Frozen: Dell Dimension 2400 Intel 82845G/GL/GE Chipset

[abpriest]

I've seen a bit about the display being frozen on intel integrated displays, but I do not see the answer anywhere. Does anyone know how to fix this problem:

Ubuntu 9.10 boots and runs just fine for 10, 20 or even 30 minutes performing variety of tasks. Then, without warning the display is frozen. The mouse can move the pointer just fine, but I cannot interact with the desktop and the machine must be shutdown by holding the power button.

I've observed this while playing a Kpatience game, general surfing of the internet, and view youtube videos. One time it happened when the display powers off after being idle, but this is not consistently the case. I have tried to make the freeze happen, but am unable to do so (so it seems, anyway). What is happening here?


Here are the details of my system:

Dell Dimension 2400 Desktop
Output from lshw:
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:16 memory:e8000000-efffffff(prefetchable) memory:feb80000-febffff

[abpriest]

Update: I turned off the screen saver at 10:30 last night and it is still working great (no freezes) at 7:00 am ( I left it on all night and let power management turn off the monitor).
But this doesn't feel like the problem or a solution.

[wavesailor]

Abpriest - Can you confirm the your freezes have disappeared?

I have that same setup as you (Dell Dimension 2400 Intel 82845G/GL/GE Chipset) and I am experiencing the same freezes as you.

Googling it seems a lot of people are experiencing the same issues and the best option seems to revert to the Jaunty Xorg intel driver to 2.4

Can you or anyone confirm this?

-jj

[Johnzw]

I also have exactly the same problem with that integrated graphics chip.

The system in question is constructed mainly from spare parts, however. Here is lspci -nn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface [8086:2560] (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device [8086:2562] (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24c2] (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24c4] (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24c7] (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:24cd] (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:24c0] (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller [8086:24cb] (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller [8086:24c3] (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:24c5] (rev 01)
01:08.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller [8086:1039] (rev 81)

and output of lshw is attached

EDIT:

Also, I've already tried reverting the X driver, didn't work. I've tried the Jaunty graphics thing, didn't work.

prior to the upgrade to Karmic X often hung when switching VTs or after a user logged out. Interestingly, this manifested with the X cursor in the center of the screen over a black and white dots-pattern background at a very low resolution (I'd guess 800x600 or lower). This no longer happens, now the hangs happen seemingly randomly.

[purgatori]

This problem is well-known, and there is a patch being developed that will probably make it into Lucid-backports, or 10.04.1.

I wish I could give you a sure-fire fix for the problem in the meantime, but sadly, I don't know of one... if I did, then my own problems would be resolved, and I'd be a lot happier.

Apparently, though, running this command (to blacklist KMS) has worked for some:

echo options i915 modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf

[Johnzw]

This problem is well-known, and there is a patch being developed that will probably make it into Lucid-backports, or 10.04.1.

I wish I could give you a sure-fire fix for the problem in the meantime, but sadly, I don't know of one... if I did, then my own problems would be resolved, and I'd be a lot happier.

Apparently, though, running this command (to blacklist KMS) has worked for some:

echo options i915 modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf

Will attempt that and post what happens.

[Johnzw]

That appears to have worked. Uptime is 1 day 1:38. The freezes had been happening no less than every five hours. I'll keep monitoring.

[Johnzw]

Well, that sorta worked. Got to the 2 day 4 hour mark then tried a switch user and it went to black and locked. Upon reboot it did the characteristic freeze within minutes.

[purgatori]

Yeah, upon some boots I'll get a good run that can go for days, but if I have to power cycle the system for some reason, then the crashing comes back... I hope someone comes up with a way to squash this enigmatic bug.

[Johnzw]

Well, now we're back to freezes every 3-4 hours n average.

Anyone know if this is fixed in lucid?