Natty Narwhal (11.04) Random crash: returns to login screen and closes all application

Asked by Eric Hu

I get periodic crashes using Firefox 4 and Netbeans 6.9.1. The error is not consistent in cause but is consistent in symptoms.

Things I can remember causing this error:

1. Firefox: after entering the title for this post and clicking on "Continue"
2. Netbeans: using the file navigation system
3. Firefox: clicking on a link

There have been other cases, but I can't remember the last action I performed prior to those crashes. I've used Ubuntu 10.10 from about mid February until the release date (4/28/11). I saw no crashes like this on 10.10. I've seen about 5-10 of these crashes since switching to 11.04

One crash also made my wifi controller behave erratically. It could connect to my wifi network but could not transfer data (coworkers confirmed the network was fine). A reboot fixed this problem.

The way the crash happens is always the same:
1. Screen goes black for about 1-2 seconds
2. Login screen displays (The crash does not reboot the computer.)
3. I can login again and the system behaves as if I had just booted

Question information

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Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-intel Edit question
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Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#1

Another cause for the same crash:

4. Moving a tab in Firefox. One other application open at the time, terminal, running "bundle update" (ruby on rails 3 command).

Revision history for this message
James Lucas (james5000lucas) said :
#2

I am getting a very similar effect on 11.04. I upgraded recently, and my Ubuntu does exactly the same as Eric Hu describes. I tend to run Google Chrome, but it happens with this too randomly. I did think it was when I opened a new window on my second screen, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#3

We need terminal outputs.
sudo lshw -C video
and
/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

We need output from syslog around the time when crash occured.
Search for keywords, trace, fail, error.
Review about last ten lines of Xorg.0.log.old
In case use pastebin for long outputs.

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#4

http://pastebin.com/xGJde4AP

Let me know if anything is missing

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#5

I didn't look any further than that:
driver=i915
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+question/155112

This bug fix of Bug #727594 came in today.
Commit comment:
Add 119_disable_relaxed_fencing.patch: The relaxed fencing
    optimization is suspected as the cause for various i915/945 gpu lockup
    issues. This disables the optimization by default but adds an
    xorg.conf parameter to let people experiment with it turned on.

So please update your system and test if the issue remains.
Close all package management GUIs.
Open a terminal: ctrl+alt+t
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Just in case logout-in to restart Xserver.

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#6

As for the rest Xorg.log has some errors.
After the update look again for those lines if they still occur.
25.365] (EE) intel(0): failed to get resources: Bad file descriptor
[ 25.365] (II) UnloadModule: "intel"
[ 25.365] (II) Unloading intel
[ 25.365] (EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
[ 25.365]
Fatal server error:
[ 25.365] no screens found

Only if the issue remains report a new bug against intel driver.
CLI:
LANG=C ubuntu-bug xserver-xorg-video-intel

## This will upload essential infos for developers to triage.
## If possible please provide exact steps in bug report how to reproduce the issue.

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#7

I just ran the update. The new log has an updated date and time. I can see that the relaxed fencing is disabled, but it still reports the error:

[ 19.531] (EE) intel(0): [drm] Failed to open DRM device for pci:0000:00:02.0: No such file or directory
[ 19.531] (EE) intel(0): Failed to become DRM master.
[ 19.531] (II) intel(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
 "Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
[ 19.531] (==) intel(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
[ 19.531] (==) intel(0): RGB weight 888
[ 19.531] (==) intel(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[ 19.531] (II) intel(0): Integrated Graphics Chipset: Intel(R) GM45
[ 19.531] (--) intel(0): Chipset: "GM45"
[ 19.531] (**) intel(0): Relaxed fencing disabled
[ 19.531] (**) intel(0): Tiling enabled
[ 19.531] (**) intel(0): SwapBuffers wait enabled
[ 19.531] (==) intel(0): video overlay key set to 0x101fe
[ 19.531] (EE) intel(0): failed to get resources: Bad file descriptor
[ 19.531] (II) UnloadModule: "intel"
[ 19.531] (II) Unloading intel
[ 19.531] (EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
[ 19.531]
Fatal server error:
[ 19.531] no screens found
[ 19.531]

How do I go about reporting this issue?

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#8

> How do I go about reporting this issue?

Did you read my last answer?

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#9

sorry, I wasn't aware CLI meant command line interface

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#10

I just got another logout crash. This time the trigger seemed to be opening a new tab in firefox. I had 3 other applications running at the time, Skype (minimized to system tray), and a terminal (running "rails server") and Netbeans, each in separate workspaces.

I've always seen this bug in the first 1-2 hours after I boot up the computer. After that, the system seems to run stable.

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#11

Currently there're three users which experience issues with driver i915 but have different video chips. If the fix from Bug #727594 doesn't help it may be worth a new report.

As Brian wrote there,
In general, I would suggest to all, unless you KNOW you have this exact
bug, or if you have found a regression which is traceable specifically
to this fix, let's handle your issue on separate bug reports, not here.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/727594/comments/42

And as the commit says,
This disables the optimization by default but adds an xorg.conf parameter to let people experiment with it turned on.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/727594/comments/43

Maybe investigate xorg.conf what they've disabled and try to enable. You just need to read through bug reports.

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#12

Currently there're three users which experience issues with driver i915 but have different video chips. If the fix from Bug #727594 doesn't help it may be worth a new report.

As Bryce wrote there,
In general, I would suggest to all, unless you KNOW you have this exact
bug, or if you have found a regression which is traceable specifically
to this fix, let's handle your issue on separate bug reports, not here.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/727594/comments/42

And as the commit says,
This disables the optimization by default but adds an xorg.conf parameter to let people experiment with it turned on.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/727594/comments/43

Maybe investigate xorg.conf what they've disabled and try to enable. You just need to read through bug reports.

Edit: corrected name.

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#13

Working my way through the reports. I just wanted to add while trying out a suggestion to run xdiagnose, I got another crash.

When I logged in again, I ran xdiagnose a second time. xdiagnose actually isn't installed.

After the crash, I checked /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/i915_error_state but it simply says "no error state collected".

I reported the bug earlier (link: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/776772 )

Should I update my bug report instead of this question? This is my first time doing any sort of bug reporting for Ubuntu.

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#14

Well done Eric. Just leave the question open and follow-up on bug report.

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#15

Done, thanks for the suggestions.

Had another crash today. It seems to happen like clockwork with boot ups. Instead of being time-based, it happens when I have a browser open on one workspace, whether I'm in that particular workspace open and browsing or not.

Unlike the Intel driver bug posted earlier in the question, this doesn't seem to crash the system. I believe I'm only logged out with all open applications terminated.

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said :
#16

> believe I'm only logged out

Yep, that's Xserver crashing as the error in logfile says.
<(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration>

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#17

Xserver crashing would still close/crash all programs that were previously open, correct?

Revision history for this message
michiel (michiel-klaproos) said :
#18

I have a similar crash, xorg log shows:

Backtrace:
[ 2387.584] 0: /usr/bin/X (xorg_backtrace+0x26) [0x4a2656]
[ 2387.584] 1: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x621ca) [0x4621ca]
[ 2387.584] 2: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x7f21417fd000+0xfc60) [0x7f214180cc60]
[ 2387.584] 3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/librecord.so (0x7f213f1b2000+0x2920) [0x7f213f1b4920]
[ 2387.584] 4: /usr/bin/X (_CallCallbacks+0x34) [0x432af4]
[ 2387.584] 5: /usr/bin/X (WriteToClient+0x21a) [0x461cca]
[ 2387.584] 6: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri2.so (ProcDRI2WaitMSCReply+0x52) [0x7f213eb99d82]
[ 2387.584] 7: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri2.so (DRI2WaitMSCComplete+0x59) [0x7f213eb98479]
[ 2387.584] 8: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so (0x7f213e945000+0x25030) [0x7f213e96a030]
[ 2387.584] 9: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdrm.so.2 (drmHandleEvent+0x108) [0x7f213eda3478]
[ 2387.584] 10: /usr/bin/X (WakeupHandler+0x4b) [0x4322fb]
[ 2387.584] 11: /usr/bin/X (WaitForSomething+0x1b6) [0x45c7b6]
[ 2387.584] 12: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x2e032) [0x42e032]
[ 2387.584] 13: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x21a7e) [0x421a7e]
[ 2387.584] 14: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xff) [0x7f2140746eff]
[ 2387.584] 15: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x21629) [0x421629]
[ 2387.585] Segmentation fault at address 0x7f213ac14010
[ 2387.585]
Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting

Revision history for this message
Eric Hu (hu-eric) said :
#19

I was able to fix my crash by upgrading my Intel driver to a release candidate and upgrading the Linux kernel to 2.6.38-8

Before you do the same, I'd like to point out that my error didn't include a Segmentation fault. Does your system also have an Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Chipset? If so, you can try following what I did (see the bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/776772 )

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