OpenGL screensaver freezes!!

Can you please give some more details on what you're trying to do and doesn't happen? Can you get past the freeze by restarting X (ctrl-alt-backspace)? Does it always happen, even if you change your screensaver? Do you see (part of) the screensaver, or does nothing happen?

Please try to include as much detail as possible.

One jams mainly to case but on screensaver 3d. Some times I find the monitor in standby and other times with the frozen image and I always am forced to reset.
The PC is frozen after some minute that enters in function the screensaver and I must press the reset key.
Excuse me for my bad english but I'm italian.

My HWDB is: 98fb769eeb2b07dbc8f07162d3fe48ce

Does it happen on all GL screensavers? If not which particular screensaver does it (you may find xscreensaver-demo useful as it shows the last screensaver that was run)?

No.It seems random. For exemple with Atunnel I don't have a problem

Is that random as in
a) Some set of screensavers always cause a hang and some always don't
or
b) The same (single) screensaver can work some of the time and but sometimes hangs?

If you can track it down to a particular screensaver this will help immensely.

The following script may help:

xscreensaver-command -select 1; while true; do sleep 10s; xscreensaver-command -next; done

You will need to use CTRL-C in the terminal in which it is started to stop it (assuming you don't get a freeze first).

As I have said before understood always accidentally.However understood when I select:Random Screen Saver.Today it is frozen during HyperTours (striped).
Which script I must modify?

Excuse me but I'm newbie on Ubuntu and Linux

No excuses are necessary. I should have explained myself more clearly.

Re Random:
I guess what I want to be absolutely sure about is this. If you go to System -> Preferences -> Screensaver, scroll down to HyperTourus (striped) and select it, then press the Preview button, do you get a freeze?

The script I was was referring to was the following line:

xscreensaver-command -select 1; while true; do sleep 10s; xscreensaver-command -next; done

You just type that in at a command line (no need to modify anything) and it is a mini shell program. However now you have named a screensaver that freezes, running that script will not help us further.

Re Random:
I guess what I want to be absolutely sure about is this. If you go to System -> Preferences -> Screensaver, scroll down to HyperTourus (striped) and select it, then press the Preview button, do you get a freeze?

Yes!!!When I select this screensaver after some according to the monitor goes in standy freezing all.
I have tried your script and when it has arrived that one screensaver has made the same thing.
To how much it seems the problem is legacy to those screensaver.

what do you get if you run:
/usr/lib/xscreensaver/hypertorus
in a terminal ... ?

btw, this bug is totally misplaced in launchpad, there are already quite some bugs with GL problems in bugzilla...

If I run in a terminal:/usr/lib/xscreensaver/hypertorus I receive always the same brought back error over.

could you post the output you see in your terminal please...

If I run in a terminal the computer freezes

paolino73:

Is your computer sucessfully networked? If so can you still ping it successfully when it is frozen?

Failing that I suppose you can check to see if there is anything interesting in /var/log/messages when you reboot after a freeze (don't paste the entire contents here though)...

Some times the computer seems to go in standby,others instead remain the frozen image but I can move the arrow of the mouse.However every time I must press the reset key.
Successfully the computer returns to work normally but I must avoid however to select those screensaver.
This is my /var/log/messages after a reboot:

http://pastebin.com/406234

And this is my /var/log/syslog:

http://pastebin.com/406237

Have you installed the display drivers correctly? I can't tell if Ubuntu installs 3D-supporting driver for Radeon by defaulft since I have a Nvidia card...

I have a similar problem to the one described in this bug report. My machine freezes randomly and if it does, the mouse pointer often can still be moved around, but the keyboard does not work anymore (i.e. ctrl alt backspace does not work). I have also tried to login from outside via SSH, but the machine seemed to be completely locked up each time I tried. Only pushing the reset button helped in this situation.

I experienced not only crashes with the opengl screensavers, but also with games that use 3d acceleration (e.g. tuxracer and others), even with glxgears.

Deactivating 3d acceleration allows to end the crashes (I commented out the "Load dri" part in the "Section Module"), but this is of course not a solution to the problem.

Here my software specs:
Ubuntu Breezy with Ubuntu Breezy kernel 2.6.12, Ubuntu Breezy xorg 6.8.2 with the opensource ATI drivers. Kubuntu desktop (currently with KDE version 3.5.1) and ReiserFS filesystem.

Here my hardware specs:
- SMP, dual PIII
- VIA Motherboard
- Radeon 8500 LE graphics card

Output of lspci:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693A/694x [Apollo PRO133x] (rev c4)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C598/694x [Apollo MVP3/Pro133x AGP]
0000:00:04.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
0000:00:04.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:04.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 16)
0000:00:04.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 16)
0000:00:04.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
0000:00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
0000:00:0a.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
0000:00:0a.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
0000:00:0a.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 04)
0000:00:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
0000:00:0b.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
0000:00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R200 QL [Radeon 8500 LE]

Unfortunately, I have not seen any interesting output in /var/log/messages.

Tuxo:

I have the SAME problem of you.

I already tried to disable the 3D screensavers in System -> Preferences -> Screensaver but my machine feezes 3 secs after I acess the Screensaver's configuration window.

My lspci's output:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP]

0000:00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)

0000:00:10.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge

0000:00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)

0000:00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)

0000:00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)

0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (Secondary) (rev 01)

I have absolutely same problem as you have.
I cannot change setting in screensaver configuration part.
It is same for all resolution, that I tried.
I think it is now nice feature :(

I have Ati Radeon 9000 and this HW:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP]
0000:00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21140 [FasterNet] (rev 22)
0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 06)
0000:00:0a.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 06)
0000:00:0b.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7133 Audio+video broadcast decoder (rev f0)
0000:00:0c.0 Network controller: Techsan Electronics Co Ltd B2C2 FlexCopII DVB chip / Technisat SkyStar2 DVB card (rev 01)
0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge
0000:00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)
0000:00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 40)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 If [Radeon 9000] (rev 01)
0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Radeon 9000] (Secondary) (rev 01)

I hope, that helps
> comment out the "Load dri" part in the "Section Module"

I have the same problem
I cannot change setting in screensaver configuration part and screen saver random freeze.

I have two computers with the same problem.

The first computer have:
Ubuntu dapper
Ati 9600XT with fglrx (version(8.23.7) driver).
Motherboard Asus chipset Via KT600

The second computer have:
Ubuntu breezy
Ati9600SE with fglrx (breezy version driver)
Motherboard Gigabyte Via KT600

first computer lspci :
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 80)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
0000:00:0e.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11)
0000:00:0e.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)
0000:00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
0000:00:13.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
0000:00:13.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AR [Radeon 9600]
0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AR [Radeon 9600] (Secondary)

My second computer with breezy and the same problem

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 80)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
0000:00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [K8T800 South]
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AQ [Radeon 9600]
0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AQ [Radeon 9600] (Secondary)

Unlike I wrote earlier in this thread, commenting out the dri option in the Module section of the xorg.conf file that controls Xorg 6.8.2 did still lead to crashes when working on the desktop.

After reading many forum posts, I learned that I used the ati driver for my Radeon 8500 LE graphics card while I should probably have used the radeon driver. Therefore, I changed the ati to the radeon driver in the device section of my xorg.conf. Experimenting a bit more I found that activating render acceleration (Option "RenderAccel" in the device section) was also a cause for crashes and therefore I desactived it.

Here is the relevant part of my new xorg.conf file:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon 8500 (R200 QL)"
        Driver "radeon"
        BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option "AGPMode" "4"
        Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
        Option "EnableDepthMoves" "true"
        #Option "RenderAccel" "true"
EndSection

And here is the version I used before (which lead to crashes):

Section "Device"
        Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon 8500 (R200 QL)"
        Driver "ati"
        BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Note that in both cases I used the opensource radeon drivers.

can you test the above version without the Option entries ? is that enough to prevent the crashes ?

Using the above new xorg version was stable for a whole day of work (with the Option AGPMode, EnablePageFlip and EnableDepthMoves activated) while with the ati driver (Driver "ati") , I experienced crashes within minutes or hours when working on the desktop without using 3d acceleration and immediately when launching e.g. glxgears. I guess that without the AGPMode, EnablePageFlip and EnableDepthMoves options it would at least as stable or more stable.

However, currently I cannot test this further as the next day my hard disk went on strike (bad blocks). I am quite sure however that these two events are not related (even though they could be of course). I will test further when I have a new hard disk installed.

As my hard disk died a few days ago, I bought a new one. This time however I did not install Kubuntu Breezy badger, but the development version, Kubuntu Dapper. Xorg is now at version at version 6.9 or 7 instead of 6.8.2. As mentioned before, I have a Radeon 8500 LE graphics card with 128 MB of Ram. First I tested the default opensource ati driver (version: 1:6.5.7.3-0ubuntu4) with following device section in the xorg.conf file:

Section "Device"
         Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon 8500 (R200 QL)"
         Driver "ati"
         BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
 EndSection

Starting glxgears lead almost immediately to a freeze, especially when moving the glxgears window. Ok, then I tried the radeon driver as follows:

Section "Device"
         Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon 8500 (R200 QL)"
         Driver "radeon"
         BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
 EndSection

This also froze my computer hard when using glxgears or other 3D applications. I am not sure if the radeon driver with xorg 6.9/7 is actually the same as the ati driver.

The problem is that my computer also often froze on me when working on the desktop and not using 3D applications, e.g. when browsing the internet with firefox. And of course it often crashed when OpenGL screensavers kicked in.

I really do not like tainted kernels with proprietary drivers. But just to test whether my graphics card is faulty, I installed the proprietary fglrx drivers and oh wonder no more crashes and freezes with glxgears. I tested also tuxracer, it runs fine and does not crash. Also the 2D desktop seems to be stable (no crash experienced in almost two days). Of course I noticed that the fglrx driver is faster than the opensource one. I really do not mind the opensource one being slower. But I do mind crashes and freezes that happen sometimes within minutes and sometimes after working for hours. I could live without 3D acceleration, but as mentioned before, my computer has also crashed on me with disabled 3D acceleration (for this I commented out "Load dri" in the Module section of xorg.conf).

As a side note, my machine ran stable with the xorg version that came with Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) . With Breezy Badger, the instabilities started. Using the Hoary Hedgehog 2.6.10 kernel under Breezy (instead of the default 2.6.12 kernel) gave me also a stable system.

Thanks a lot for working on Ubuntu!

the ati driver is more of a wrapper. checks the card ID and chooses one of atimisc, r128, radeon as the driver for the card.

iirc there is some new 2D acceleration code for the rv3x0 radeons (such as 8500). That can be disabled by setting some option (perhaps RenderAccel) to false. Alternatively you can move the kernel dri module out of the way to make sure it is never loaded.

removing the breezy xscreensaver task

I have updated my Dapper installation everyday and can gladly report that with the new xorg version with the opensource radeon driver (ati) that came in a few days ago the freezes are gone with my Radeon 8500 LE graphics card!

As of today (11.4.2006) the desktop (2D) and also the screensavers (OpenGL) both under GNOME and KDE as well as glxgears and 3D games such as planet penguin racer do not crash anymore!

The current xorg vesion is: xserver-xorg 7.0.0-0ubuntu28
The kernel is: linux-image-2.6.15-20-686 2.6.15-20.30

Thanks a lot!