[arch-general] Gnome Shell freezes

[Simon Perry]

On 03/11/11, Max wrote:

| Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:08:31 +0200
| From: Max <max at posteo.de>
| To: arch-general at archlinux.org
| Subject: [arch-general] Gnome Shell freezes
| 
| "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.

I see the same issue pretty much once a day on my Lenovo work laptop,
where I use two monitors via the two display ports that their crappy dock
provides.

It usually happens when I'm doing a CTRL-ALT-UP or DOWN key sequence to
move between virtual desktops. Does it happen to you during a similar
action?

The Levovo is a T420S with an Intel graphics chip. It actually runs
great, handles two decent res screens at once, but I get the gnome-shell
lock-up at least once, usually after 20 minutes or so after booting.

On my old Dell Inspiron 1420 that I use at home, nVidia based, single
screen; it has never exhibited the same issue.

My workaround is to CRTL-ALT-F1 to a console, login then issue a
"killall -HUP gnome-shell", logout, then change back to F7. That fixes it
and amazingly everything is still where it was desktop-wise.

I know this doesn't help much, but I thought I'd relay my experience as
it does sound similar.

Cheers.

-- 
Simon Perry (aka Pezz)