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[Launchpad Bug Tracker <586994@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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I'm on Karmic Koala.  This problem manifested with numerous 2.6.31
kernels (64-bit).

I boot up, start a browser, browse around, then the screen freezes.  I
can only move the mouse cursor, and it's quite jerky.  I cannot get to a
text console.  I am able to ssh in.  After trying many processes, I've
found that killing X brings me back to the log-in screen, and the
machine is responsive again.  I log back in, and in a few minutes the
same thing happens.

With some experimenting, I found it to be proximately induced by a
browser tab with a large (though not gargantuan) image.

I was not able to get any debugging information.  Nothing showed up in
/var/log/messages.  I tested the memory and the hard drive.  I tried a
live CD without problems.

I had a few hours earlier a routine update from synaptic, consisting of
the following:

2010-05-27 06:41:52 upgrade libc-dev-bin 2.10.1-0ubuntu16 2.10.1-0ubuntu17
2010-05-27 06:41:54 upgrade libc6-dev 2.10.1-0ubuntu16 2.10.1-0ubuntu17
2010-05-27 06:41:56 upgrade libc6-dev-i386 2.10.1-0ubuntu16 2.10.1-0ubuntu17
2010-05-27 06:41:57 upgrade libc6-i386 2.10.1-0ubuntu16 2.10.1-0ubuntu17
2010-05-27 06:41:58 upgrade libc-bin 2.10.1-0ubuntu16 2.10.1-0ubuntu17
2010-05-27 06:42:04 upgrade libc6 2.10.1-0ubuntu16 2.10.1-0ubuntu17
2010-05-27 06:42:18 upgrade chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra 0.5+svn20100430r46138+46111+47191-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic 0.5+svn20100522r47988+47943+48268-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic
2010-05-27 06:42:19 upgrade chromium-browser-inspector 6.0.404.0~svn20100514r47231-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic 6.0.417.0~svn20100527r48348-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic
2010-05-27 06:42:20 upgrade chromium-browser 6.0.404.0~svn20100514r47231-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic 6.0.417.0~svn20100527r48348-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic
2010-05-27 06:42:29 upgrade google-chrome-beta 5.0.375.38-r46659 5.0.375.55-r47796
2010-05-27 06:42:36 upgrade libkrb5-dev 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:36 upgrade libgssapi-krb5-2 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:37 upgrade libkrb5-3 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:38 upgrade libkrb5support0 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:39 upgrade libk5crypto3 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:39 upgrade libgssrpc4 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:40 upgrade libkdb5-4 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:40 upgrade libkadm5srv6 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:41 upgrade libkadm5clnt6 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.5 1.7dfsg~beta3-1ubuntu0.6
2010-05-27 06:42:42 upgrade chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-nonfree 0.5+svn20100430r46138+46111+47191-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic 0.5+svn20100522r47988+47943+48268-0ubuntu1~ucd1~karmic
2010-05-27 06:42:42 upgrade gdm 2.28.1-0ubuntu2.1 2.28.1-0ubuntu2.2
2010-05-27 06:42:53 upgrade libpq-dev 8.4.3-0ubuntu9.10.1 8.4.4-0ubuntu9.10
2010-05-27 06:42:54 upgrade libpq5 8.4.3-0ubuntu9.10.1 8.4.4-0ubuntu9.10
2010-05-27 06:42:55 upgrade xserver-common 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4.2 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4.3
2010-05-27 06:42:56 upgrade xserver-xorg-core 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4.2 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4.3
2010-05-27 06:42:57 upgrade xvfb 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4.2 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4.3

It had been weeks since I'd done an update before that.

Since it appeared to be X-related (and top usually showed Xorg eating
CPU), I tried reverting the X packages back (well, back to a version I
could readily get).  This did not help.

I started reverting seemingly irrelevant packages, including the linux-
headers and the libc packages.  I went back to a much earlier kernel
version.  The problem appears to have gone away.

My best guess (based on likelihood) is that it's a problem with the libc
packages, or at least their interaction with X.  If so, it's quite
serious, as it rendered the machine basically unusable.  I hope others
can avoid this nightmare.

(Unrelatedly, Launchpad wouldn't let me submit this because I set my
browser to not send Referer headers.  No problem, I just turn them back
on, right?  No, I hit the back button and the whole bug report was gone.
Thanks, Launchpad!  So I re-enter it.  Next, timeout errors!)

Update:  Never mind about it being fixed, it happened again, it just
took longer.

** Affects: xorg (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

-- 
computer becomes unresponsive a few minutes after booting (karmic)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/586994
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