Public bug reported:
I have no idea what package to report this agains, and whatever process
triggered this, it is a system-level issue.
I was happily writing in gedit, with a bunch of other programs open
(Google Chrome, Thunderbird, Update Manager which I believe had already
finisded updating hours earlier, a couple of Terminals...)
Suddenly the hard disk started crunching and the whole system became "almost
unresponsive", meaning that:
- most keystroke got lost (yes, lost, not delayed)
- mouse cursor movements became _very_ jerky
- most mouse clicks got lost
CPU usage was not especially high (I know it because of the fan speed
which I notice because it makes noise)
Since the system didn't respond to keystrokes, it was practically
impossible to Alt-Tab to a terminal where I would have been able to run
"top" and figure out maybe some process to kill
Finally, by hitting Ctlr+Alt+F1 several times, the keystrokes finally
got through and I could switch to a virtual terminal, and at that very
instant the disk crunching ended. I ran top but there was already no
process with high cpu activity. I switched back to the normal screen
with Ctrl+Alt+F7 and everything was back to normal !!!!!!!!!
I guess it was some process that suddenly started using much memory
which may have lead to massive swapping, though this is only a
hypothesis. I suspected of UpdateManager, which was open, but I think it
was already done updating much earlier. Another suspect is Thunderbird.
Anywas such a thing shoud NEVER happen. There are at least two system-level
wrong things here:
- Keyboard and mouse input and the UI in general must always have the greatest
priority and never loose responsiveness.
- Even in the rare cases where responsiveness of keyboard and mouse should
become low and this couldn't be avoided, keystrokes hould be buffered, not
lost. Actually that's what usually happens in most cases, but not this one.
The fact that merely switching to the virtual terminal made the issue go
away is very puzzling. Or maybe it was just a coincidence and it was
when the stalling high activity (of whatever process) ended that finally
I was able to switch to the terminal. Seems a big coincidence though.
And whatever program triggered this (i.e. started high disk activity, whether
it was directly or as a consequence of high ram usage) it should do it in the
background, since I didn't explicitly launch it.
IF it was Update Manager, it should run in the background. If it already does,
then the concept of "background" needs to be better implemented in Ubuntu.
It simply can't happen that the system suddenly becomes unstable and you
can neither save your work nor go have a look at what's happening.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-26.42-generic 3.5.7.6
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-26-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory:
'/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 304.43 Sun Aug 19 20:20:21 PDT
2012
GCC version: gcc version 4.7.2 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.2-2ubuntu1)
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins:
[core,composite,opengl,decor,vpswitch,mousepoll,compiztoolbox,snap,commands,place,resize,session,regex,grid,wall,move,gnomecompat,imgpng,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Sun Mar 31 21:41:20 2013
DistUpgraded: 2013-01-13 11:55:33,566 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: quantal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
NVIDIA Corporation G84 [GeForce 9500M GS] [10de:0405] (rev a1) (prog-if 00
[VGA controller])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:15d2]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-06-23 (1012 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M51Sn
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
TERM=xterm
PATH=(custom, no user)
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-26-generic
root=UUID=173acbf5-26a0-49e3-8d2b-f1c142582cbf ro quiet splash
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2013-01-13 (77 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/24/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 303
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: M51Sn
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias:
dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr303:bd12/24/2007:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnM51Sn:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnM51Sn:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: M51Sn
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.8.6-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.39-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati
1:6.99.99~git20120913.8637f772-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.9-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu3
** Affects: xorg (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: apport-bug compiz-0.9 i386 quantal running-unity ubuntu
--
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop
Packages, which is subscribed to xorg in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1162568
Title:
Whole system suddenly became ALMOST unresponsive, massive disk
crunching, Ctrl+Alt+F1 finally fixed that
Status in “xorg” package in Ubuntu:
New
Bug description:
I have no idea what package to report this agains, and whatever
process triggered this, it is a system-level issue.
I was happily writing in gedit, with a bunch of other programs open
(Google Chrome, Thunderbird, Update Manager which I believe had
already finisded updating hours earlier, a couple of Terminals...)
Suddenly the hard disk started crunching and the whole system became "almost
unresponsive", meaning that:
- most keystroke got lost (yes, lost, not delayed)
- mouse cursor movements became _very_ jerky
- most mouse clicks got lost
CPU usage was not especially high (I know it because of the fan speed
which I notice because it makes noise)
Since the system didn't respond to keystrokes, it was practically
impossible to Alt-Tab to a terminal where I would have been able to
run "top" and figure out maybe some process to kill
Finally, by hitting Ctlr+Alt+F1 several times, the keystrokes finally
got through and I could switch to a virtual terminal, and at that very
instant the disk crunching ended. I ran top but there was already no
process with high cpu activity. I switched back to the normal screen
with Ctrl+Alt+F7 and everything was back to normal !!!!!!!!!
I guess it was some process that suddenly started using much memory
which may have lead to massive swapping, though this is only a
hypothesis. I suspected of UpdateManager, which was open, but I think
it was already done updating much earlier. Another suspect is
Thunderbird.
Anywas such a thing shoud NEVER happen. There are at least two system-level
wrong things here:
- Keyboard and mouse input and the UI in general must always have the
greatest priority and never loose responsiveness.
- Even in the rare cases where responsiveness of keyboard and mouse should
become low and this couldn't be avoided, keystrokes hould be buffered, not
lost. Actually that's what usually happens in most cases, but not this one.
The fact that merely switching to the virtual terminal made the issue
go away is very puzzling. Or maybe it was just a coincidence and it
was when the stalling high activity (of whatever process) ended that
finally I was able to switch to the terminal. Seems a big coincidence
though.
And whatever program triggered this (i.e. started high disk activity, whether
it was directly or as a consequence of high ram usage) it should do it in the
background, since I didn't explicitly launch it.
IF it was Update Manager, it should run in the background. If it already
does, then the concept of "background" needs to be better implemented in Ubuntu.
It simply can't happen that the system suddenly becomes unstable and
you can neither save your work nor go have a look at what's happening.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-26.42-generic 3.5.7.6
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-26-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory:
'/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 304.43 Sun Aug 19 20:20:21 PDT
2012
GCC version: gcc version 4.7.2 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.2-2ubuntu1)
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins:
[core,composite,opengl,decor,vpswitch,mousepoll,compiztoolbox,snap,commands,place,resize,session,regex,grid,wall,move,gnomecompat,imgpng,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Sun Mar 31 21:41:20 2013
DistUpgraded: 2013-01-13 11:55:33,566 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: quantal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
NVIDIA Corporation G84 [GeForce 9500M GS] [10de:0405] (rev a1) (prog-if 00
[VGA controller])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:15d2]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-06-23 (1012 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M51Sn
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
TERM=xterm
PATH=(custom, no user)
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-26-generic
root=UUID=173acbf5-26a0-49e3-8d2b-f1c142582cbf ro quiet splash
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2013-01-13 (77 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/24/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 303
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: M51Sn
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias:
dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr303:bd12/24/2007:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnM51Sn:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnM51Sn:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: M51Sn
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.8.6-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.39-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.1
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati
1:6.99.99~git20120913.8637f772-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.9-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
1:1.0.2-0ubuntu3
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