“Freeze anywhere, anytime!”
“Now, my laptop freezes almost anywhere – in cafes, bars, offices and even in toilets! Astonishing!” (happy Ubuntu user)
“I thought it was a joke, in the first place, but now I know, that it is possible all thanks to Ubuntu!” (another happy Ubuntu user)
“My server up-times have decreased 96% since I started using Ubuntu Dapper Drake with Random Freeze technology!” (system administrator)
“I think, that Random Freeze is the feature, that could bring a lot of new people into the Linux world.” (Linux sales manager)
(In case no-one noticed – this post is full of sarcasm and that’s because of the fact that I’m sick of random freezes in Ubuntu. I really love this distro and I use it every day, but facts are facts.)
Ok, since a lot of people come here searching for solutions, I will post mine. This solution is based on my own experience and I hope that it’ll help some angry souls. The only thing you have to do is edit your xorg.conf file. The problem origin is in ATI proprietary drivers (fglrx) and if you don’t use them then this solution is NOT for you.
Now, open up your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as root and find your video card configuration section (btw, I hope you’ve backed up your xorg.conf ;)) and replace that section with the following text (ATTENTION! Make sure that you don’t change the ‘Identifier’ line – leave it as it was before! Otherwise X won’t start!):
Section “Device”
#Leave the Identifier unchanged!
Identifier “aticonfig-Device[0]”
Driver “fglrx”
VendorName “All”
BoardName “All”
Option “VBERestore” “on”
Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “true”
Option “locked-userpages=0”
Option “no_accel” “no”
Option “no_dri” “no”
Option “DynamicClocks” “on”
Option “mtrr” “on”
Option “DesktopSetup” “Single”
Option “ScreenOverlap” “0”
Option “Capabilities” “0x00000000”
Option “CapabilitiesEx” “0x00000000”
Option “VideoOverlay” “on”
Option “OpenGLOverlay” “off”
Option “CenterMode” “off”
Option “PseudoColorVisuals” “off”
Option “Stereo” “off”
Option “StereoSyncEnable” “1”
Option “FSAAEnable” “no”
Option “FSAAScale” “1”
Option “FSAADisableGamma” “no”
Option “FSAACustomizeMSPos” “no”
Option “FSAAMSPosX0” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosY0” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosX1” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosY1” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosX2” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosY2” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosX3” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosY3” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosX4” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosY4” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosX5” “0.000000”
Option “FSAAMSPosY5” “0.000000”
Option “UseFastTLS” “0”
Option “BlockSignalsOnLock” “on”
Option “UseInternalAGPGART” “no”
Option “ForceGenericCPU” “no”
Option “KernelModuleParm” “agplock=0”
Option “PowerState” “1”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0”
EndSection
Now restart your computer (orjust xorg) and the freezes should go away.