Finding out why Ubuntu desktop with Gnome2 freezes

karnaf · 11-16-2011, 03:04 AM

Hi all,

Lately my desktop just freezes, completely. No keyboard response, no mouse response, nothing but hard-reboot helps. I can't even SSH it from another machine to try and analyze or gdm restart it.

Can you suggest where to start looking?

Running Gnome 2.32.1 on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)

Hardware details (lshw -short)

Code:

H/W path               Device      Class          Description
=============================================================
                                   system         System Product Name (To be filled by O.E.M.)
/0                                 bus            P8H61-M LE/CSM
/0/0                               memory         64KiB BIOS
/0/4                               processor      Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz
/0/4/5                             memory         256KiB L1 cache
/0/4/6                             memory         1MiB L2 cache
/0/4/7                             memory         8MiB L3 cache
/0/22                              memory         4GiB System Memory
/0/22/0                            memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/22/1                            memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/100                             bridge         2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller
/0/100/1                           bridge         2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port
/0/100/2                           display        2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
/0/100/16                          communication  6 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1
/0/100/1a                          bus            6 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
/0/100/1b                          multimedia     6 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/1c                          bridge         6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1
/0/100/1c.1                        bridge         6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2
/0/100/1c.2                        bridge         6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3
/0/100/1c.2/0          eth0        network        RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
/0/100/1c.3                        bridge         6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4
/0/100/1c.4                        bridge         82801 PCI Bridge
/0/100/1c.4/0                      bridge         PCI bridge
/0/100/1c.5                        bridge         6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6
/0/100/1d                          bus            6 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
/0/100/1f                          bridge         6 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller
/0/100/1f.2            scsi0       storage        6 Series Chipset Family 4 port SATA IDE Controller
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0      /dev/sda    disk           500GB WDC WD5000AAKX-0
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/1    /dev/sda1   volume         476MiB EXT4 volume
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/2    /dev/sda2   volume         954MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/3    /dev/sda3   volume         464GiB Extended partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/3/5  /dev/sda5   volume         18GiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0/3/6  /dev/sda6   volume         445GiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/1f.3                        bus            6 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
/0/100/1f.5            scsi3       storage        6 Series Chipset Family 2 port SATA IDE Controller
/0/100/1f.5/0.0.0      /dev/cdrom  disk           CDDVDW SH-S223C
/1                                 power          To Be Filled By O.E.M.
/2                                 power          To Be Filled By O.E.M.

Thanks!
karnaf

pavi_kanetkar · 11-16-2011, 03:30 AM

Does it work in recovery mode?
Try to fix broken packages.

halovivek · 11-16-2011, 03:52 AM

Go to Terminal and give the command
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get install -f

karnaf · 11-16-2011, 07:42 AM

Well, most of the time the desktop works well in regular mode, for example, today it hasn't frozen (yet :-) ) so I haven't tried running it in recovery mode.

I've tried fixing broken packages, but there aren't any...

Code:

karnaf@myhost:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
[sudo] password for karnaf: 
karnaf@myhost:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.

When it gets stuck, is there a chance I can find anything in any log after restarting it?

Thanks for the help!
karnaf