Arch Linux

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Really bad GNOME freezing

Lately I've been having a problem with GNOME freezing. Actually, I can't say for sure if it's just GNOME or X in general, but the freeze is really bad. All I can do is move my mouse. I can't move any windows or interact with anything. The system monitor I have on my panel stops animating. I cannot even restart X with Ctrl+Alt+Bksp. I am forced to power off my laptop by holding down the power button. It most frequently occurs whenever I open display properties to change my desktop wallpaper. However I do believe I've had it happen without doing this.

Is there anything I can do to try and track down the cause of this and fix it?

artiom

Member

From: France

Registered: 2008-07-29

Posts: 111

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

Do you have any network shared disks mounted on your laptop?

davvil

Member

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 165

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

What kernel are you using and what graphic card does your laptop have? It may be related to what I am experiencing: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=64939

Last edited by davvil (2009-02-10 14:42:09)

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

Do you have any network shared disks mounted on your laptop?

Nope.

What kernel are you using and what graphic card does your laptop have?

kernel is 2.6.28.2-1, and my graphics card is a Intel Integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD (Thinkpad T400).

I'll try to downgrade my kernel and see what happens.

Last edited by flintmecha (2009-02-10 15:07:51)

davvil

Member

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 165

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

kernel is 2.6.28.2-1, and my graphics card is a Intel Integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD (Thinkpad T400).

I have a Thinkpad T500. I think we are together in this...

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

Well I jumped back down to kernel 2.6.27.8-1 and I've gone a whole day without the freeze, so that seems to be the issue. So what should be our next move? Do we need to wait for an update to the intel video driver?

Last edited by flintmecha (2009-02-11 20:44:40)

davvil

Member

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 165

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

I am planing to narrow the problem. I still have a free partition left for experimentation purposes. I will do a fresh arch linux install and upgrade to the latest intel drivers as explained in http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=61650 and see if it still crashes. If it works, then the problem is probably in the intel driver. Until now it is only a suspicion, it could also be that the bug really is in the kernel (although I am still able to ssh to the computer when it freezes). Then I will file a bug report and see if we can get some more help.

However I won't have time for testing all this before the weekend. I will keep you informed.

JGC

Developer

Registered: 2003-12-03

Posts: 1,664

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

I think this bug might apply to your problems with 2.6.28:
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12821

davvil

Member

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 165

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

I think this bug might apply to your problems with 2.6.28:
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12821

Yes, that looks good. I will do some tests in the weekend and try the kernel and libdrm from [testing].

davvil

Member

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 165

Re: Really bad GNOME freezing

Well, real life caught up with me and I could not do any test the weekend I "announced". A couple of weeks later I have updated to the newest kernel in [core] (2.6.28.7-1) and libdrm from [testing] (2.4.5-2). I do not know if the libdrm update is necessary, I installed it due to the bug report mentioned above in the thread. I do not have problems with freezing any longer. From my part the topic can be marked as solved.