screensaver freezes system totally

Post by pete
Hi all,
Having talked a friend into trying ubumtu 10.4 lucid (he's running the
64 bit version), He is encountering a problem that I have never come
across before.
Namely when the screen-saver has been running for about 20mins it
freezes completely, and becomes totally unresponsive, only thing left is
a hard reset!
His system spec are
Nvidia graphics (dunno which 1) using Nvidia current driver
4gb ram
where would I find the relevant logs to try and start de-bugging this
annoyance.
note I am running the same system (installed from the same live cd) with
no issues and cannot reproduce his issue although my machine does differ
from his in the hardware.

First turn off the screen saver and make sure it still freezes in
about 20 mins. It should. It could be a problem with the Nvidia
software. These are my thoughts :-)

73 Karl

Post by pete
Any thoughts gratefully appreciated
Regards
Pete

--
Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
Linux User
#450462 http://counter.li.org.
Key ID = 3951B48D

Sean McGowan

2010-07-05 15:55:44 UTC

I run a similar configuration, with only 3gb RAM and have not
experienced these issues.

Post by pete
where would I find the relevant logs to try and start de-bugging this
annoyance.

relaunch the daemon (gnome-screensaver) with the --debug option. It will log in the /tmp directory.

First, however, I would look at the power management settings.
Systems->Preferences-Power Management, or you can get there from
Systems->Preferences-screensaver if you already have it open.

Is your computer set to hibernate? Or monitor set to go to sleep? Turn
these options off and see if you run in to the same issue.

Good luck,

--
Sean McGowan

// Chuck Norris can divide by zero.

pete

2010-07-05 22:39:39 UTC

Post by Sean McGowan

I run a similar configuration, with only 3gb RAM and have not
experienced these issues.

Post by pete
where would I find the relevant logs to try and start de-bugging this
annoyance.

relaunch the daemon (gnome-screensaver) with the --debug option. It will log in the /tmp directory.
First, however, I would look at the power management settings.
Systems->Preferences-Power Management, or you can get there from
Systems->Preferences-screensaver if you already have it open.
Is your computer set to hibernate? Or monitor set to go to sleep? Turn
these options off and see if you run in to the same issue.
Good luck,

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions, no issues without screensaver turned on all
power management set to never!

If I start the daemon with the --debug option and it saves to a /temp
dir will it delete it if we need to hard reset the machine?

Have noticed that lasts longer without freezing if using 2d not 3d
screensavers (still freezes but takes 1hr or more!), wondering if th x
server is on the fritz! will check log tomorrow and post back if i find
anything!

if anyone has had similar issues please let me know as I don't know
wether to post a bug....or what the bug is in!

Regards

Pete

pete

2010-07-07 08:17:02 UTC

Post by Sean McGowan

I run a similar configuration, with only 3gb RAM and have not
experienced these issues.

Post by pete
where would I find the relevant logs to try and start de-bugging this
annoyance.

relaunch the daemon (gnome-screensaver) with the --debug option. It will log in the /tmp directory.
First, however, I would look at the power management settings.
Systems->Preferences-Power Management, or you can get there from
Systems->Preferences-screensaver if you already have it open.
Is your computer set to hibernate? Or monitor set to go to sleep? Turn
these options off and see if you run in to the same issue.
Good luck,

Hi,
Thanks for the suggestions, no issues without screensaver turned on all
power management set to never!
If I start the daemon with the --debug option and it saves to a /temp
dir will it delete it if we need to hard reset the machine?
Have noticed that lasts longer without freezing if using 2d not 3d
screensavers (still freezes but takes 1hr or more!), wondering if th x
server is on the fritz! will check log tomorrow and post back if i find
anything!
if anyone has had similar issues please let me know as I don't know
wether to post a bug....or what the bug is in!
Regards
Pete

Hi,

Just an update, we completely re-installed 10.4 on his system last
night, and all appears well! At present he is NOT using compiz, or the
3d screensavers, going to introduce them slowly of the next couple of
days to try and pin down what is causing the issue.

For info so far we can rule out the Nvidia current driver as this is
installed and active, and the problem does not seem to be there.

Thanks for all your suggestions and i will keep this list up to date if
the problem resurfaces.

Regards

Pete

A. Kromic

2010-07-07 13:56:51 UTC

Post by pete
...
Namely when the screen-saver has been running for about 20mins it
freezes completely, and becomes totally unresponsive, only thing left is
a hard reset!
...

I have experienced a similar problem, it's 10.04 AMD64, an I use Compiz
and screensaver was 3D; however, my GPU is Intel's. It doesn't really
lock the whole system, just the screen, and even like that, windows
temporarily showed when I used Alt+Tab. They wouldn't stay, but it was
enough to bring up a terminal window and blindly pkill the screensaver...

Best regards,
A. Kromic

pete

2010-07-10 09:45:20 UTC

Post by pete
...
Namely when the screen-saver has been running for about 20mins it
freezes completely, and becomes totally unresponsive, only thing left is
a hard reset!
...

j.e.aneiros

2010-07-10 10:53:55 UTC

Hi Pete,

Perhaps you could enable SSH (sudo aptitude install openssh-server) and ssh
into the machine to see what's happening when the system freezes again.

--aneiros

Post by pete
...
Namely when the screen-saver has been running for about 20mins it
freezes completely, and becomes totally unresponsive, only thing left is
a hard reset!
...

--
Jesus Aneiros Sosa
Debian GNU/Linux User #190716 en http://counter.li.org
perl -e '$_=pack(c5,0105,0107,0123,0132,(1<<3)+2);y[A-Z][N-ZA-M];print;'
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x3A99541C
PK fingerprint: ABAF EA38 EFAD 9242 4987 EAEA 935A 39B0 3A99 541C
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pete

2010-07-10 11:41:37 UTC

Post by j.e.aneiros
Hi Pete,
Perhaps you could enable SSH (sudo aptitude install openssh-server) and
ssh into the machine to see what's happening when the system freezes again.
--aneiros
On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 5:45 AM, pete <peter.smout at o2.co.uk

Post by pete
...
Namely when the screen-saver has been running for about 20mins it
freezes completely, and becomes totally unresponsive, only thing

left is

Post by pete
a hard reset!
...

I have experienced a similar problem, it's 10.04 AMD64, an I use

Compiz

Post by A. Kromic
and screensaver was 3D; however, my GPU is Intel's. It doesn't really
lock the whole system, just the screen, and even like that, windows
temporarily showed when I used Alt+Tab. They wouldn't stay, but

it was

Post by A. Kromic
enough to bring up a terminal window and blindly pkill the

screensaver...

Post by A. Kromic
Best regards,
A. Kromic

Hi,
This problem has reared it head again, his machine only had 'wobbly
windows' activated. good news this time i was there to check the logs!
the system log said it was running 'cron' as root then it stated that
'no one cares, try booting without irq module' prior to freeze up.
All of which means nothing except that we do care! a brief bit of
googleing only digs up posts from 2001 / 2002 and are far to technical
for me to follow!
so my question is this why has this old (?) problem resurfaced now and
only on his machine, would following such an outdated solution work on
newer versions?
any help at all we would be grateful!
Pete
--
ubuntu-users mailing list
ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com <mailto:ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
--
Jesus Aneiros Sosa
Debian GNU/Linux User #190716 en http://counter.li.org
perl -e '$_=pack(c5,0105,0107,0123,0132,(1<<3)+2);y[A-Z][N-ZA-M];print;'
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x3A99541C
<http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x3A99541C>
PK fingerprint: ABAF EA38 EFAD 9242 4987 EAEA 935A 39B0 3A99 541C

hi aneirous,

run the command yuo suggested on my machine (my understanding is that I
can remotely access his machine?) as I have never ssh'd before this is
all new to me and would appreciate some guidance (just off to google
now) if you can provide any guidance at all I would appreciate it, you
can contact me off list if you prefer to prevent this list becoming
clogged with my learning needs!

Many thanks

Pete

NoOp

2010-07-10 17:41:51 UTC

On 07/10/2010 02:45 AM, pete wrote:
...

Post by pete
Hi,
This problem has reared it head again, his machine only had 'wobbly
windows' activated. good news this time i was there to check the logs!
the system log said it was running 'cron' as root then it stated that
'no one cares, try booting without irq module' prior to freeze up.
All of which means nothing except that we do care! a brief bit of
googleing only digs up posts from 2001 / 2002 and are far to technical
for me to follow!
so my question is this why has this old (?) problem resurfaced now and
only on his machine, would following such an outdated solution work on
newer versions?

Nowhere do to state _which_ screensaver is being used. Some screensavers
are/were IMO junk and/or were simply too gpu intensive for some
hardware. In order to troubleshoot just use the default where the screen
blanks; that will tell if it's an actual screensaver application, or if
it's the screensaver routine itself. If that causes no problems go to
the screensaver he was using and test. In each case keep track of
_which_ screensaver option was being used.
There are many screensavers... some work on some hardware, some don't.
Simply stating that the screensaver is freezing the system does no good
without supplying details.

Also, you'll need to tell us which nvidia card and driver he is using.
Provide the VGA section from:

$ sudo lspci -v

Example output:
VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25GL [Quadro4 900 XGL]
(rev a3)
Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Device 0138
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 248, IRQ 16
Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at f4780000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at fe9e0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia-96, nvidiafb, rivafb, nouveau

Frans Ketelaars

2010-07-10 22:24:06 UTC

Post by pete
...
Namely when the screen-saver has been running for about 20mins it
freezes completely, and becomes totally unresponsive, only thing left
is a hard reset!
...

Please post the exact error messages.

I guess it's something more like this:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/irq-22-nobody-cared-662916/

[51694.430013] irq 22: nobody cared (try booting with the "irqpoll"
option)

Post by pete
All of which means nothing except that we do care!

I think the kernel means no driver cared to service the interrupt.

I'm sure you care :)

Use "cat /proc/interrupts" to see what the interrupt number refers to.

Post by pete
a brief bit of
googleing only digs up posts from 2001 / 2002 and are far to technical
for me to follow!
so my question is this why has this old (?) problem resurfaced now and
only on his machine, would following such an outdated solution work on
newer versions?
any help at all we would be grateful!
Pete

Good luck!

-Frans

pete

2010-07-13 08:01:34 UTC

Post by Frans Ketelaars

Post by pete
...
Namely when the screen-saver has been running for about 20mins it
freezes completely, and becomes totally unresponsive, only thing left
is a hard reset!
...

Please post the exact error messages.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/irq-22-nobody-cared-662916/
[51694.430013] irq 22: nobody cared (try booting with the "irqpoll"
option)

Post by pete
All of which means nothing except that we do care!

I think the kernel means no driver cared to service the interrupt.
I'm sure you care :)
Use "cat /proc/interrupts" to see what the interrupt number refers to.

Good luck!
-Frans

Hi All,

Sorry about the delay!

I have pasted into paste bin the logs links below.

The bit that caught my eye is from kern log:

-desktop kernel: [21195.790356] ata1.00: configured for PIO0
Jul 12 17:04:50 steve-desktop kernel: [21195.801312] ata1.01: configured
for PIO0
Jul 12 17:04:50 steve-desktop kernel: [21195.805287] ata1: EH complete
Jul 12 17:05:00 steve-desktop kernel: [21205.331247] BUG: soft lockup -
CPU#1 stuck for 61s! [compiz:1449]
Jul 12 17:05:00 steve-desktop kernel: [21205.340013] Modules linked in:
nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 vfat fat xt_limit xt_tcpudp ipt_LOG
ipt_MASQUERADE xt_DSCP ipt_REJECT nf_conntrack_irc nf_conntrack_ftp
xt_state rfcomm sco bridge stp bnep l2cap binfmt_misc ppdev
snd_hda_codec_nvhdmi snd_usb_audio snd_usb_lib gspca_stv06xx
snd_hda_codec_realtek iptable_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 joydev
snd_emu10k1_synth snd_emux_synth snd_seq_virmidi snd_seq_midi_emul
nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ipv4 snd_emu10k1 snd_ac97_codec iptable_mangle
iptable_filter ip_tables x_tables fbcon tileblit font bitblit softcursor
usbhid hid ac97_bus snd_util_mem btusb bluetooth video output emu10k1_gp
gameport snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss
snd_pcm snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi
snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_timer snd_seq_device gspca_zc3xx
gspca_main videodev v4l1_compat v4l2_compat_ioctl32 psmouse snd
serio_raw nvidia(P) k8temp vga16fb vgastate edac_core edac_mce_amd
soundcore snd_page_alloc i2c_nforce2

Particularly the bit BUG: soft-lock up!

Graphics card info etc:GeForce 8400 GS/PCI/SSE2

3.2.0 NVIDIA 195.36.24

Pictures slideshow is the screensaver being used!

Any thoughts?

Links:
http://pastebin.com/ZDsC5GJV : Mesages

http://pastebin.com/W6GrkH3N : SYS Log

http://pastebin.com/pnhe1Vvs : Kern Log

regards

Pete

NoOp

2010-07-13 16:26:18 UTC