Input freezing and/or crashing

[azwli]

I recently fresh installed kubuntu 14.04 on my pavilion AMD64 with new 1TB HDD. I am using the stock PS2 keyboard and a logitec wireless USB mouse.

At random times the input devices become unresponsive requiring me to REISUB. It happens sometimes after several hours of work and sometimes after just 30 minutes. Sometimes the input freezes and after a couple seconds the screen goes black and it goes to the login screen as if it just rebooted. Sometimes it just stays frozen. Sometimes (rarely)it just goes directly to the login screen without freezing. Sometimes the keyboard remains active long enough for me to test if it is working like hitting the caps lock and seeing the light come on.

It seems to do it when I am using the mouse, but not always, I have found it gone to the login screen when I have left it unattended for a while.

This has been going on for a few weeks now and I have not found any solutions from online searches.

I honestly don't know if it is an input driver crash, a KDE crash, or something else. The last couple times it happened, the freeze happened in short stages. first clicking became unresponsive, then the cursor froze, then after a few tries where it worked, the Num Lock stopped responding.\

I have run memory tests and there are no errors. I have tried using a PS2 mouse and had it freeze up.

If there is anyone out there that can point me in the right direction or help me troubleshoot, I would be grateful. It is really becoming a problem.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Am I correct in assuming that prior to the fresh install of 14.04 these issues were not happening? If that's correct, what version was running on this computer before the fresh install? And was this new hard drive not previously used in this computer?

[azwli]

You are correct, it was not happening on the previous version. I believe the version I was using before was 12.04. The HDD is new. I had to completely re-install because I had not created a large enough root partition to upgrade to. Now there is plenty of room in the root partition.

[azwli]

It happened again, and this time it was definitely in stages. things started to get flaky, like when I opened the save dialogue in GIMP with my Wacom tablet pen, none of fields would work. I had to close and re-open it with the mouse. This went on for 5 minutes, then the cursor froze, then the keyboard became unresponsive, then the music that Amarok was playing stopped. It certainly seems like system thing and not just input devices. I have been lucky so far and have been able to have work saved and not lost a critical piece in a crash. it is just a mater of time though. Can someone please give me some place to look for help?

[Teunis]

Have you looked at RAM and CPU usage during these shut downs?
It is known that on some computers baloo or akonadie might cause runaway processes and memory use causing everything else to slow down.

[azwli]

The RAM does seem to get high and goes into swap sometimes. I have actually been looking at the System Activity window during a crash and didn't see a CPU issue. I have 4gigs of ram and can't add more to this machine. It is generally Chrome and Firefox that use up the most, and I generally use them at the same time for different tasks. I don't know what baloo or akonadie are. how do I check on them?

[GreyGeek]

You might also check your CPU temperatures. Also, if you have a can of air, blow it into your vents to clear any dust off of the CPU cooling fins and fans.

[Teunis]

My laptop has 8 GB of RAM and even while editing very large photos it never uses over 3 or 4 GB of it, normally it's below 2.
Except when Akonadi decides to run amok, then it easily fills up all and starts eating into the swap what causes serious lag.

Baloo is suposedly better but once a week or so I see similar behaviour, killing the process fixes the slowdown near instantaneously.

[SteveRiley]

Oh no... is someting like Launchpad bug 993187 (a number burned into my brain) coming back? I ask because I'm having similar problems involving USB peripherals. In my case, I can reliably crash my machine -- total hard lock -- when using my USB headset with my VoIP application. I can start a call, and then somewhere between 10 seconds and 10 minutes in, the computer completely freezes. I can't even REISUB. I've tried a number of different kernels between 3.13 and 3.16, I've tried disabling USB power management, nothing helps. It's really frustrating.

[Teunis]

Is Alt+Tab still working?

I ask because you report the freezing of input devices like your mouse and Wacom tablet but I wonder if this isn't the total freezing of the system.
Once RAM is full and the swap is getting used you can expect significant slow downs.

As a PS, with the old install you should have been able to expand the root partition using a live CD or USB.

[SteveRiley]

In my case, the entire system freezes. The call drops, the second hand on the clock stops ticking, and input devices are non-responsive. I can't even find anything in any error logs.

[azwli]

I am actually leaning towards the whole system is freezing. I am pretty sure alt+tab does not work. I will try it next time, but I have tried ctrl+f1, ctrl+esc, ctrl+alt+esc, nothing works. It is not just slowing down though. it is frozen until I either alt+sysrq+REISUB or I cold boot with the power switch. What is strange is that my usage patterns have not changed and I was not over running memory before the upgrade.

I don't feel like going into the details, but re-sizing the root partition wasn't an option. The HDD was failing and I had to start with a new drive. I was unable to clone the drive because of errors on the drive.

[azwli]

I have had two crashes today and neither one froze. It just goes black screen then brings up the login window. I was watching the ram, CPU and temp read outs and nothing was too high at the time.

[Teunis]

Seems to me the two problems are not necessarily connected, Steve's problem point towards a system or kernel stall, azwli can still use the Magic Keys so it's sooner in userland and/or bad RAM.

azwli, with 8GB I assume you have two sticks of RAM, it would be worth taking one out and checking if the problem reoccurs.
In case of recurrence with stick one you'll also have to check with number two.

Or start with an (overnight) check of RAM via the GRUB menu.

[SteveRiley]

Agree that the problems are unrelated. But I feel that if I file a bug, it won't go anywhere. Look at all the chatter on 993187...it was never fully resolved.