GUI Freeze

Jagera

I put another thread in the Laptop forum a few weeks ago, however this issue probably more OS related than hardware.

I am getting a total stop in response to mouse clicks on my Acer Aspire One netbook. It's been flying along since apr-2010 with Ubuntu netbook edition 10.04, and suddenly the issue below.

I can move the mouse around, but clicking is the issue. I can open a program, but after that clicking it totally unresponsive. moving the mouse around is fine. and sometimes I can click the button to select shutdown, but mostly not. Issue is the same with both touchpad and a USB Wireless mouse.

I can tab around and press space, and alt-F4 to close programs, and Ctrl-Alt-Del to shutdown.

I did a totally fresh install off Ubuntu, both 10.04 and the 11.10, and Fubuntu. Same issue all round. I tried Arch but couldn't get it going. Going to try Joli next as it's not Debian based, but I'm not holding my breath.

Any pointers? Graphics card shot?

humbert

I wouldn't guess graphics card but does sound like hardware. A live CD might be useful in determining if it's software or hardware as it's completely generic.

My laptop is ancient now and it sometimes gets confused between the cd eject button(a touch screen style thing along the top of the keypad) and the touchpad. Causes a very similar freezing.

Jagera

I used a live CD (well, USB) for all of the below editions before I installed. The issue was there even in those. I installed anyway, just to wipe the HDD & run from there instead of USB drive.

I have been looking at some logs, but could be looking into wrong ones. Any that I should aim for?

humbert

dmesg is usually a good place to start but I assume you've checked that. In my case there are no warnings because as far as the OS is concerned it's getting a legitimate keycode and nothing's wrong. Obviously that's just my situation though.

I'm using gentoo and I'd check /var/log/messages (in ubuntu this seems to be /var/log/syslog) /var/log/Xorg.0.log and dmesg.

PrzemoF

OP, hit Alt-F2, start xterm, start top in xterm and check what is taking most of your CPU. If you can do thinkg like Alt-F4 it's probably gnome-panel, gnome-shell (or whatever you distro is using) or nautilus freeze.
You might also use Alt-F2 and type "sudo halt" to shot down your PC.

human 19

did you try a different mouse?

Jagera

Had looked at dmesg, nothing out of the ordinary in there. Xorg.0.log and syslog also nothing to note.

The output of top is not showing anything taking up too much CPU. Looks normal.

Still stuck....

PrzemoF

Have you trietd to kill gnome-shell/gnome-panel/nautilus?
(I'd start with nautilus)

Jagera

PrzemoF wrote: »

Have you trietd to kill gnome-shell/gnome-panel/nautilus?
(I'd start with nautilus)

I can't see any of these processes.

Am really confused on this one. I still don't even know for sure if its hardware or software. Booted it up yesterday and the mouse was working, like 95%, rebooted again and back to the same again.

No idea..

BopNiblets

Ctrl Alt Backspace is good for gui freezes, resets the X server, but might be disabled in latest Ubuntus...

niallb

If you've got a few live CD/USB's handy, run the memtest option on it.
Let it run all the way through. Flaky memory can cause this kind of problem,
and more importantly it's a problem that's easy to find and cheap to fix,
so rule it out first.
Good luck.

PrzemoF

OP, can you post:

ps -e | grep -i nautilus

and

ps -e | grep -i gnome

Jagera

Right, just going to put some feedback in here. Long story short - it's back working again.

With some rather genius work by me: first I rebooted, then I .. [mumble, mumble, mumble]... and now the mouse is back working again.

Truthfully though, technically I've done nothing. I had reinstalled the OS a few times, but in the last 2 weeks it has just started functioning again. I installed Joli last night even though Ubuntu had been working the last few days, I just took a gamble, it's running fine now.

Ran memtest for two hours (did two loops) and no errors. PrzemoF the nautilus and gnome process were showing up in the process status.

Anyway - I'm certainly none-the-wiser on this - but thankfully the netbook is going again.

PrzemoF

Next time try to

pkill nautilus

or

pkill gnome-shell

I strongly recommend to try to find a solution and/or submit a bug report.

Reinstalling is a esay & tempting option, but it won't teach you how the system works.

Anyeway, I'm glad it works again!