[arch-general] Gnome Shell freezes

[Max]

Dear arch users and developers,

I have posted this issue also in the archlinux forum [1]. I didn't get
much feedback there. So I'm hoping some people here might have an idea
of how to resolve the problem.

Problem:
gnome shell freezes from time to time (actually daily).

Freezing:
"Freezing" means, the screen becomes unresponsive but everything seems
to continue working (sound and videos continue playing; even the mouse
pointer can still be moved). Most of the time I'm able to switch to a
virtual console although sometimes it takes 10-20 seconds after
CTRL+ALT+F1 to show up. Then, however, everything is running smoothly.
It's not possible to restart X since it will freeze again at the gdm
login screen, or even without using gdm when loading the desktop.

What triggers the problem:
Usually it happens while scrolling on websites or pdfs. I feel like it
happens more often if there are large images.

Hardware:
IBM T60
ATI X1400

I think it's an issue with the open source radeon drivers. However, this
problem doesn't occur using other desktop environments. I tried to look
into some log files but I couldn't find noticeable error messages.

Looking forward to your suggestions,
Max


[1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=129481