Stubborn Intel Graphics Bug Haunts Ubuntu 12.04

jones_supa writes "The current long-term support version of Ubuntu (12.04) has been experiencing a remarkably tough-to-crack and widely affecting bug related to laptops using an Intel graphics solution. When the lid is closed, every now and then the desktop freezes and only the mouse cursor can be moved. Compiz is usually found hung in the process, switching to a VT afterwards works. The Freedesktop guys are also informed. Have Slashdotters been bitten by this bug and possibly could offer some detective work to help the OSS community find and apply the correct fix?"

Comments

Re:What they are actually reporting an Issue.

[Funk_dat69]

Yeah, this issue has been around long before 12.04. Glad its getting some attention. My workaround was to switch to a different distro. :)

12.10 better not be the fix

[Concern]

It's an awful problem.

LTS release that can't reliably suspend (which means, it can't suspend) on Lenovo Thinkpads...

Ubuntu fixes this rapidly, in-stream or they cease to be credible.

Thank you Slashdot, for bringing attention to this.

Re:12.10 better not be the fix

[Anonymous Coward]

My experience has been it's something aggravated by dbus, as turning off zeitgeist almost totally eliminates the problem.
Note: I am not using unity, although again, unity aggravates the issue(s).
Using something like collectd causes an increase in the issue appearing, but at a way lower rate than zeitgeist.
e.g. collectd causes the problem to appear about once a week, vs 2-3 times a day with zeitgeist.
fox/plugin-container /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so -greomni /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja also seems to
frequently aggravate the issue in question.
I sorta suspect it's something related to kernel polling/caching and resources limits, as changing user limits and/or changing
the shell associated with a uid in /etc/password (e.g. /bin/sh to /bin/nologin or /bin/false) alters the frequency at which
the problem appears. Altering cache sizes sometimes delays the issue. Flushing caches almost always fixes the issue (assuming
one can switch windows before the issue "freezes" things).
Giiven the size of the file cache (4GB) , it might just be due to the time required to flush the cache.
It is as if there's an exclusive lock/resource roadblock for which either dbus can use, collectd can use, or omni.ja can use,
but having more than one going at the same time will result in the issues discussed.
Note, the kernel is a standard, stock ubuntu kernel build.

Re:What they are actually reporting an Issue.

[Anonymous Coward]

Except this Intel driver IS open source.

Re:What they are actually reporting an Issue.

[Lumpy]

So do the same with linux, you can call red hat and pay them. or any other linux support company... there are tons to choose from. Linuxcare, redhat, Emperor, etc...

Just like Microsoft and OSX. because they dont give you tech support for free. MSFT requires a credit card, Apple does too if you dont pay for applecare...

Oh wait, we cant compare that way, it would be fair and balanced... we cant have that....

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

[tepples]

You didn't really need to switch to Fedora over that. What I did when Unity got on my nerves was sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

Re:What they are actually reporting an Issue.

[Microlith]

Why are you not on their forums having a fucking shitfit?

Cause we aren't all vulgar assholes?

Why are you not telling the devs to stop acting like douchebags and quit fucking with the internals so shit isn't constantly fucking breaking like this?

What internals, precisely, were broken? Oh, closed source drivers from an uncooperative company? You should blame the company rather than demanding others comply to the whims of lazy corporations that refuse to support their products.