Problem with display [lightdm?] - Noob

[Stoiljkovic]

Hello, my name is Vladimir and I'm Kubuntu noob-o-holic. And I have one question, since I cannot live with this problem anymore.
Ever since I've installed Kubuntu 13.04 x86 (clean install on all-partitions-deleted-previously hard disc), my KDE keeps crashing. How? Well everything works as it should and then, after 5 or 50 minutes, there is no rule there neither something that I do to initiate crash, KDE starts working veeeeeeeeeeeeeery slow. It is working like I'm on atom 1.6Ghz with 512MB DDRAM and no graphic card at all. If I try to move some window, I've get like 3fps per second. Videos? 1fps per 2 seconds. Trying to open Konsole - 30 seconds.

It happens seamlessly, like someone pull off the switch, and you cannot notice it. So there is no screen flickering or something. CPU fan starts working a bit faster for 5-10 seconds and viola - everything crashes.

The only (temporary) solution for this problem that I've found is "sudo lightdm restart". After that, everything works as it should, for another 5 or 15 or 50 minutes.

So once again: Kubuntu 13.04, clean install on i7 with 6GB DDR and IntelHD3000 graphics.

Anyone has any idea how to repair this? And please keep in mind that I'm noob. Thanks!

[Buddlespit]

I'm going to watch this, too

[blackpaw]

Sounds like your CPU is being trashed, probably by akonadi/virtuoso.

Fire up console and do a top or htop, see if anything is hogging the CPU.

[oshunluvr]

This sounds like a run-away process at the user level or something has a memory leak.

In the way of trouble shooting this, a couple ideas:

1) Immediately open a konsole terminal on your desktop and run "top". Keep it visible as you work. As you start to notice things slowing down, observe what processes are at the top of the list.

2) Note the time when you first log in. To the second if you can. Then work until the slow down becomes very noticeable. Then open your system log files and see what has been building from the time you logged in.

[Stoiljkovic]

@blackpaw @oshunluvr - Thank You for an advice. So i've monitored what is happening with "top" and it happened twice. Both times it was Xorg that took 75-90% of CPU for a period od 1-15 seconds. After that, machine cannot recover even though CPU returned to normal values. Interesting enough is that in both cases, opened programs were Thunderbird, Chrome (5-6 tabs), Kate, Konsole and Skype - So nothing fancy, no reason, no special event to trigger it. First time was during visit on Reuters website, second time while writing e-mail. No memory leak - usual memory levels were in both cases.

If it means anything, TOP shows 226 Tasks, 7 Running, 224 sleeping, stopped, 0 zombie, 3GB Mem used (of 6) and 0 swap.

@oshunluvr - Please tell me where to find system log. Sorry for noob question. Thanks!

Now i have to log off / log in again since it is really painful to write this reply with letters appearing after 2-3 seconds delay.

[oshunluvr]

System log files are in /var/log. Look at system (if it is large), dmesg and Xorg.0.log. Also, look for a hidden log in your home directory called xsession-errors. Look for a large number of repeating messages. Sometimes an error will log so often and increase frequency over time that it will eventually bog the entire system down.

If nothing shows up there, a couple of things to try:

1) Install kcm-qt-graphicssystem and set your QT system to Raster.
2) At boot time, add the parameter "nomodeset" to your boot line.

Try these things and report back.

[oshunluvr]

A better driver might help too:

https://launchpad.net/~glasen/+archive/intel-driver

[Stoiljkovic]

And yet again - Collapse. Oshunluvr: You are right. Looking at the logs:

Oct 14 16:54:31 stoiljkovic-Inspiron-N5110 kernel: [12649.964573] [drm:i915_hangcheck_hung] *ERROR* Hangcheck timer elapsed... GPU hung
Oct 14 16:55:56 stoiljkovic-Inspiron-N5110 kernel: [12734.859292] [drm:i915_hangcheck_hung] *ERROR* Hangcheck timer elapsed... GPU hung...

Every time PC slows down, this was in the log (different time, of course).

Switching to Raster fixes the problem but with all effects disabled (woobly windows). So it seems like this is Intel driver problem ... Also it seems like that Glasen doesn't have drivers for Raring

[oshunluvr]

Do some searching. I think there's a new Intel driver installer supported by Intel. Also, a kernel change might fix the error for you as well. At least you have something to look for now.

[Stoiljkovic]

SOLVED

Upgraded drivers from Oibaf PPA ( http://kubuntutunings.blogspot.com/2...c-drivers.html ).
Worked for about half an hour -- which means that problem remained.

Next thing I've tried was from this topic: http://askubuntu.com/questions/16622...r-in-my-system

To cut long story short:
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

And all problems with my Kubuntu 13.04 and IntelHD3000 graphics are gone

I've also did sudo apt-get autoremove as someone mentioned in one forum. I don't know what it actually does, but it did removed some 14 packages.

One more thing, important to mention: Funny but I also had problems with overheating, especially when watching FullHD videos (ie. YouTube). I didn't mention this before 'cause I never saw the link between this two problems (stupid! stupid! stupid!). What is important is that my lovely Dell is silent again. No more CPU fan noise, no more CPU temp @ 90C.

One thing though - It happened once again *ERROR* Hangcheck timer elapsed... GPU hung in log, computer did freeze for a moment, CPU did peak, but everything was back to normal after 2-3 seconds. Me Happy

THANK YOU EVERYONE!