Comment 112 for bug 1181666

The bug still exists for me, both on Ubuntu 18.04 and on Fedora 28 (I installed Fedora after thinking it was an Ubuntu bug before of realizing it was likely due to GNOME). Using GNOME 3.28.3 on Fedora, the behavior is exactly the same as in Ubuntu and the same workarounds from the Ubuntu bug tracker (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mutter/+bug/1181666, e.g. restarting the gnome-shell etc.) can temporarily make the computer usable again, but it's not very reliable.

Also, there's no clear pattern of the bug occurring discernible. For me, it appeared with and without proprietary drivers and interestingly I've also seen it happen on an Ubuntu live distribution booted off of an USB device (also running GNOME). Maybe some undiagnosed hardware incompatibility?

I'm most likely gonna try for a few weeks without GNOME to see if there might be something else causing it. Considering how rare and the bug seems to be and that it has persisted over the years, guess you have to switch away from GNOME if you are one of the unfortunate rare cases.