Xubuntu: Screen, keyboard, mouse all stop working & have to reboot - HELP??

DeepBlue

Currently running Xubuntu 9.10 and am experiencing a problem that first appeared for me in 9.04 where the display seems to go to sleep and will not repond to movement of the mouse or pressing any keys on the keyboard. Whatever programs are running will keep running in the background i.e. can still hear a movie playing but I can't access them in any way and the only action I can take is to reboot the computer.

This happens very randomly and unpredictably. It happens far less on 9.10 than it did on 9.04 but it's still very irritating when it happens.

I've tried remotely accessing the box from another PC. Remote access works fine normally but when this problem occurs remote access times out so I can't even access it then.

I suspect this is going to be a ba$tard of a problem to debug so I'll settle for being able to gracefully close all running programs when the bug strikes.

Is there any way I can close down the running programs without having to reboot?

Eliot Rosewater

Both my brother and a friend of mine are experiencing the exact same issue in that they can never wake up out of sleep mode on their laptops. I dont know the solution (sorry) but I certainly know that is a major problem.

loldog

DeepBlue wrote: »

This happens very randomly and unpredictably. It happens far less on 9.10 than it did on 9.04 but it's still very irritating when it happens.

Is it possible it's the screensaver? Disable the screensaver for a start. I actually delete the screensaver - who needs one these days? They're just a nuisance and use up resources.

Also, if it's a laptop, check the settings in gnome-power-manager, it's got some preferences that might be doing this:

http://projects.gnome.org/gnome-power-manager/gpp.html

DeepBlue wrote: »

Is there any way I can close down the running programs without having to reboot?

When the screen goes, try pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 or F2 or any function button that brings you to a login screen. Login.

Type:

 sudo stop gdm

This should halt your session.

To bring it back up again:

sudo start gdm

.

DeepBlue

Thanks for the replies .

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

Both my brother and a friend of mine are experiencing the exact same issue in that they can never wake up out of sleep mode on their laptops. I dont know the solution (sorry) but I certainly know that is a major problem.

I may have not explained it clearly in my original post.
It's not that I can't wake out of sleep mode (actually I haven't even tried that yet on the 9.10).
What happens is that the computer will go into what looks like sleep mode suddenly while I'm still using it i.e. I could be browsing and click to open a new tab and next thing the screen shuts down exactly as it would if the pc was going to go into sleep mode.

loldog wrote: »

Is it possible it's the screensaver? Disable the screensaver for a start.

Yep, that's the first thing I did.

loldog wrote: »

I actually delete the screensaver - who needs one these days? They're just a nuisance and use up resources.

Didn't know you could do that.
Something like "sudo apt-get remove screensaver" I presume?

loldog wrote: »

When the screen goes, try pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 or F2 or any function button that brings you to a login screen. Login.

Type:

 sudo stop gdm

This should halt your session.

To bring it back up again:

sudo start gdm

.

I'll try that next time. My main problem is not being able to get the keyboard or mouse to respond at all although they may be responding but as the screen is dead as it's not getting any signal from the computer so I can't see anything onscreen.
I'm using a wireless mouse and keyboard as well so I think I'll switch to wired keyboards and mice just in case that may cause an issue.

I'm also using a ATI Radeon 9550 video card and I suspect that I'll eventually find that it's linked to the problem.

loldog wrote: »

Also, if it's a laptop, check the settings in gnome-power-manager, it's got some preferences that might be doing this:

By the way it's a desktop.

artielange

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1298269&page=3


Any help. I hate when things go srewing. good luck.

Gewgaw

I have the same problem, however, I can ctrl+alt+f2 still and then I can login and init 6 for instance.