes it gets worse. Rebooting fixes it.

The real problem is with GIMP - I get the same static when I close a photo I'm working on. If I close with the close button on the window top bar, the whole system crashes, at least partially. I cannot get out with CTRL-ALT-BKSP, nor can I get to a console with CTRL-ALT-F1. The only way out is ALT-SYSRQ-REISUO (B doesn't work, but never has).

It doesn't appear to be a strictly gtk problem, as firefox works and closes fine.

This is NVIDIA video with nvidia-current from x-swat. xorg-edgers not enabled.

/var/log/dmesg and /var/log/Xorg.0.log look normal, but I would not suspect anything being written to them during a crash.

[dibl]

Re: video problems crashing system

Hard to say whether it is a mis-behaving X server, or a proprietary driver not quite ready for kernel 2.6.28. You might have better luck with the nouveau driver while you wait for Natty to finish baking. Of course no 3D that way ....

[doctordruidphd]

Re: video problems crashing system

You might have better luck with the nouveau driver while you wait for Natty to finish baking.

Hope they turn up the oven, it's only a month away.

Oh, I should mention, I tried disabling compositing. Fixed the crashing problem, but the windows are totally messed up -- frames disappearing, etc.

The whole xorg/nouveau/nvidia thing is a real mess right now.

Too many variables to even start debugging it. Just wondering if anyones else is having this fun.

[dibl]

Re: video problems crashing system

I'm presently running the fully-updated 11.04 on a VirtualBox VM, stuck at 800x600 maximum screen (more a VBox issue than *buntu), and with whatever the default video driver is for VBox. I must say everything seems to work flawlessly -- I have not had to touch audio, I tested Rekonq this morning to see if I could replicate Fintan's issue, and I just tested gimp to see whether there was any sign of the issue you are having, and mine has no issues of any kind. I've installed chromium-browser, and it works great. I temporarily installed the Maverick medibuntu repo, and installed flash, java, and the codecs, then disabled that repo. So I've got flash and java in the browser, and all audio functions are fine.