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Replicable Freeze in Gnome Shell, Unity, Cinnamon

Since I started out using Linux with Ubuntu (10.04), I have been testing various Gnome-based desktop environments for a new system. The new ones listed above all have the same problem, which is that they tend to freeze when the system is (I guess) overloaded with processes.

Specifically, I can make any of them freeze when I hit the screen-brightness button on my machine too many times too fast, or when I mash down on it while another program is actively doing something, such as applying settings or requesting a web-page.

The freeze involves a non-responsive screen, and sometimes a non-responsive mouse.

I can't make old Gnome (Debian, Ubuntu 10.04) freeze.

Is this something I can fix?

[Cross-posted to Ubuntu Forums]

Hi:

Code:

Is this something I can fix?

That depends; it could be your graphics card; it could be hardware failure as well or your computer may not have the RAM to be able to perform the task at hand. To find out what graphics card you have and other good info about your system you can run this command to find out what you do have.

Code:

lspci

Is this an older computer and how much memory does it have?

Memtest 86 is a diagnostic tool that you can use/run to diagnose if your system is having hardware issues-
http://www.memtest.org/

In my case when I had Ubuntu; my screen would either freeze or the graphic's would run in low mode.
I installed a driver for my graphics card and never had another problem again.

What distribution are you running?

Memory and Graphics

It's a fairly new computer. Here are my specs from All Settings >> Details in Linux Mint. I'm running Mint Maya 13 with Cinnamon right now.

Memory: 5.6 GiB
Processor: Intel Core i3 CPU M 380 @ 2.53GHz x 4
Graphics: Intel Ironlake Mobile
Type: 64-bit
Disk: 239.7 GB

Output from lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 18)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 06)

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 06)

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)

00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)

12:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000

13:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)

ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 05)

ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05)

ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 05)

ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 05)

ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)

ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)

I see from the output that you have almost the same card that I have. You have the:

Code:

Realtek Semiconductor RTL8101E / RTL8102E PCI Express card

This is the Realteck webpage for the driver for Linux but you have to scroll down for Unix/Linux
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false

This is the main page if you want to look further:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/

You said:" It's a fairly new computer. Here are my specs from All Settings >> Details in Linux Mint. I'm running Mint Maya 13 with Cinnamon right now.
Memory: 5.6 GiB
Processor: Intel Core i3 CPU M 380 @ 2.53GHz x 4
Graphics: Intel Ironlake Mobile
Type: 64-bit
Disk: 239.7 GB"

That's plenty of Memory and with a single core you should be good to go and Mint 13 should be ok.

Install the driver and see if that helps.

Unfortunately, juliajuliad:
There is a bug with your version of Mint and here is the bug I found:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1008197

Here is the Linux Mint website for tips after installation:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...on-edition.htm

Here is the main page for your distribution:
http://www.linuxmint.com/index.php

While I was on the Mint site I looked for a Solved thread for your problem and didn't find one.
I'll keep looking to try to help you the best that I can.;)

I have to be honest here and tell you I don't have experience with bug fixes. But I am not going to give up on helping you; there should be a solution but it's not at linuxmint.com because I looked very well. That's unusual-

Here are additional article that may help :
http://superuser.com/questions/32199...w-do-i-fix-thi
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...roblem-948227/

Did you just recently perform an update just before your distro's desktop started to freeez?

For now I'm sitting back and thinking how to solve this-

What to do when a linux desktop freezes?
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...esktop-freezes

You can try Ctrl+Alt+* to kill the front process (Screen locking programs on Xorg 1.11) or Ctrl+Alt+F1 to open a terminal, launch a command like ps or top to see running processes and launch kill on not responding process.

Thank you for your help, Ztcoracat! I updated my graphics driver, but that didn't fix the problem.

Ctrl + Alt + anything does nothing. Updating doesn't change anything.

I wanted to see if this issue was related to Gnome or to Ubuntu in general, so I tested the freeze conditions in the latest version of Xubuntu (12.04). It froze as well.

So then I was thinking maybe this was an issue with the 2.3 kernel, but I have a Slackware system with the 3.2.29 kernel installed on this computer as well, and it doesn't freeze.

Freeze:
Ubuntu Pangolin 12.04 (3.2 kernel)
Other things based on Ubuntu 12.04 (Ubuntu with Gnome Shell, Xubuntu, Linux Mint Cinnamon)

No Freeze:
Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 (2.6.32 kernel)
Debian Squeeze (2.6.32 kernel)
Slackware 14 KDE (3.2.29 kernel)

You are Welcome;)

I had Ubuntu 10.04 for years and well....it was a great operating system till I started having graphics problems.

I don't know that much about Slackware but hope your happy with your disto and it's performance (sound and stable) is running as it should.

It's best generally to wait for the team that supports your distro and for them to provide an update/upgrade to install for the newer version of the kernel. Most folks only install a new kernel if they need support for new hardware or to correct a performance problem.

You said;
" So then I was thinking maybe this was an issue with the 2.3 kernel "
There could be an issue with the 2.3 kernel but we better find documentation to support that or we could be practicing a pointless exercise. Research has always helped me.:study:
And on the upswing of research you find out all kinds of new stuff about Linux.

I also am running 2.6.32-5 Debian Squeeze AMD 64bit; and it's been sound and stable.

Is your distribution running ok now?

Everything is running OK except for the freeze problem. I will look into kernel dependecies and post if I find a way to fix this. Thanks again for your help!

Not a problem....Your very Welcome!