Crash & black screen (Graphics problem?)

[Theo148]

I've just done a clean install of Hardy, and everything's working fine with the exception of one issue: I've had my system crash on me three times now. Two of the times were when I was logging out, and the other time I was opening a .wmv file in Totem.

In all three occurrences, my screen suddenly turned black and the computer stopped processing (although it was still on). Ctrl+Alt+Backspace did not work, and neither did the power button, so I had to turn off the power to get it to shut down. On the next boot, the Ubuntu jammed halfway through the initial loading (when it shows the boot splash) and I had to turn off the power again. It only started up properly on the successive reboot.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but it seems graphics related to me (I have an old Intel integrated graphics chipset that hasn't given me any trouble so far). Does anybody know how to resolve this?

[Theo148]

Well I just got another crash (same symptoms) but I thought this might be helpful: this time I tried booting in recovery mode first, and halfway through a dialog came up and asked if I wanted to try and repair X-server. Does this narrow anything down?

[alienexplorers]

What video card are you using. Please run the following command and list the output:

lspci -v

[Theo148]

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Memory at <unassigned> (32-bit, prefetchable)
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0

00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	Memory at b0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
	I/O ports at e000 [size=8]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Memory at 20000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at 28000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at 1200 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at 1600 [size=32]

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at 1700 [size=32]

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	Memory at f0080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=05, sec-latency=32
	I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000dfff
	Memory behind bridge: e0000000-efffffff
	Prefetchable memory behind bridge: a0000000-afffffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
	I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
	I/O ports at 1100 [size=16]
	Memory at 28080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 255
	I/O ports at 1400 [size=32]

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 0021
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at e100 [size=256]
	I/O ports at e200 [size=64]
	Memory at f0080400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
	Memory at f0080600 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at e300 [size=256]
	I/O ports at e400 [size=128]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 10
	Memory at e0001800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
	I/O ports at c100 [size=128]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at c000 [size=256]
	Memory at e0001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation MIM2000/Centrino
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 10
	Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 003d
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 10
	Memory at e0002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Bus: primary=01, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
	Memory window 0: a0000000-a3fff000 (prefetchable)
	Memory window 1: e4000000-e7fff000
	I/O window 0: 0000c400-0000c4ff
	I/O window 1: 0000c800-0000c8ff
	16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

[Theo148]

It doesn't seem like anybody has any ideas for this...

I'm going to try reproducing this by running the shutdown command in terminal so that I can get some error code.

[Theo148]

Okay, I am now totally stumped as to how to solve this. Help would really be appreciated.

[Theo148]

Okay, I have a bit more info on the issue that might help. When I boot in recovery mode and run xfix, everything works fine (playing videos, shutting down). However, after the next reboot the problem turns up again, so I suspect that there is some sort of configuration causing xserver to crash. Beyond that, I have no idea.

[Celauran]

I am having what appears to be the same problem. I haven't tried any .wmv files yet, but attempting to switch users, restart, or shutdown all fail to a black screen. Laptop stays powered on but there is no display; first happened when rebooting after the initial install.

Don't know if it's a graphics problem or not, but here are the results of

lspci -v

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Memory at <unassigned> (32-bit, prefetchable)
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0

00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0033
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
	I/O ports at eff8 [size=8]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0033
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Memory at 20000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at 28000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	I/O ports at 18c0 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	I/O ports at 18e0 [size=32]

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	I/O ports at 1c00 [size=32]

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	Memory at 28080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=03, sec-latency=64
	I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
	Memory behind bridge: cff00000-cfffffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
	I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
	I/O ports at bfa0 [size=16]
	Memory at 28080400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0412
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	I/O ports at 1000 [size=256]
	I/O ports at 1880 [size=64]
	Memory at 28080800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
	Memory at 28080a00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
	I/O ports at 1400 [size=256]
	I/O ports at 1800 [size=128]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:05.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2741
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
	Memory at cffff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
	Memory at cff05000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
	Memory at cff00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
	Memory at cfffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	I/O ports at cf00 [size=64]
	Capabilities: <access denied>

01:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 33)
	Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11
	Memory at cff04000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Bus: primary=01, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
	Memory window 0: 2c000000-2ffff000 (prefetchable)
	Memory window 1: 30000000-33fff000
	I/O window 0: 0000c000-0000c0ff
	I/O window 1: 0000c400-0000c4ff
	16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

You'll notice the graphics controller is the same.

EDIT: Re-reading the initial post, I haven't had the problems on boot. Booting has always been fine, this problem (for me, at least) is limited to shutdowns.

[Ombatay]

I too am having essentially the same problem. Also running an intel 855 graphics processor. I have not had any problems on shutdown or restart, however, only in playing DivX (.avi) files or even DVD files with totem.

I've found this seems to happen at random.
-On initially loading the video file
-On reopening a minimized totem window
-On skipping ahead in the file once playing.

All of these seem to be sporadic at best. Luckily, they're happening at a less than 25% frequency per the initiating event, but as its a total loss of what I was doing, still frustrating none the less.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this would be much appreciated.

It seems that since x 7.3 theres been something different in the i810 driver. I know theres a lot of complaints about slow slow performance from some, and changing XAA vs EXA settings, but as I don't quite know what these affect, I don't quite know what to do with that.

[Ombatay]

Quick update: I experienced the same problem with totem when I tried to use it to play an MP3. Quick black screen and the machine is dead, can't do a thing without a hard reset. A problem with my video drivers made sense before...

Maybe it still does. I didn't explicitely turn off the visualizer, and I assume its on by default. First time I tried to play music since I installed Hardy (fresh). This ran perfectly with Gutsy.