Compiz stops updating windows on a multi-head system, keyboard and mouse still alive
 

I am running Fedora F14 on an Intel I3 cpu w/4Gb memory and plenty of disk. I have two displays connected to the Gigabyte Motherboard, one of the HDMI connector, and one on a DVI connector. I run Gnome. When Compiz is enabled things work fine for a while, meaning hours or days. Then the displays will "freeze" to the point where the clock stops updating. The system itself is still running programs, services, and the mouse and keyboard work.

The mouse cursor will move around, but nothing can be clicked upon. If a terminal was the open window, typing on the keyboard does not do anything, nor does ctrl-backspace or whatever it is to terminate X windows. The keyboard does allow me to press ctrl-alt-F2 to switch to one of the base consoles. Once there I can type to my hearts content. I can kill off my logged in Gnome session through the console, and I can shutdown the system in a controlled manner.

It is as if all of the windows stop updating. For example, I play music through Amarok. An hour after I stop using the system but letting the music play the screens will do their lockup. The clock will stop, and Amarok will stop updating which song it is playing. It continues to play each song in the playlist, but the Amarok window shows what was playing at the time that the clock stopped. I've also had this happen to me while using Yumex, where it would stop updating the screen while installing programs, but the programs do get installed.

With Compiz off I don't have this problem. The version of Compiz I am using is currently 0.8.6-3. It is running on Gnome 2.32.0-2, with a Linux kernel of 2.6.35.9-64. It has happened with earlier versions of these programs.

I am using the graphics processing the Intel i3 chip to the motherboard connectors.

The freeze generally happens at some random time while I am not actively using the system. It has happened to me while doing simple things like programming through an IDE. The really strange thing to me is that the cursor will move around on the screen after everything else stops updating.

I am open to suggestions...

What is your graphics card?

This machine does not have a separate graphics card. It uses the Intel H55 Express chipset, in combination with the Intel Core I3 CPU that has a built-in GPU. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 with 4 video connections - 1 VGA, 1 DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort. I am using the DVI and HDMI ports. The I3 settings on the motherboard put the graphics clock at 733 Mhz, which has been left at the default setting. The integrated graphics chipset on the CPU is an i915. I've attached a copy of the Xorg.0.log to show what it thinks is there and what it is loading.