[fglrx]Computer freeze when switching user

Can you reproduce the freeze?
Do you have compiz enable? If yes, can you reproduce it without compiz?
Can you look into kern.log to see if there is some important information such as segfaut.

I mark this report until we have more information.

I am having this issue with compis enabled as well as with compiz disabled.

In my kern.log, there's absolutely nothing about the freeze.

I have ATI Radeon HD2400 PRO AGP, with fglrx (8.54.3) drivers installed.

Now, with Intrepid final, I am sure that this happens only with fglrx drivers installed.
Without them, I could normally switch user.

I can confirm this bug on Intrepid final. I have a Radeon HD3400 with the Intrepid fglrx drivers installed. When changing to guest session, screen goes black and system hangs. Happens with or without Compiz enabled.

Hmm. I am having same bug, and also some confusion:

1. I am running fglrx on Intrepid release 8.10 on an amd64 SMP box.

2. Switching to "guest" or "guest session" produces the black screen and system hang/crash
    described by Harm Jans.

3. I do not see how to switch users any more - shouldn't there be a "switch users"
    line down around the restart/shutdown/hiberate/suspend/logout" lines?

4. I am not running compiz, but am running dual-head monitors.

5. The failure is 100% reproducible.

I don't think, this bug is a duplicate of bug #266911.
It does nothing with the fglrx issue and the fix, described in the bug #266911 didn't work for me.

I would also notice, that if I move mouse immediately after clicking to "guest session" (before the system halt), I get back to the previous login - in my case, I have to login the same way as after I abort screensaver (I have automatic screen locking set)

unmarking as duplicate of bug #266911 as this particularly is about an issue with fglrx driver

I disabled the "third-party and proprietary hardware drivers" (System/Administration/Hardware Drivers), but
the system still crashes on. I think the "guest session" is not relevant, inasmuch as the system
crashes instantly if I attempt to "switch users", too.

Please let me know if I can be any use in fault isolation here.

Same here: amd64 HP EliteBook 6930p with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400.

This problem comes from FLGRX proprietary driver from AMD/ATI. Please complain to them about this issue...
There's no such thing with opensource driver radeonhd (though there are other issues ...)
According to this post : http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13671&highlight=switch+user
[...]
However, this issue has been mentioned repeatedly over the last 6 months (at least), and the ATI devs response was along the lines of "switch user? who uses that?", so don't hold your breath waiting for a fix because they don't really seem to care.
[...]

I can confirm this bug in a fully updated Ubuntu 8.04 system. I am running 64-bit Intel Q6600 and a Radeon HD4670.
It happens on both the latest fglrx 8.12 driver and the radeonhd driver. I am beginning to think this may not be a ATI Radeon issue. Can someone test this with the 'radeon' driver in 8.04?

I should add that I tried on the latest radeonhd driver fetched from GIT on 12/23/08, and still experience this bug!

Please ignore my last two comments. I realized that radeonhd was not enabled after all. After enabling the 'radeonhd' driver, the problem went away. So the problem is truly with the fglrx driver. Sorry for the confusion.

I'm having troubles with the same bug i think.

I was trying this command:
xinit xterm -- :1 vt8

Shouldn't this simply open an xterm applet (without window manager) on display 1, virtual terminal 8 ?

It just makes my screen go black and my keyboard unresponsive :-(

Is this related ?

abatcher: Yes, it is probably related to this bug, if you use the fglrx driver. On my machine, the issue is reproducable as well.

 - me too - (with an Ati Radeon HD 2400 pro)

I'm affected by this Problem since last Summers Intrepid Update. (switched from x86 to AMD64)
First with Catalyst 8.10 prerelease then Catalyst 8.10 stable.

I tested 8.12 (stable), 9.1 beta and 9.2 ces09-preview. To no avail (except: 9.2 has additional problems, but its not even beta so its ok)

Like Anakin Starkiller wrote, presumably this won't get fixed in the near future :-(
(but using xvideo output with compiz is fine now :-) (Nevertheless I would prefere a working second X server))

I even switched from a 2-head configuration to one single Monitor. No luck.

(btw: I'm using this feature not only to switch users. Very often I just start a game at another X Server to be able to switch between the full screen game and the rest of my desktop without closing the game. Thats also impossible for now. Like abacher wrote, it's not even possible to start a second X screen from a text tty. (btw gaming... thats the reason I prefere fglrx for now...))

I am using an AMD64, dual-head, with fglrx. It dies on switch users, of course.

From what hede says, dual-head is not the problem, and it just seems to
be fglrx itself. [I do not understand the implications of abatcher's

        xinit xterm -- :1 vt8

comment in this regard.

Perhaps we can convince the MyLightWorksFine people at AMD that there are virtues to
having multiple users signed on at once. It doesn't look like we'll get it fixed, otherwise.

1. I use multiple users for security reasons - I have development accounts that have access
    to source code, and I try to keep those accounts distinct from my generic email/web account, etc.
    Part of this has to do with keeping my data out of client areas, and vice versa. It's not
    security in the secrecy sense, but in the safety of different accounts when my fumblefingers err,
    just as we avoid running as root.

2. Hede uses multiple users to get full-screen access and access to normal desktop without
    logging in/out. Very convenient.

I would appreciate it if the AMD people responsible for fglrx can give us some statement as
to why these are not virtuous activities. If they cannot do so, then can they please give us
some estimate of a repair date for their broken software?

As far as I understand, fast-user-switch uses startx/xinit in the background to start a new X session on another display ? Or is this wrong and my comment irrelevant ?

If I'm on the right track it means the problem is not only with fast-user-switching, but with the underlying command xinit ?

If this is a fglrx problem, other distro's should experience the same thing. Searching in the fedora forums, all I could find was a small thread: http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1148421 But they are talking about compiz being the problem. This is not related, because we have the problem too with compiz disabled ?

I wont call it "broken". It's more like a car not having a trailer hitch.

If you really need it, you can have it by either buy a new car (nvidia) or add one to your car (you cannot do this with a ferrari i.e. you'll lose 3D with high-end-cards using xorgs radeon or radeonhd driver).

And at least most people simply don't need it...

Funny analogy. I feel it's more like having a trailer hitch (the command is available), but using it breaks your car (computer freezes).

If there is really no fix (in the near future), maybe the fast-user-switch should be disabled when fglrx is enabled ?

I am running w/compiz disabled, as far as I can tell.

This is a duplicate of Bug#325133, which includes all the necessary information generated by the ubuntu-bug command line tool.

I have 2 user on the system, if I have Visual effects on I don't see the bug.
But if I have visual Effects set to normal I get a white screen when switching between users.
I'm using ubuntu jaunty 9.04 latest updates with nvidia drivers 180.35 that come with jaunty.

I have 2 user on the system, if I have Visual effects off I don't see the bug.

But if I have visual Effects set to normal, I get a white screen when switching between users.
I'm using ubuntu jaunty 9.04 latest updates with nvidia drivers 180.35 that come with jaunty.

This is about ati/fglrx, not nvidia.

Lafa - you just need to enable "Unredirect fullscreen windows" in ccsm and your problem will go away.

Same here, when i choose "Guest session" the screen goes black and computer is not responding.

Computer: HP elitebook 8530p
Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Thu Jan 29 19:24:39 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
VGA: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3650
Driver: fglrx
Compiz: Disabled

As said earlier the system also hangs after
xinit xterm -- :1 vt8

ctrl+alt+F8 works OK.

If I disable proprietary driver it all works fine.
Come on AMD! Where are your GNU/Linux support?

Bug still presents in ubuntu 9.04 with ati-9.4 drivers
With open drivers fast user switching works fine.

My card is HD2600 PRO

Bug stills present in Jaunty with both Proprietary and lastest driver from ATI. When I removed ATI driver this function works fine.

I'm using 2600XT.

I can confirm this bug with ATI HD 2400 PRO and K/Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

I can confirm it as well and I find it as very important for me. We share this PC home and we all are often login and just switch users. I would appreciate any other solution than turning back to windows. If this the aim of ATI, they will probably succeed until I will buy new PC with NVIDIA :-)
I have HD 2600 XT with 9.04 Jaunty amd64 and this problem is with latest ATI drivers as well as with the fglrx driver offered by Ubuntu.
If I could be helpful with this bug, I will.

I too have an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro and suffer this problem both on Linux Mint 5 (Hardy-based) and 7 (Jaunty-based). This bug is an absolute killer for me because the rest of my family uses my computer too, and trying to tell them not to use switch user when my account is locked because it will break the system is most likely a nonstarter! Using an open-source driver does fix the problem, but removes 3D support which is marginally more important to me then switch-user support. But why are we forced to choose? Is it too much to ask for ATI to give us drivers that let us use ALL the functions of our operating systems? Come on, sort out fglrx! This should definitely be a high-priority bug, as it's ruinous for anyone who uses switch-user, and unfortunately the open source equivalent doesn't yet utilise the full potential of the card (though I live in hope).

The fact that you can crash your computer with 2 mouse clicks alone should make this a high-priorty bug.

Similar problem when using ATI driver, version 9.5 and Radeon 2600HD. Compiz is enabled.

$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV630 [Radeon HD 2600XT]

Computer blanks out the screen and freezes. I cannot connect via SSH even.

On a related note, can anyone recommend a good nvidia card for Linux with full 3D support? :-)

I've posted a new version of the -fglrx driver to our xorg-edgers PPA,
would you mind testing it either on Jaunty or Karmic and see if it
resolves this bug?

Get fglrx 8.620 here:

  https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

Thank you for bringing this bug to our attention. Unfortunately a paper cut should be a small usability issue that affects many people and is quick and easy to fix. I'm afraid this bug can't be addressed as part of this project.

This is a hardware specific issue, Not a papercut

A paper cut is a minor usability annoyance that an average user would encounter on his/her first day of using a new installation of Ubuntu 9.10.

For further info about papercuts criteria , pls read > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut

Don't worry though, This bug has been marked as "invalid" ONLY in the papercuts project.

For resolution of the bug, kindly identify the projects affected and assign the bug to that project, otherwise the devs of the concerned project might not be notified of this problem.

Bryce:

I can try the new driver over the weekend, but I'm running intrepid. (I'm not intrepid
enough to upgrade until I get some major development work out the door).

If you think that will be (a) of use to you and (b) work, I'll try it.
Please let me know.

Bryce Harrington píše v Pá 26. 06. 2009 v 03:46 +0000:
> I've posted a new version of the -fglrx driver to our xorg-edgers PPA,
> would you mind testing it either on Jaunty or Karmic and see if it
> resolves this bug?
>
> Get fglrx 8.620 here:
>
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa
>
>
> ** Changed in: fglrx-installer (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => New
>
> ** Changed in: fglrx-installer (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>

I have Jaunty and eventually I can test the new driver you posted.
However, I am already running the 8.620 fglrx driver from AMD website
with no change regarding to this bug.

--
Lukáš Chmela <email address hidden>
IRC: <email address hidden>, ICQ: 202077459
514D 3C69 8498 E400 0ACE 90F2 00E3 CACA A5BA ECC7

Maybe i can test it with Kubuntu Jaunty 9.04
Just need to know how to let this bug occur/happen with KDE...

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Simon Hill píše v St 26. 05. 2010 v 22:28 +0000:
> Hi,
> This problem is happening for me on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
> I have the black screen when switching between users.
> The problem doesn't happen immediately, but only after a few switches.
> Interesting it only started happening when I upgraded from Hardy to Lucid (and I haven't changed my graphics card between upgrades).
> I have NVIDIA Accelerated graphics card (version 173)
> If you require further information, please don't hesitate to ask (you may need to give instructions as to how to obtain this info as I'm a relative newbie)
>
> Simon.
>
> ** Changed in: fglrx-installer (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => Confirmed
>

Hi Simon,
This bug describes a problem with fglrx drivers which are proprietary
amd drivers. It is not related to nvidia, so you should create a new bug
report.

Bryce,
This bug has been partially solved in lucid. It now doesn't make the pc
to stop responding, it logs in correctly, but the screen is corrupted a
bit (in right bottom corner and cursor as well). I'll post here a photo
of that, it's not capturable by the PrintScreen button.

Anyway, I will do apport-collect, if it may help in any way..

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For anyone who has nvidia graphics card as is affected by this bug, please report it here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-173/+bug/587069

I get exactly the same bug as Lukas described, starting a second session works, but the cursor and a block of the lower right corner of the screen is corrupted.
This is on Kubuntu 10.04 with the fglrx driver from the repositories, my card is (as listed in lspci) an "ATI Technologies Inc RV730 Pro AGP [Radeon HD 4600 Series]"

@ Heru Herdianto :

Please, don't play with the form options. Thanks in advance.