[DESKTOP] Crashing/Freezing Desktop

[Guest]

Briefing:
I find myself often playing around on Kubuntu and I come to a point where the "Desktop" (the entire visual display) freezes. The mouse becomes unresponsive (or so that it appears) and the visual display of the desktop stops updating real-time.

Now, the reason I word it this way is because it appears as though things are still happening 'behind-the-scenes' and that the only thing that freezes is the display.

There are two solutions to this occurrence:
1) Restart my PC
2a) Type CTRL+ALT+F(1 - 6)*
2b) Type CTRL+ALT+F7 to return to the "desktop"

*This means any of the following: F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6


After doing step 2), my computer returns to working as normally and shows no signs of ever freezing. If something was happening in the background when my computer does this, it shows progress as if it were happening the entire time even though the screen was frozen.


Attempted Solutions:
I tried updating from LTS (14.04) to 14.10 and nothing has changed. It still happens at a somewhat consistent interval (at least once every boot).

System information:
CPU: Intel i5-3230MGPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 730M 2GB
Graphics Driver*: NVIDIA binary driver - 331.113 from nvidia-331 (Recommended Driver)
OS: Windows 7 Home and Kubuntu dual-booted


*Note: I've tried changing between the various drivers, it appears to happen with any of them

[richb]

I have an Acer with similar specs but am using the integrated Intel card rather than the nVidia card. I experience the same condition. I have 12 Gig of ram so do not think it is a ram problem. Also the CPU is usually around 35% when this happens. It has happened with Gimp on large images and Google Chrome with 3 or 4 tabs open. Perhaps someone can kill two birds with one stone, both Joshua's and my problem. Difficult problem to diagnose, especially from afar.

System:    Host: richard-Aspire-V5-572G Kernel: 3.16.0-28-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: KDE 4.14.1 
           Distro: Ubuntu 14.10 utopic 
Machine:   System: Acer product: Aspire V5-572G v: V2.06
           Mobo: Acer model: Dazzle_CX v: Type2 - A01 Board Version Bios: Insyde v: V2.06 date: 05/22/2013
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-3337U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 2591 MHz 2: 920 MHz 3: 2473 MHz 4: 800 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
           Card-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.0 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.0
Audio:     Card Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.16.0-28-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 08:9e:01:a4:28:8e
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 2c:d0:5a:eb:3e:cc
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 256.1GB (31.3% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: SanDisk_SDSSDP25 size: 256.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 20G used: 9.4G (52%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-2: /home size: 48G used: 19G (42%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 41.0 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 256 Uptime: 2 days Memory: 3289.5/11898.0MB Client: Shel

[GreyGeek]

Any hints in your logs when the problem occurs?

[richb]

Good thought. I will have to look right after it happens to narrow it down. But I did see this in the syslog with only a rudimentary idea what it means. Perhaps a memory error. I will do a memtest.

Dec 25 18:52:41 richard-Aspire-V5-572G kernel: [68481.213131] chrome[8963]: segfault at 1f8 ip 00007f21f3a4d63f sp 00007fffe269d9e0 error 4 in i965_dri.so[7f21f36fa000+51c000]

[SteveRiley]

Good thought. I will have to look right after it happens to narrow it down. But I did see this in the syslog with only a rudimentary idea what it means. Perhaps a memory error. I will do a memtest.

Dec 25 18:52:41 richard-Aspire-V5-572G kernel: [68481.213131] chrome[8963]: segfault at 1f8 ip 00007f21f3a4d63f sp 00007fffe269d9e0 error 4 in i965_dri.so[7f21f36fa000+51c000]

A memory test isn't necessary. Something is causing the i965_dri.so shared object, part of the Intel graphics stack, to crash. And that "something" is Chrome. See Launchpad bug 1371834. Comment #3 shows a workaround. According to comment #10, the problem disappears with kernel versions 3.16 and greater.

[richb]

I am running 3.16.0-28-generic

[SteveRiley]

I am running 3.16.0-28-generic

What version of Chrome? And did you try the first workaround?

[Guest]

I, unfortunately, (or is it fortunately?) don't have that error in my syslog. That, at least for me, isn't the issue.

A freeze just happened for me when opening a new tab in Chrome (admittedly, browsing the web is usually when they happen -- though it is not exclusive to browsing the web)

Dec 27 03:37:37 joshua-kde wpa_supplicant[1206]: nl80211: send_and_recv->nl_recvmsgs failed: -33
Dec 27 03:39:37 joshua-kde wpa_supplicant[1206]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
Dec 27 03:40:00 joshua-kde acpid: client 1464[0:0] has disconnected
Dec 27 03:40:01 joshua-kde acpid: client connected from 1464[0:0]
Dec 27 03:40:01 joshua-kde acpid: 1 client rule loaded

[richb]

What version of Chrome? And did you try the first workaround?

Version 39.0.2171.95 (64-bit). Have not as yet tried it. But the crash most often occurs with Gimp, Google Chrome very infrequently, so delayed doing that fix.

EDIT: Some Googling revealed it might be a GTK theme issue as far as Gimp was concerned. Changed to CleanLooks and no more crashing so far.