Announcement

**claydoh** · Jun 05, 2012, 10:09 PM

you may want to explain what a white screen of death is a bit more explicitly

as well as some basic system specs.

My suggestion for starters is to use the "proper" apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade to see if that pulls in some missing bits. Aptitude is sort of deprecated in Ubuntu, in that its packaging is geared more towards apt, while aptitude can be too smart, if that makes any sense. if nothing else it will ensure you are up to date barring any error messages.

**brm** · Jun 06, 2012, 07:58 AM

White screen of death

Thanks for replying so promptly.

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

you may want to explain what a white screen of death is a bit more explicitly

as well as some basic system specs.

I have suffered the "white screen of death" on several occasions over the roughly ten years that I have used KDE; I assumed that it was fairly well known. In this most recent occasion, I log in at the customary kdm login dialogue and the Debian (?) splash screen comes up: stars on a blue background with a rocket with a Debian-shaped contrail heading towards a planet with rings. From there, normally my four KDE workspaces come up, each with its own distinct wallpaper. As of Tuesday evening, June 5, a pure white screen comes up. Attempting to change workspaces (Ctrl1-4) has no apparent effect. No manipulation of keyboard or mouse produces anything. One of my TODOs, which I haven't got to for too many months, is to file a bug report that there is an Alt-F1 conflict which means that I cannot use a keyboard shortcut to bring up Kickoff (the launch menu). The only thing which works is Ctrl-Alt-F[1-6] which brings up the login console.

This machine was only a few months "behind the curve" when I bought it in December 2007 (which now puts it back into the Late Stone Age). It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB RAM and 3x500GB SATA disks. It is configured into 2 Linux distributions and one Windows 7 instance. The basic output of lspci is:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 02)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IB (ICH9) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801IB (ICH9) 2 port SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 port SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GS] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Attansic L1 Gigabit Ethernet (rev b0)
03:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6121 SATA II Controller (rev b2)

The NVIDIA video uses the current binary driver.

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

My suggestion for starters is to use the "proper" apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade to see if that pulls in some missing bits. Aptitude is sort of deprecated in Ubuntu, in that its packaging is geared more towards apt, while aptitude can be too smart, if that makes any sense. if nothing else it will ensure you are up to date barring any error messages.

Remember my comment that the last couple of years has led to a decrease in my Linux geekery. I continue to try to use aptitude. But I have run into the aptitude problem with conflicts between i386 and x64 versions on numerous occasions. I have read the basic explanations of the problems with aptitude and the efforts to resolve them. I make no claim to be an expert on the issue. When the aptitude conflicts occur, I typically update only those packages which do not trigger the conflict. When the problem is not resolved within a few days, I then fall back to apt-get to pull in the updates.

This morning, I have used apt-get dist-upgrade. The KDE problem is still there.

I hope that this greater detail provides some leads. I would like to be able to return to using KDE.

Bruce

**claydoh** · Jun 06, 2012, 12:27 PM

Hmm, is that Debian splash the stock splash? (ie are you using kubuntu? Not that that would stop us helping :-) )

Can you right click on the desktop and try selecting a desktop back ground?

What kde version are you using?

Which video driver? The stock open driver or the nvidia proprietary ones?

Sent from my phone

**brm** · Jun 06, 2012, 03:30 PM

White screen of death (ongoing)

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

Hmm, is that Debian splash the stock splash? (ie are you using kubuntu? Not that that would stop us helping :-) )

To the best of my knowledge, this is the stock splash. I am using plain vanilla Kubuntu 12.04 LTS precise. I have a couple of PPAs enabled and one respected Dutch site which pulls in genuine and up-to-date Sun / Oracle Java (which one application that I use requires). Otherwise, everything is as Canonical delivered it.

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

Can you right click on the desktop and try selecting a desktop back ground?

Nothing happens when I right-click on the desktop. Ctrl-Alt-Bksp (kill the Xorg session) does not work either. The mouse is useless. The only keystroke combination which works is Ctrl-Alt-[1-6] which at least gets me out to a login console. This has also been my experience with previous attacks of the white screen of death.

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

What kde version are you using?

Once again, plain vanilla Kubuntu 12.04 LTS precise. The current version is 4.4.8.3

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

Which video driver? The stock open driver or the nvidia proprietary ones?

As I mentioned in this morning's message, I am using the NVIDIA current proprietary driver. The current version is 295.40.

I am really puzzled by this sudden attack of the white screen of death. I have not touched system settings on this box in a week or two. The following are all the updated packages which have come in between June 2 and June 5 inclusive. I don's see how any of these could have precipitated the new attack of white screen:

./libdns81_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
./update-manager-core_1%3a0.156.14.5_amd64.deb
./update-manager-kde_1%3a0.156.14.5_all.deb
./libisccc80_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
./bind9-host_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
./dnsutils_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
./libisccfg82_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
./update-manager_1%3a0.156.14.5_all.deb
./libisc83_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
./libbind9-80_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
./liblwres80_1%3a9.8.1.dfsg.P1-4ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb

Thanks for your support so far. I will be happy to keep testing and reporting until we can get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, I can see why I have been avoiding Ubuntu. Among other things, it makes this normally responsive machine as slow as sap in a maple tree in January. Compiz crashed. Although it didn't crash the Google Chromium browser session with it, it prevented the browser session from repainting --- which is as bad as a crash.

Thanks again for the support.
Bruce

**claydoh** · Jun 06, 2012, 09:04 PM

Was unsure as there is definitely not a debian symbol or a rocket in a Kubuntu splash screen

I can't offer much as I am guessing it to be an nvidia thing, which puts me out of my depth atm

**brm** · Jun 07, 2012, 07:49 AM

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

I can't offer much as I am guessing it to be an nvidia thing, which puts me out of my depth atm

I was also wondering if this is an nvidia thing. But what continues to puzzle me is why this should strike out of the blue (so to speak :-) ) when none of the recent updates would appear to have affected the display systems

**brm** · Jun 08, 2012, 08:51 AM

I could no see reason why this problem should be related to the proprietary nvidia driver, but since it is a binary blob, I decided to remove it anyway. I could not find graphical tools to do so but, since I am generally more comfortable at a command-line anyway (I started out with micro-computers in 1982 on an Osborne 1A with CP/M 2.2), I used command line tools to disable the proprietary driver and enable the nouveau driver in its place. I then restarted the machine, as double insurance that only the new drivers were loaded.

The white screen of death problems remains, with no change in the symptoms.

The following extract from lsmod (run as root) suggests success in changing video drivers:

nouveau 774571 2
ttm 76949 1 nouveau
drm_kms_helper 46978 1 nouveau
drm 242038 4 nouveau,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 13423 1 nouveau
mxm_wmi 12979 1 nouveau
video 19596 1 nouveau

Similarly, the follow extract from lspci -vv, also run as root, also suggests successful elimination of the proprietary driver and replacement by the free driver:

bruce@Xenophon:~$ cat x-lspcivv.txt
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GS] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8231
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Region 1: Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Region 3: Memory at fc000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Region 5: I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at fe9e0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
Capabilities: [78] Express (v1) Endpoint, MSI 00
DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <256ns, L1 <4us
ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE- FLReset-
DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr+ FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr- TransPend-
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <256ns, L1 <4us
ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 128 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
Capabilities: [100 v1] Virtual Channel
Caps: LPEVC=0 RefClk=100ns PATEntryBits=1
Arb: Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128-
Ctrl: ArbSelect=Fixed
Status: InProgress-
VC0: Caps: PATOffset=00 MaxTimeSlots=1 RejSnoopTrans-
Arb: Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128- TWRR128- WRR256-
Ctrl: Enable+ ID=0 ArbSelect=Fixed TC/VC=01
Status: NegoPending- InProgress-
Capabilities: [128 v1] Power Budgeting <?>
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb
bruce@Xenophon:~$

I would welcome any further suggestions for testing in order to trace this problem.

Bruce

**Teunis** · Jun 10, 2012, 09:59 AM

You sure have an odd 'Plain Vanilla' install, your boot screen is nothing like what you get from Kubuntu 12.04, is this a multi-boot system?
When running a standard install the update manager would, just like the package manager, be Muon based and pop up all by itself.

I'm surprised the problem persists when on the nouveau driver, some update or install has not been completed.
Remember the nVidia drivers are installed as a Module and the system needs to be told something has changed.
What does 'lsmod' tell you, nVidia has really been removed?
In the (Classical) menu you should under System find an application to install Extra Drivers, when it's run it'll give you the option to install or remove the nVidia driver.
On the CLI it can be started with the command 'jockey-kde', when really happy with the CLI you can even run a version called 'jockey-text'.
Because it takes care of any dependencies and it'll get the latest drivers it's usually the best method.

On the Ubuntuforums I've read several reports of issues with running nVidia ver. 295.40 on older hardware and the solution was to revert to ver. 295.33 until nVidia has addressed the regression.
So going over to the x-swat ppa might be another way of getting your video to work.

**verndog** · Jun 10, 2012, 10:15 AM

Originally posted by brm View Post

I have suffered the "white screen of death" on several occasions over the roughly ten years

...

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GS] (rev a1)

...

Since you mention the "white screen of death" and 10 years ago. The only time I ever had the same issue, is with an old Compaq Presario 1500 486 laptop with ATI video graphics. I have to use "radeon.modeset=0" somewhere along the linux line. Otherwise I get the white screen. I still use that laptop today, and will still get the white screen unless I insert the fix.

Since you have nvidia video, I don't have an answer. But you might look into nomodeset or some other arguments.

**dibl** · Jun 10, 2012, 03:51 PM

Originally posted by brm View Post

Debian (?) splash screen comes up: stars on a blue background with a rocket with a Debian-shaped contrail heading towards a planet with rings.

Yeah, it's Debian all right -- that's the Debian "stable" aka Debian 6 aka "squeeze" KDE desktop default background. I recognize it because that's what my wife uses.

It's not Kubuntu.

However, the package names that you quote in your later post are indeed *buntu packages. Which raises about 127 questions in my mind ....

Could you please post the output of

Code:

uname -a

so we can be sure what we're dealing with here.

**Snowhog** · Jun 10, 2012, 04:13 PM

Hmm. Debuntu? Kubian?

**dibl** · Jun 11, 2012, 10:10 AM

Dekubian, maybe. ;-)

Meanwhile, since it's possible to get a wallpaper image from Debian and use it on your Kubuntu system, on the chance that it really is Kubuntu, here's a relevant thread on Ubuntu forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1866119

Looks like it is a known phenomenon on older Nvidia cards using new driver versions. Probably the OP needs to look into the packaged legacy drivers.

**brm** · Aug 02, 2012, 01:01 PM

I am the OP of this thread. I somehow missed that there were new messages and did not check back for some time.

Here is the output of "uname -a" and of "lsb_release -a":

Code:

Linux Xenophon 3.2.0-27-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 6 14:25:57 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release:	12.04
Codename:	precise

Here is recent output from /var/log/syslog:

Code:

bruce@Xenophon:~$ cat x-syslog-20120801 
Aug  1 17:18:57 Xenophon anacron[1194]: Job `cron.daily' terminated
Aug  1 17:18:57 Xenophon anacron[1194]: Job `cron.weekly' started
Aug  1 17:18:57 Xenophon anacron[8499]: Updated timestamp for job `cron.weekly' to 2012-08-01
Aug  1 17:20:04 Xenophon anacron[1194]: Job `cron.weekly' terminated
Aug  1 17:20:04 Xenophon anacron[1194]: Normal exit (2 jobs run)
Aug  1 17:23:22 Xenophon kernel: [ 1864.841773] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 0 on vga encoder (output 0)
Aug  1 17:29:13 Xenophon spideroak_inotify[2196]: cookie 9616 from IN_MOVED_FROM absent 9606 /home/bruce/Documents bmk-Pankhust-2012.txt
Aug  1 17:29:54 Xenophon acpid: client 1225[0:0] has disconnected
Aug  1 17:29:54 Xenophon acpid: client connected from 8639[0:0]
Aug  1 17:29:54 Xenophon acpid: 1 client rule loaded
Aug  1 17:29:55 Xenophon spideroak_inotify[2196]: Parent process gone: stopping
Aug  1 17:29:55 Xenophon spideroak_inotify[2196]: Program terminates normally
Aug  1 17:29:55 Xenophon kdm_greet[8642]: Cannot load /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/faces/.default.face: No such file or directory
Aug  1 17:30:28 Xenophon spideroak_inotify[8921]: Program started
bruce@Xenophon:~$

Here is recent output from /var/log/kdm.log

Code:

bruce@Xenophon:~$ cat x-kdm-log-20120801 
 ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log
Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

X.Org X Server 1.11.3
Release Date: 2011-12-16
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.42-26-generic x86_64 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux Xenophon 3.2.0-27-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 6 14:25:57 UTC 2012 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.2.0-27-generic root=UUID=2dbf5ede-3f3e-414a-a410-0a07000ab337 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
Build Date: 16 July 2012  08:06:31PM
xorg-server 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu10.6 (For technical support please see http://www.ubuntu.com/support) 
Current version of pixman: 0.24.4
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Aug  1 17:29:54 2012
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
resize called 1920 1200
klauncher(8650) kdemain: No DBUS session-bus found. Check if you have started the DBUS server. 
kdeinit4: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!
kdmgreet(8642)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): KSystemTimeZones: ktimezoned initialize() D-Bus call failed:  "Not connected to D-Bus server" 

kdmgreet(8642)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): No time zone information obtained from ktimezoned 
QInotifyFileSystemWatcherEngine::addPaths: inotify_add_watch failed: No such file or directory
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /tmp/1879731483/.config/ibus/bus
bruce@Xenophon:~$

If anyone can help me to interpret these two log entries, I suspect it might provide the clue to the cause of my ongoing problems with the white screen of death.

**eddieg538** · Aug 02, 2012, 10:46 PM

I have a nvidia card and when I get the white screen sometimes; when in a tty screen I have to rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf to get into kubuntu. Nvidia drivers install this and reverting back to nouveau drivers don't automatically uninstall it. With the xorg.conf file there, kubuntu is looking for nvidia driver.

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White screen of death has returned

White screen of death has returned

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