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Ubuntu 17.04, I've been having an issue where:

  • I'll be doing normal stuff (web browsing with a few tabs)
  • I notice that the taskbar icons (battery life, bluetooth, volume) have been replaced with a grey "post-it note" icon (default or missing icon).
  • At the same time, the launchbar icons (chrome, "files", terminal") disappear completely.

The computer usually keeps working for a few minutes, then crashes. On restart, everything works again.

Some probably-related information:

  • I recently updated to Ubuntu 17.04
  • I also recently enabled CUDA on my GPU.
  • I am seeing similar symptoms as in this question. I'm not sure if it is exactly the same error code, but it is showing "[hardware errors]" for a brief moment when starting up. I'm having trouble getting a photo of exactly what the error is.

Any help, or where to look, would be much appreciated.

Thank you!


Edit: After the errors begin, I have observed the following other symptoms before it crashes:

  • From vim, when I try to write I get error 212, "Can't open file for writing".
  • cd works but ls does not. The error when I try to ls is something along the lines of "/bin/ls: cannot execute binary file".
2
  • Does this happen in the guest session as well?
    – Fabby
    Jul 28, 2017 at 0:27
  • Number of problem arises in Ubuntu or other Debian system when you enabled or install drivers for GPU. I have faced such kind of problem because of installing graphics driver even on a stable system. I suggest you disable/remove any updated or installed graphic driver. If the problem still persists try to changing user account and domain and check if the problem is resolved or not. In most cases, your problem will be solved by now but if it isn't then try to revert any recent changes after which you are facing this problem. if you are using the system for work purpose then prefer to use the sy
    – Gahan
    Jul 30, 2017 at 5:19

3 Answers 3

0

Perhaps your hard drive/flash drive is failing and it unmounts/becomes inaccessible for whatever reason. I know that if you unplug the media that the system is running on, your system will either freeze up, or tell you that it can't read from the OS media and stop working.

0

I have had similar things happen on my system with Nvidia Optimus when its in Intel mode but never when in Nvidia mode (i toggle it using nvidia-settings) .

I think its due to a buggy open gl implimentation and not very good handling of it by compiz and unity. If you press Alt-F2 and can get a run dialog then you can restart unity or compiz without loosing currently running applications by invoking either with replace option and an ampersand to let it go to background.

compiz --replace &

or

unity --replace &

If you want to fix the errors you might need to try some of the newer graphics drivers from this ppa https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

or a newer kernel from the mainline kernels ppa might make it more stable http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

-1

The problems could also arise if the system is too new, for Ubuntu uses an old stable kernel. try installing the mainline kernel and then tell me if it works. or, try reinstalling Ubuntu, as maybe your installation medium was corrupted, or maybe it didn't install properly. the issue could ALSO be a graphics problem. try disabling that graphics driver you said you installed.

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