xwindows over ssh causes instability

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

Could you please provide a bit more information, in particular:

1. precisely which version of Ubuntu you are using both on the client (from which you ssh) and the server (into which you ssh to run X commands)

2. What is running on the server while you've ssh'ed in? Please give 'ps -ef' output on server) and what window manager you use on the server.

3. What sort of network link are you doing this on

4. Example of a specific application with which you've had this happen.

5. A specific instance of the instability on windows on the host.

1. using 10.10 ubuntu on the client, and the server has red hat enterprise 2.6.18.

2. I left off the -f because the server has other users on it.
 PID TTY TIME CMD
    1 ? 00:00:16 init
    2 ? 00:00:32 migration/0
    3 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
    4 ? 00:00:24 migration/1
    5 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/1
    6 ? 00:00:00 events/0
    7 ? 00:00:00 events/1
    8 ? 00:00:00 khelper
   39 ? 00:00:00 kthread
   44 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/0
   45 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/1
   46 ? 00:00:00 kacpid
  103 ? 00:00:00 cqueue/0
  104 ? 00:00:00 cqueue/1
  107 ? 00:00:00 khubd
  109 ? 00:00:00 kseriod
  181 ? 00:00:00 khungtaskd
  182 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
  183 ? 00:00:42 pdflush
  184 ? 00:00:05 kswapd0
  185 ? 00:00:00 aio/0
  186 ? 00:00:00 aio/1
  328 ? 00:00:00 kpsmoused
  374 ? 00:00:00 mpt_poll_0
  375 ? 00:00:00 mpt/0
  376 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_0
  380 ? 00:00:00 ata/0
  381 ? 00:00:00 ata/1
  382 ? 00:00:00 ata_aux
  389 ? 00:00:00 kstriped
  402 ? 00:00:00 ksnapd
  417 ? 00:01:51 kjournald
  442 ? 00:00:04 kauditd
  475 ? 00:00:00 udevd
 1172 ? 00:00:00 sshd
 1174 ? 00:00:00 sshd
 1175 pts/2 00:00:00 csh
 1191 pts/2 00:00:00 pine
 1279 ? 00:00:00 kmpathd/0
 1280 ? 00:00:00 kmpathd/1
 1281 ? 00:00:00 kmpath_handlerd
 1304 ? 00:00:28 kjournald
 1309 ? 00:00:45 kjournald
 1312 ? 00:00:01 kjournald
 1321 ? 00:00:01 kjournald
 1324 ? 00:00:00 kjournald
 1563 ? 00:00:06 vmmemctl
 1746 ? 00:03:44 vmtoolsd
 1897 ? 00:00:00 iscsi_eh
 1958 ? 00:00:00 ib_addr
 1971 ? 00:00:00 ib_mcast
 1972 ? 00:00:00 ib_inform
 1973 ? 00:00:00 local_sa
 1977 ? 00:00:00 iw_cm_wq
 1981 ? 00:00:00 ib_cm/0
 1982 ? 00:00:00 ib_cm/1
 1986 ? 00:00:00 rdma_cm
 2004 ? 00:00:00 brcm_iscsiuio
 2010 ? 00:00:00 iscsid
 2011 ? 00:00:00 iscsid
 2406 ? 00:00:25 auditd
 2408 ? 00:00:11 audispd
 2438 ? 00:00:40 syslogd
 2441 ? 00:00:00 klogd
 2455 ? 00:00:04 irqbalance
 2486 ? 00:00:00 portmap
 2517 ? 00:00:35 rpciod/0
 2518 ? 00:00:21 rpciod/1
 2526 ? 00:00:00 rpc.statd
 2558 ? 00:00:00 rpc.idmapd
 2581 ? 00:00:02 dbus-daemon
 2616 ? 00:00:08 nfsiod
 2617 ? 00:00:00 lockd
 2651 ? 00:01:32 hald
 2652 ? 00:00:00 hald-runner
 2659 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-acpi
 2665 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
 2673 ? 00:06:21 hald-addon-stor
 2707 ? 00:07:33 nscd
 2728 ? 00:04:19 snmpd
 2745 ? 00:00:20 sshd
 2794 ? 00:00:01 ntpd
 2851 ? 00:00:00 master
 2863 ? 00:00:00 qmgr
 2866 ? 00:00:00 gpm
 2879 ? 00:00:05 crond
 2929 ? 00:00:00 xfs
 2954 ? 00:00:00 atd
 2979 ? 00:00:00 rhnsd
 2993 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
 2994 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
 3077 ? 00:00:00 smartd
 3080 tty1 00:00:00 minge...

I see, I thought you were saying there was instability on the host.

I've just tried to reproduce this ssh'ing from a ubuntu lucid to a ubuntu natty laptop and running firefox, with no success.

Additional information which would help to debug this:

1. The next time this happens, please do 'apport-collect 728017' which should give us more details.

2. Can you give me a particular site which always reproduces this?

3. Please do 'wmctrl -m' and 'wmctrl -lG' on the client and give output here. ('sudo apt-get install wmctrl' if needed to get the program)

4. Please give ps -ef from the client

Sorry, two more questions:

1. is there any other program which can make this happen? Can you run 'xterm' or 'gnome-terminal' or 'xeyes' with no problem? If not, then we should probably mark this bug as affecting firefox as well.

2. exactly what happens on the client when it is misbehaving?

1. apport-collect 728017
Package openssh not installed and no hook available, ignoring

It then says no addition info gathered.

2. Not any particular site, when firefox is open across the network, even when not browsing anything, just moving the window around the screen will cause momentary freezes for the whole gui, client side. Also, keep in mind that I think you need a slow host or connection to the host to replicate this. FF takes over 2 minutes just to launch after typing in the command.

3. $ wmctrl -m
Name: compiz
Class: N/A
PID: N/A
Window manager's "showing the desktop" mode: OFF

$ wmctrl -lG
0x04200041 0 758 166 1276 1088 compy Inbox (148 total) - Evolution
0x01600003 -1 0 2352 1920 24 compy Bottom Expanded Edge Panel
0x01600028 0 0 0 1920 24 compy Top Expanded Edge Panel
0x0180001e -1 0 0 1920 1200 compy x-nautilus-desktop
0x03400084 0 0 86 1920 1133 compy Bug #728017 in openssh (Ubuntu): “xwindows over ssh causes instability” - Mozilla Firefox (Build 20101206121716)
0x04800004 0 1538 658 657 435 compy enb@compy: ~
0x04a0009d 0 10 94 1328 711 compy *Untitled Document 1 - gedit

4.
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 1 0 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 /sbin/init
root 2 0 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kthreadd]
root 3 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root 4 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [migration/0]
root 5 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/0]
root 6 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [migration/1]
root 7 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
root 8 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/1]
root 9 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [migration/2]
root 10 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/2]
root 11 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/2]
root 12 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [migration/3]
root 13 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [ksoftirqd/3]
root 14 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [watchdog/3]
root 15 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [events/0]
root 16 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [events/1]
root 17 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [events/2]
root 18 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:07 [events/3]
root 19 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [cpuset]
root 20 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [khelper]
root 21 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [netns]
root 22 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [async/mgr]
root 23 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [pm]
root 25 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [sync_supers]
root 26 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [bdi-default]
root 27 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kintegrityd/0]
root 28 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kintegrityd/1]
root 29 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kintegrityd/2]
root 30 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kintegrityd/3]
root 31 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kblockd/0]
root 32 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kblockd/1]
root 33 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kblockd/2]
root 34 2 0 09:18 ? 00:00:00 [kblockd/3]...

Simply interacting with the firefox window, like moving it around or resizing it, seems to cause it to freeze up, and when it does, so does the rest of the gui, including local apps and the taskbar, etc. firefox seems to be the only app over ssh that seems to cause it so far, xeyes and other things don't.
Something that might be related, is that when I am connecting to a mint debian machine over ssh, and try to launch something that asks for permissions, such as synaptic, it freezes everything up to the point that I have to ctlr-alt-f1 and kill the ssh terminal just to get everything to work in ubuntu again. This might happen if the host is something other than mint debian, but I haven't had a chance to test that yet, or try it on a different ubuntu client either.

It sounds like the core of the problem is compiz (your window manager) refusing to draw other windows while it is waiting for firefox to update.

Please give the output of:
   cat /etc/lsb-release
and try doing
   apport-collect 728017
on the laptop again, which hopefully will give us more info about what's going on with compiz.

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I tried it with metacity and the freezing didn't happen, so it seems like it was compiz.
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=maverick
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.10"

Also, it is a desktop, not laptop.

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Marking as affecting Compiz only based on comment #22.

The .Xsession-errors file looks to have helpful errors.

I believe the key might be the:
 (<unknown>:2259): Gdk-WARNING **: XID collision, trouble ahead
errors. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7506398 may be helpful.

 Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #> and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.