#662639 gnome-shell: frequent lockups on hardware accelerated actions

Package:
gnome-shell
Source:
gnome-shell
Description:
graphical shell for the GNOME desktop
Submitter:
Lennert Van Alboom
Date:
2025-04-21 18:21:02 UTC
Severity:
important
#662639#5
Date:
2012-03-05 13:17:28 UTC
From:
To:
Gnome-shell regularly locks up on me. Symptoms:

- Clock freezes
- Mouse pointer still works, but no click/drag/... actions are being handled
- The only keystrokes that are still working are the "bare" X keys such as
ctrl-alt-Fx

This usually happens when performing an action that is "visibly" hardware
accelerated, such as switching windows (alt-tab) or desktops (ctrl-alt-arrow).

Going into console and doing a kill -HUP on the gnome-shell process *usually*
resolves it for a while without obvious breakage (all apps continue to run).
Sometimes however the gnome-power-manager icon will be broken, and power state
changes will no longer be visible nor will be acted upon. Another kill -HUP
will make this icon simply disappear from the icon area.

This buggy behaviour has been around ever since I started using gnome 3 on
debian, and still exists after several rounds of (software and hardware)
upgrades.

I've seen this behaviour on both my earlier and current laptops: HP Compaq
6530b and ProBook 6460b. Graphics are both integrated Intel gfx (i915).
#662639#10
Date:
2012-03-09 07:19:40 UTC
From:
To:
Confirmed that it still happens after updating to gnome-shell 3.2.2.1-1.
#662639#15
Date:
2012-04-17 06:21:17 UTC
From:
To:
Confirmed with gnome-shell 3.2.2.1-3.
#662639#20
Date:
2012-04-21 21:07:41 UTC
From:
To:
The freeze sometime happens when I unplug the AC connector or I reconnect it.Very often it appens when I start "GNOME Onscreen Keyboard".
No logs in .xsession-errors about the freeze.
The only way is to restart gdm3 service in tty.
Regards.
#662639#25
Date:
2012-05-08 13:13:30 UTC
From:
To:
... and confirmed yet again, in gnome-shell 3.2.2.1-4.


Matteo: if it happens, try ctrl-alt-F1, log in to shell, and try:

$ killall -HUP gnome-shell

Check back with alt-F7 if it's come back. In 50% of the cases it will. If it
doesn't, go back to console (ctrl-alt-F1) and run:

$ killall gnome-shell
$ DISPLAY=:0.0 gnome-shell &

Then get back to your display (alt-F7) and save your work so you can log out
properly... because once you start gnome-shell by hand, it becomes unbearably
unstable (personal record: 7 freezes in under 10 minutes).


Lennert
#662639#30
Date:
2012-05-09 11:26:40 UTC
From:
To:
And confirmed once more with 3.2.2.1-4+b1.

I really hope a version of gnome-shell newer than 3.2.2 will hit debian
soonish - this is incredibly frustrating.
#662639#35
Date:
2012-06-13 15:12:30 UTC
From:
To:
Confirmed with gnome-shell 3.4.1-5.

This version does seem a lot less unstable; first time I have the problem again in two weeks.
#662639#40
Date:
2012-07-11 18:13:08 UTC
From:
To:
Confirmed with 3.4.1-6. Sigh.
#662639#45
Date:
2012-08-20 09:26:49 UTC
From:
To:
Confirmed with 3.4.2-1.
#662639#50
Date:
2012-10-11 10:59:52 UTC
From:
To:
Confirmed with 3.4.2-2.
#662639#55
Date:
2013-01-26 21:50:13 UTC
From:
To:
Same problem here with 3.6.2-2 from experimental.

Most often when plug AC connector in.

Regards,
#662639#60
Date:
2013-05-23 09:26:21 UTC
From:
To:
Looks like I am getting this under 3.4.1-7

Sometimes I can switch to another virtual console with ctrl-alt-Fx, login via ssh always works.

Killing gnome-shell rarely works.

After "kill -9" ps lists the process as <defunct>, but gnome-shell does not come back.

When I reboot/shutdown via ssh the screen stays frozen until the shutdown is complete.

I found a way to trigger the crash:
Create a document in LibreOffice writer, hit return to create a few (4+) pages and use the scrollwheel for a few seconds.
#662639#65
Date:
2014-03-14 21:57:03 UTC
From:
To:
Hey,

Could you please still reproduce this issue with newer gnome-shell version
like 3.4.2-7+deb7u1 or 3.8.4-5+b1 ?

thanks
regards
althaser
#662639#70
Date:
2014-03-14 23:24:30 UTC
From:
To:
Hey,

sorry, but I'm not using gnome-shell any more so can't test if new
version is OK.

Hope others can help.
#662639#75
Date:
2014-03-15 08:14:03 UTC
From:
To:
I switched to gnome shell (3.8.4-5+b1) for a few minutes and tried to
trigger the bug.

Seems to be gone.

For now I will continue to use xfce.
#662639#82
Date:
2025-04-21 18:17:01 UTC
From:
To:
There have been many changes to Debian since this bug was originally
reported. If you are still experiencing this issue with Debian 12 (or
with Testing or Unstable), please report a new bug.

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha