Random X server crashes on keypress using natty

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Thanks for sending that information.

Your bug description is very clear and describes an issue we know very well, but no one else has reported this with Ubuntu 11.04 and I don't know of any remaining reason why it should occur. The most likely explanation is that you have some software installed which is altering the VT settings out from underneath the X server.

Do you have any local upstart jobs installed that use the 'console owner' option? Do you have any local init scripts that might be changing the console settings? For instance, a previous version of the apache package during a development cycle had a bug where it tried to take over the console for passphrase prompting, resulting in crashes like this.

I haven't installed any local upstart job or any package that adds one (at least to my knowledge).

I've done the following:

$ cd /etc/init/
$ grep "console owner" *
mountall-shell.conf:console owner
rcS.conf:console owner

But reading the files seems that they shouldn't start in a normal boot.

Some other things:
- I'm using an encrypted root partition so at boot I get a prompt to enter my passphrase.
- While booting I sometimes get the fancy plymouth screen that's supposed to appears while the others (about 90%) I get a textual version.
- Crashes happen when X starts on VT1, I had 2 crashes while typing this comment and now fortunately it started on VT8.
- I'm using a switchable graphics laptop so I suspect the above problem might be related to the order in which drivers are loader, maybe it's related to the VT used for X too.

> - Crashes happen when X starts on VT1, I had 2
> crashes while typing this comment and now
> fortunately it started on VT8.

Are you using gdm as your display manager for starting X? gdm should never start X on VT1.

Architecture: amd64
DefaultPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/solar/solar.plymouth
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. G73Sw
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: plymouth 0.8.2-2ubuntu23
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.39.1 root=UUID=530e4d0a-5a11-4739-af3b-7fea6bb70309 ro quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1600x1200-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap vt.handoff=7
Tags: natty
TextPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-text/ubuntu-text.plymouth
Uname: Linux 2.6.39.1 x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 01/13/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: G73Sw.203
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: G73Sw
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrG73Sw.203:bd01/13/2011:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnG73Sw:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnG73Sw:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: G73Sw
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

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Oops, sorry for spamming this bug description. I ran apport-collect without exactly knowing what I was doing. Just thought it would check my logs against the already apparent ones, without adding my report to the bug description. Sorry again about that :)

But in fact, I am experiencing exactly the same problem on my computer and it is really annoying. Did anyone already find a solution for this problem?

So, no solution yet? I also experience this, and I had no problems like this with previous versions of ubuntu (using lubuntu, to be exact). Also, I use gdm. Also, this happens only once. Once it has crashed, it won't crash anymore, until next boot.

I reinstalled natty without disk encryption and using catalyst 11.5 driver and I'm not able to reproduce this anymore.
I suspect that the issue might be related to the passphrase prompt.

Just a note: for me that happened more than once until X started properly on VT7.

This looks like a duplicate of bug 765136, which seems to be a re-emergence of 532047.

No, this is not a re-emergence of bug #532047. Something is causing X to be started on VT1 where it never should be. However, the submitter suggests this is related to disk encryption; I'm using crypted disks here and have never seen this problem with natty. Someone needs to reproduce this and work out why X is starting on the wrong VT.

801014 may be a dupe of this

and this may be a dupe of 802271

If this is the same as bug #802271, that would mean the submitter was using lightdm in natty (not the default). Steven, can you confirm whether you were using lightdm?

No, i was using gdm from the 11.04 install.

Like TiGR wrote in comment #28, this only happens to me once on every boot, usually a few minutes after logging in and typing something, for instance in Pidgin. At a random press of the Enter key, X restarts before the message I wrote is sent, meaning the key stroke never reaches the application, as far as I understand it. By "X restarts" I mean suddenly all running applications are killed and Ubuntu goes back to the graphical login prompt.

Oddly enough, if Audacious was running before the crash and I relaunch it afterwards, it warns me that another instance of itself may already be running. Ignoring the warning allows Audacious to run properly. Maybe a lock file of some sort the application wasn't able to release or delete before X crashed?

This issue started happening around May or June 2011, if I recall correctly, and never happened in previous Ubuntu versions (using 11.04 at the moment).

outdated report & no more maintained distro; please send a new one if that issue still exist (using ubuntu-bug)