[i855] x freezing often while surfing , mouse still moving

phran, at bug 447892 we have identified the commit to the kernel that triggered the freezes for many people on 855GM chipsets. Could you also test the before (599) and after (600) kernels to check if this is the bad commit for you as well? See comment #59 at bug 447892 for details.

The bug 447892 sounds like the one i have when using newer kernels than 2.6.31-12 or newer.
I installed the two test kernels, but they are not starting, because my cpu has no aes support.

I don't know what AES support in the kernel is (that doesn't mean much, I'm not very experienced when it comes to compiling kernels). Normally, by AES we mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard, but as far as I know, very few kernels have hardware support for this.

On the other hand, someone did not have PAE support in their cpu, so I have compiled a couple of kernels without that. They are in the same directory, but with nopae in the file name.

Also if 2.6.31-12 freezes, but not 2.6.31-11, that is compatible with bug 447892. 2.6.31-12 corresponds to 2.6.31.2 mainline kernel and 2.6.31-11 corresponds to 2.6.31.1, and the bad commit was introduced between those two.

thanks. i tried the kernel with nopae support. it is booting.
the 600 will freeze while typing the login password in the gui, but the 599 seems to be working fine!
So seems bug 447892 is also affecting me.

the 599 kernel now also froze after about one hour using it. (doing nothing special, just typing a message)

[This comment goes to freeze bugs on intel 855GM]

At bug 456902 (similar freezes on 845G) there is currently an effort to find where xserver-xorg-video-intel and/or libdrm changed and so that the freezes were triggered. Brian Rogers has a PPA that he is updating libdrm and -intel until they catch a version which freezes (they first found that a standard Karmic kernel with Jaunty libdrm and -intel did not freeze). It is possible that the same is true for 855GM and this is a chance to catch a free ride from the 845G testing effort. In order to test, use the standard Karmic kernel and add Brian's PPA: https://launchpad.net/~brian-rogers/+archive/graphics-testing . See the bug 456902 comment #29 and after for more details.

Apologies if someone already reported that Jaunty with Karmic kernel also freezes. In that case, testing older -intel and libdrm in Karmic is probably pointless. I'm loosing the overview as there are many similar bug reports on 845G, 855GM and 945G/945GM, and I forget exactly what is already tested for each chipset.

PS: phran, I think there are two kinds of freezes. One which happens not very often and has been around for quite a while and another which happens quickly and is triggered by the 599->600 commit. In upstream bug report https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21826 the first type was first reported, and when a proposed fix was added to the kernel the second type also started to happen. This can be seen from comments #26 and #27 in the upstream report. You probably have the same issue.

I installed libdrm 1:2.4.11-2+karmic3 and xserver-xorg-video-intel 4:2.8.0.901+karmic from Brian and booted with kernel 2.6.31-17-generic. The free at login screen didn't happen anymore!
But i still got my screen frozen after 2 hours later by the other bug.

Strange... A couple of others have responded that installing older libdrm and xserver-xorg-video-intel still gave them freezes with the Karmic kernel. Maybe there are different bugs here...

Actually, Olie (bug 447892, comment #68) only reported to have downgraded -intel and not libdrm. Irihapeti (bug 477256) tested -intel 3:2.8.1-1ubuntu3+karmic. So none of them tested exactly the same as you. I've asked them to. If we can identify a change in libdrm and/or -intel that triggers the freezes with recent kernels, upstream should have plenty to work with.

i testes libdrm 1:2.4.11-2+karmic3 and xserver-xorg-video-intel 4:2.8.0.901+karmic from Brian
now several days with kernel 2.6.31-11-generic. the later freeze didnt happen anmore!
either it is very rare now or the problem is resolved.
with 2.6.31-17-generic it still happens.

I'm getting this error:

/var/log/kern.log:Jan 24 11:48:41 localhost kernel: [332103.940209] gvfsd-metadata[14143]: segfault at 8 ip 0804d2ea sp bf93e650 error 4 in gvfsd-metadata[8048000+c000]
/var/log/kern.log.1:Jan 19 23:57:35 localhost kernel: [268614.192144] gvfsd-metadata[3171]: segfault at 8 ip 0804d2ea sp bf8e8830 error 4 in gvfsd-metadata[8048000+c000]
/var/log/kern.log.1:Jan 20 15:35:35 localhost kernel: [ 118.646168] gvfsd-metadata[2477]: segfault at 8 ip 0804d2ea sp bfbc5ab0 error 4 in gvfsd-metadata[8048000+c000]

 2.6.31-17-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 16:20:31 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
# dpkg -l | grep kernel
ii kerneloops-daemon 0.12+git20090217-1ubuntu4.1 kernel oops tracker
ii libdrm-intel1 2.4.14-1ubuntu1 Userspace interface to intel-specific kernel
ii libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1 Userspace interface to kernel DRM services -
ii linux-firmware 1.25 Firmware for Linux kernel drivers
ii linux-generic 2.6.31.17.30 Complete Generic Linux kernel
ii linux-image-2.6.31-17-generic 2.6.31-17.54 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.31 on x86
ii linux-image-generic 2.6.31.17.30 Generic Linux kernel image
ii module-init-tools 3.10-3 tools for managing Linux kernel modules
ii udev 147~-6.1 rule-based device node and kernel event mana

If there is any specific information that might help, please let me know.

Yesterday I updated to Brians xserver-xorg-video-intel 5:2.8.1-karmic and got two freezes again already (using kernel 2.6.31-11).

Also got in my Kernel.log:
 gvfsd-metadata[2008]: segfault at 8 ip 0804d2ea sp bfec7070 error 4 in gvfsd-metadata[8048000+c000]

Sometimes X crashes when using firefox on some webpages with extensive scripting - bringing me back to the log in screen. It will always happen on the same site again. But seems this is an other bug which has to do with the old kernel. I have been using linux so many years now, but never had so serious problems as now.