The problem is sporadic and does not happen very often, so analysis is difficult. Here is what I have noted.

At a random time (aprox once every three months?) a program in xorg will freeze. The mouse arrow/pointer/cursor cannot move outside of the window area for whatever program I happened to be in when the freeze happened. Clicks within the window are ignored. All keyboard input (including the key combination to force xorg to exit) is ignored.

I have heard that in some versions of linux, one can press the on-off button on the computer and linux somehow senses this and starts a shutdown process. Attempting this during the crash yields no results.

The only thing that can be done at this time is to unplug the computer and then plug it back in again.

One other things: the program is differnet each time. Today it was a file manager. A new months ago it ocurred in xmms. This is why I think it is xorg and not a particular program.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

How to make it not happen again?

Oh: I'm running slackware 12.

Well you should provide more info perhaps. Like whats you video card, your cpu, your kernel. Sometimes X locks up because of heat buildup and dust, sometimes memory, I dont know the exact programs but there a few that will stress test your system and should give you some info.

maybe this will help

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...esktop_freezes

Hi,

With a random problem as you described it would seem to be a possible memory problem. I would run a thorough 'memtest86'. KNOPPIX, SystemRescueCD and UBCD are just a few LiveCD that have memtest86. Let the memtest86 run for a full test period, possibly overnight.

This make sense. When the problem manifests itself again (could be months), I will try those alt-printtscreen key combinations. Thanks!