Arch Linux

earthpig

Member

Registered: 2009-03-24

Posts: 30

frequent 'hard' freeze of just X...

running lxde/openbox/gdm.

once or twice a day, i get a lockup of X.

description:

display freezes. keyboard input (including switching to a different tty) and mouse input cease, and the screen does not refresh/update any longer. any music playing continues to play.

and earlier today, i started a large file transfer and then stepped out... when i came back, the screen had frozen with the transfer 52% done, and the music had continued playing and cycling through songs.

the screen had indicated 52% done, but when i reset the computer (i am forced to push the physical reset button when this happens) it turned out that the file transfer had completed.

previously, i had thought i was having a hardware problem that i dont have the cash to fix at present. the fact that the file transfer completed now has me thinking it's a software problem. when i was thinking it was a hardware problem, i ran memtest86 and checked up on the s.m.a.r.t. mumbo jumbo. all checked out.

so...
-the display is locked up completely.
-mouse and keyboard inputs are not accepted, as far as i can tell.
-file transfers in progress continue.
-audio output continues... including whatever 'thinking' is needed to switch to the next song.

what relevant log-files and whatnot would help? everything i have thought to look at in /var/log just shows normal activity... then suddenly stops (when i hit the reset button), then looks like normal bootup stuff.

libmcCain

Member

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 7

Re: frequent 'hard' freeze of just X...

Your problem seems similar to this one :
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=675909

firecat53

Member

From: Lake Stevens, WA, USA

Registered: 2007-05-14

Posts: 1,542

Website

Re: frequent 'hard' freeze of just X...

Sounds like the problem a lot of people are having with the intel graphics drivers -- exactly what happens to me with an older intel 82845 board. If it is that, you should see errors in /var/log/Xorg.*.log. No fix that  I'm aware of yet, but if you do have an intel card, there are numerous threads surrounding these issues.

Good luck!
Scott

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earthpig

Member

Registered: 2009-03-24

Posts: 30

Re: frequent 'hard' freeze of just X...

using nvidia, not intel....

(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
    compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
(II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  190.42  Tue Oct 20 20:42:04 PDT 2009
(II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs

i tried the suggestion in the other thread of moving gdm to the end of the daemons array.

a lot of folks seem to suspect gdm is to blame... if this doesn't work, ill try using startx. thanks for the suggestions.

Last edited by earthpig (2009-12-31 18:31:45)

youjh

Member

From: Cincinnati

Registered: 2009-12-07

Posts: 50

Re: frequent 'hard' freeze of just X...

This is the same problem I am having. GDM seems to freeze, and I am using the NVidia driver. It seems to occur randomly, and I cannot find abnormal activity in the logs.

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