Binary package hint: xorg
This is possibly not the same as bug 457695 as it is on different graphics hardware, although there are similarities. This is Acer Aspire 7520 with Nvidia graphics and Nvidia driver.
First noticed in Kubuntu 9.10, but parallel installation of Ubuntu on same machine has exactly the same problems, so it is probably not a KDE4 bug.
First indication is that the shell, in a GUI window (konsole or gnome terminal) just dies. It stops responding to keystrokes, but as the GUI is still working, it can be closed. It will then not restart. It dies if a running non-GUI program is generating output, or when manual keyboard input is occurring, and may be a few seconds to (rarely) an hour or more after startup.
On attempting to bring up a virtual TTY to investigate, it was found that keystrokes were having no effect except in any open GUI window such as a text editor, where all works normally. After tghe shell dies, keys are not seen outside the GUI window so can't start any of the virtual consoles by <CTRL><ALT>F1 etc.
On fresh boot, again in Gnome or KDE, before shell has died, <CTRL><ALT>F1 etc bring up black screen, with no cursor, no respones to keyboard, etc. Backlight is still on. <CTRL><ALT>F7 returns to GUI correctly. After shell has died, <CTRL><ALT>F1 etc do nothing, so there is no way of getting a dmesg etc after the event. Maybe I will be able to set up SSH to have a look, but not yet, as I need another machine. At the moment the only thing to do is to reboot via the GUI, logging out or restarting X does not seem to get the shell working again.
I think but can't yet prove that there may be 2 distinct bugs here, one because the virtual TTYs are always dysfunctional, and the other, the shell dying, but it could all be the one bug.
The screen resolution is its native 1440*900, if that is relevant.
This problem was not seen in 9.04, 8.10 or 8.04 on this hardware. The OS is currently unusable for serious work because I need the shell. Suggestions for further tests will be gratefully received.
ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Nov 16 20:59:04 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
Lsusb:
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c019 Logitech, Inc. Optical Tilt Wheel Mouse
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Acer Aspire 7520
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=385e93a7-dc23-4854-a505-8c67149510c6 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xorg
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
dmi.bios.date: 10/12/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V1.09
dmi.board.name: Fuquene
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: N/A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV1.09:bd10/12/2007:svnAcer:pnAspire7520:pvrV1.09:rvnAcer:rnFuquene:rvrN/A:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 7520
dmi.product.version: V1.09
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
distro: Ubuntu
architecture: x86_64kernel: 2.6.31-14-generic
tiger99, thank you for your bug report. We are very anxious to understand this problem. When did this behavior start? Could it have started after a particular update? Also, are you using compiz window effects? If so, would turning compiz off stop or reduce the frequency of this issue?