Public bug reported: I have no idea what package to report this agains, and whatever process triggered this, it is a system-level issue.
I was happily writing in gedit, with a bunch of other programs open (Google Chrome, Thunderbird, Update Manager which I believe had already finisded updating hours earlier, a couple of Terminals...) Suddenly the hard disk started crunching and the whole system became "almost unresponsive", meaning that: - most keystroke got lost (yes, lost, not delayed) - mouse cursor movements became _very_ jerky - most mouse clicks got lost CPU usage was not especially high (I know it because of the fan speed which I notice because it makes noise) Since the system didn't respond to keystrokes, it was practically impossible to Alt-Tab to a terminal where I would have been able to run "top" and figure out maybe some process to kill Finally, by hitting Ctlr+Alt+F1 several times, the keystrokes finally got through and I could switch to a virtual terminal, and at that very instant the disk crunching ended. I ran top but there was already no process with high cpu activity. I switched back to the normal screen with Ctrl+Alt+F7 and everything was back to normal !!!!!!!!! I guess it was some process that suddenly started using much memory which may have lead to massive swapping, though this is only a hypothesis. I suspected of UpdateManager, which was open, but I think it was already done updating much earlier. Another suspect is Thunderbird. Anywas such a thing shoud NEVER happen. There are at least two system-level wrong things here: - Keyboard and mouse input and the UI in general must always have the greatest priority and never loose responsiveness. - Even in the rare cases where responsiveness of keyboard and mouse should become low and this couldn't be avoided, keystrokes hould be buffered, not lost. Actually that's what usually happens in most cases, but not this one. The fact that merely switching to the virtual terminal made the issue go away is very puzzling. Or maybe it was just a coincidence and it was when the stalling high activity (of whatever process) ended that finally I was able to switch to the terminal. Seems a big coincidence though. And whatever program triggered this (i.e. started high disk activity, whether it was directly or as a consequence of high ram usage) it should do it in the background, since I didn't explicitly launch it. IF it was Update Manager, it should run in the background. If it already does, then the concept of "background" needs to be better implemented in Ubuntu. It simply can't happen that the system suddenly becomes unstable and you can neither save your work nor go have a look at what's happening. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10 Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu4 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-26.42-generic 3.5.7.6 Uname: Linux 3.5.0-26-generic i686 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia .proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0' .proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: "" .proc.driver.nvidia.version: NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 304.43 Sun Aug 19 20:20:21 PDT 2012 GCC version: gcc version 4.7.2 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.2-2ubuntu1) .tmp.unity.support.test.0: ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10 Architecture: i386 CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,decor,vpswitch,mousepoll,compiztoolbox,snap,commands,place,resize,session,regex,grid,wall,move,gnomecompat,imgpng,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell] CompositorRunning: compiz Date: Sun Mar 31 21:41:20 2013 DistUpgraded: 2013-01-13 11:55:33,566 DEBUG enabling apt cron job DistroCodename: quantal DistroVariant: ubuntu ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical GraphicsCard: NVIDIA Corporation G84 [GeForce 9500M GS] [10de:0405] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:15d2] InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-06-23 (1012 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429) MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M51Sn MarkForUpload: True ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-26-generic root=UUID=173acbf5-26a0-49e3-8d2b-f1c142582cbf ro quiet splash SourcePackage: xorg UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2013-01-13 (77 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 12/24/2007 dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc. dmi.bios.version: 303 dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567 dmi.board.name: M51Sn dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. dmi.board.version: 1.0 dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567 dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. dmi.chassis.version: 1.0 dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr303:bd12/24/2007:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnM51Sn:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnM51Sn:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0: dmi.product.name: M51Sn dmi.product.version: 1.0 dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.8.6-0ubuntu1 version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.39-0ubuntu1 version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.1 version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.1 version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.1 version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu2 version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.99.99~git20120913.8637f772-0ubuntu1 version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.9-0ubuntu2 version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu3 ** Affects: xorg (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: apport-bug compiz-0.9 i386 quantal running-unity ubuntu -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X, which is subscribed to xorg in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1162568 Title: Whole system suddenly became ALMOST unresponsive, massive disk crunching, Ctrl+Alt+F1 finally fixed that To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1162568/+subscriptions _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat Post to : ubuntu-x-swat@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp