1

I am attempting a fresh install of Ubuntu. I've gone through the install process several times. I experience crashes after booting into the new system, or sometimes before finishing installation.

The crash: Video freezes completely, without warning. Mouse cursor will move. Ctrl+Alt+Bksp does nothing. I cannot Ctrl+Alt+F2 into tty2. I can Alt+SysRq+REISUB and reboot the computer. Crashes seem semi-random, but they will occasionally appear while installing Ubuntu, while using Gparted, or while switching themes.

The troubleshooting: This computer runs Windows 8 with absolutely no problems, including 3D gaming. I ran memtest86 through 5 passes with no errors. I tried installing Ubuntu 16.04 and 14.04. I tried limiting max_cstate to 1 in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX. I tried installing to a different hard drive, with all other hard drives physically unplugged. I tried installing all available software updates immediately after booting into the new system. I tried updating the Linux kernel to 4.8.12, even beyond what is available in an Ubuntu release. The crash occurs regardless of whether I am using the nVidia video driver or open-source driver.

The only thing I see in /var/log/syslog is repeated resetting of some USB devices, sometimes rapidly. http://paste.ubuntu.com/23596804/

My hardware: Motherboard AsRock 970DE3/U3S3, CPU AMD 4 GHz FX-8350 8-core, RAM 2x4GB G.Skill F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR at 1600MHz, GPU EVGA GeForce GTX 550Ti

I am absolutely at my wit's end here. What else can I check?

5
  • Have you reviewed the /var/log/syslog or /var/log/syslog.1 around the time of the crash/hang? It should give you a clue if you can find out what was going on just before.
    – heynnema
    Dec 6, 2016 at 17:02
  • I did look through /var/log/syslog and I didn't see anything that even seemed to indicate a problem. I can crash it again and post an excerpt. Dec 6, 2016 at 17:50
  • Sure. Paste it to paste.ubuntu.com and give us the link. Please include log prior to the crash/hang/etc, and all the way to the beginning of the reboot. Question... do you have a very current Intel processor? Skylake?
    – heynnema
    Dec 6, 2016 at 17:57
  • @heynnema Processor is an AMD FX-8350 4GHz 8-core, which I've been running since Jan 2013. I will include the log of the next crash. Dec 6, 2016 at 19:05
  • Have you tried running without your USB devices connected? Does it work that way?
    – heynnema
    Dec 9, 2016 at 4:10

2 Answers 2

0

The nvidia tag makes me think it is an issue with the graphics driver. It helps us help you, if you tell us also the model of the nvidia card.

You can get started by adding the boot option nomodeset, and then it should work well enough to install a proprietary driver.

See these links and links from them for more details how to add a boot opiton,

My reply to a question at AskUbuntu: 'RAM drive'

A post at the Ubuntu Forums: 'Boot options'

2
  • Video driver is not the problem. I get the same crash even after installing the proprietary driver on a freshly installed system. The card is an EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti. Dec 6, 2016 at 16:39
  • Please describe the computer: Brand name and model or motherboard, cpu, RAM (size), wifi card/chip. There are people around here, who know problems and solutions for particular motherboards and components, so if you are lucky, you can get help, if you tell us those details about the computer. (I mean there are people who know much better than I, and I can only ask you to 'help them help you' by telling us details about the computer).
    – sudodus
    Dec 6, 2016 at 16:50
0

Had a problem very similar to the one described: playing any video hard-crashed my Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS and cold boot would be required. I uninstalled Videos (Totem) and installed VLC via the Ubuntu Software Center. Problem solved.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .