8.04 still locks up

[Nils Kassube]

elmo wrote:
> I thought that I finally had a UBUNTU 8.04 that doesn't freeze and
> lockup but no, after downloads from different sources, the same old
> problem ...it works fine for a up to half hour or so then suddenly, the
> cursor locks and there's nothing I do can free it other than turn the
> computer off and back on and start over.
>
> I've tried trial and error combinations of keypresses to loosen up the
> cursor....no effect.

First shortcut to try is Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart the X server. Then 
try Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get a terminal. That way you can find out if your 
machine is completely locked or if only your X session is broken. When 
you restart the machine, have a look at the logs. Maybe there is some 
clue. In /var/log/messages search for the date and time when the problem 
happened and in /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old the last lines are a good 
candidate for an indication of your problem.

Are you using desktop effects? Check if the problem persists if you 
disable desktop effects. Sorry, can't tell you how because I don't use it 
myself.

What graphics hardware do you have? Are you using a proprietary graphics 
driver (ATI / Nvidia)?

> I restart 8.04 and try repeating what I was doing when the freeze
> occurred but it doesn't freeze again but it freezes when I'm doing
> something completely different.  There's no consistency to the
> occurrence of the freeze.

When the freeze happens, do you have a page with flash opened with your 
browser?

> Does anybody have 8.04 that doesn't freeze?  What's the secret?

Sure. I know about 15 computers with various hardware combinations (except 
there is none with ATI graphics) running 8.04 but I don't know any 
machine that freezes. Considering the low number of reports of freezes on 
this list I would assume there are _many_ machines working with 8.04 
without a problem like yours.


Nils