Random freezes Ubuntu 64bit / NVIDIA

[matthe]

since a few days I got random freezes while editing, or to be more precise when I transform vertices in a more or less complex scenes.
I tried different blender version (2.45, 2.46, optimized versions etc.) but I always got these annoying freezes
when I bought my computer I switched from ATI to NVIDIA to make sure no nasty GLerrors harm my blender experience and now this
anyone else facing similar problems or even better got a solution?

system specs:
INTEL Q6600, 4 GB RAM, GeForce 8600GTS

EDIT:
I tried some workarounds according to different linux/ubuntu forums (i.e. turned of apci/apm, disabled powernowd) but with no luck. when I switch to windows everything works flawlessly, so I doubt it’s a hardware problem. ok I could use wndows but this is not really a satisfying solution

[SnifiX]

Jes the same problem, it is the nvidia-drivers. I changed graphic drivers back to standard “nv”. It is slow, but it doesn’t freeze.

No hope for open source graphic cards. It is business.

[Atom]

SnifX,
I could never get the nVidia drivers installed on my Ubuntu so I was stuck with the standard.

I know this is off-topic, but how do you install the nVidia drivers on Ubuntu? I am a linux newbie and the instructions on nVidias site seemed to be geared at verterans. I couldn’t figure it out.

[samuraidanieru]

Hey,
Thanks for the posts. I was having the same problem. I have a GeForce 8400 GS. I installed the latest nvidia driver 173.14.12 and the problem (as of yet) seems to have disappeared:)!
I had trouble trying to install the driver straight from the .run file I got from the nvidia website, but was able to install it easy enough with an app called ‘envy’. which will download and install the latest ati/nvidia drivers for you. great little app! just do a search in the ubuntu repository and installing the envy gtk will probably install everything you need. I stumbled across a reference to envy here, and am quite glad I just tried envy before following that huge list of manual steps on the same page!

cheers:D

PS. I’m on ubuntu 8.04

[3Deusz]

Yep I also get the freeze, and are also running Nvidea driver,

however I only experience it sometimes, and I suspect it comes up when im running
flash in firefox in the background or are running a music player.

PS Im running Ubuntu 8.04 64bit

[Lancer]

That “envy” program did not fix the nvidia issues I’ve had versus blender since 8.04 upgrade (32 bit mind you). Was perfectly fine beforehand… in Ubuntu 7.10 I liked using Blender with full desktop effects. I think it may have been when “beryl” changed to “compiz” or something. Now I have to go into “failsafe gnome” (no effects at all) if I want to be able to render without crashing out to login screen.

Do Blender, Nvidia, Ubuntu care? Nah… they just point the finger at each other.

[arexma]

I say its (k)ubuntu - granted its easy to use/install but after all it is just a modded Debian with some packages highly incompatible to most debian/debian based distributions.
I use plain debian now for years, mostly compile the latest nvidia beta driver modules from source and never had any problems at all, neither 32B nor 64B

No offense meant, but the main problem on Linux when something isn´t working is the user.

Blaming Blender, Nvidia or Ubuntu is surely unfair… they develop x-platform because they want to support the community, not because they have to.
Firstly you should be thankful nvida pops out very good linux drivers very frequently, if we had to rely on ATI… well better don´t think about that and without the crappy nvidia.o there would be no HW 3D at all in linux.

And those fancy pants compiz stuff and blinky stuff that comes with ubuntu… Well a waste of resources. I´ve seen a lot of ubuntu systems running not much faster than any teenage girl WinXP32 because Gnome was overloaded with useless crap… just like Windows.

As for “envy” i´ve never seen a post “thank you envy, best programm ever, runs smoothly, so easy” they are more like “piece of crap, does not work, had to reinstall…”

Using linux is no stable system unless u use only stable repositories and no proprietary drivers or 3rd party compiled stuff. Its like homeimprovement for your computer and reading up in forums and documentations until the point you understand whats going on in your machine
even with a distribution like (K)Ubuntu that “seems” to be gentle towards users…
linux´s a beast.

I am glad i could post nothing relevant to the inital question, thanks for your attention…
i think i am having a strange day…
better go back to work…

[ibkanat]

I recently had to send my laptop in because the graphics chip died under load. I was running Kubuntu and the chip was nvidia. Check and make sure your model isnt on of the problem chipsets

[J09]

Hm… I have had similar freezes (NVIDIA 8600 GTS, Ubuntu 8.04 32) but I always assumed it was just bugs in the most recent svn that I had built, because generally after a few revision upgrades, it goes away. So its really only there for a day or two. I don’t have desktop effects on, because it doesn’t seem to “play nice” with my dual-monitor (2 22s) setup.

[arexma]

@ibkanat:

its a known issue with the latest nvidia chips. its too bad for them and even worse for the customers. And mostly notebook chips die due to heat problems although also a desktop GPU might burn out.

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t72171.html

[Lancer]

No offense meant, but the main problem on Linux when something isn´t working is the user.

Actually - I find your whole post highly offensive. I’ve used Linux for around 10 years+ now (Ubuntu is not my first distro… that was RedHat 5.2) and some of the bug fixes you enjoy on your build of Blender are due to my tracking them, in some cases communicating directly with developers. Why don’t you go tell the lame man to be “thankful” he isn’t as blind?

The problem isn’t the user. It may be the process of upgrade (happened moving from 7.10 to 8.04), or it may be hardware. I managed to get hold of another computer yesterday (Nvidia also) and put on exactly the same brand of distro, all those “fancy pants” effects and all, and the same Blender goes just fine.

I might try a complete & fresh install on the problematic machine later.

As for “envy” i´ve never seen a post “thank you envy, best programm ever, runs smoothly, so easy” they are more like “piece of crap, does not work, had to reinstall…”

Yeah no kidding. My post before said it didn’t work.

[freen]

Well dig this…
I’m using Ubuntu 64 (and yes it was a pain since the “upgrade” to get nvidia working), but when I run blender it’s reeeaaal slow. Then I run a second instance of blender and it’s fine, even if I close the first one. This is only since I added a second monitor, btw.
Weirdness…

[arexma]

Actually - I find your whole post highly offensive… [CUT]

Well i could argue on that for hours but i got no need for a flame. A pity you arent living near me, i would invite you to one of our local linux developer meetings. However what i meant was i don´t want to insult anyone for a lack of linux skills, and not all linux users are idiots in the first place but 90% of the problems with linux occur because with ubuntu, knoppix and the other OOTB releases linux got an everybody OS, which isn´t bad, i appreciate it, but then they have no idea how modules work or have stable + unstable repositories in their list, start changing configs on rumor based blog postings and soon the first troubles start to dwell.
And on one hand you are saying dev´s dont care just blame each other, on the other you seem to debug and submit to their bugtrackers and they have things fixed…?

But back to topic, are you guys using stable, unstable or testing?
Or is there no such thing in ubuntu? They got a pretty strange versioning system and whats even stranger EOL dates for their releases. And what makes ubuntu not a good disti IMO are their strange packages. They use the debian package managment system, but change so much code in the ubuntu packages that the whole distri got highly incompatible with many many default debian packages.

However, even when 7.10 to 8.04 was a bumpy ride for many, try 8.04 to 8.04.1 which is a plain maintainance release… maybe it fixes some of the bugs you have.

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS, the
first maintenance update to Ubuntu’s 8.04 LTS release.

In all, over 200 updates have been integrated, […] These include security updates and corrections for
other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and
compatibility with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.
Maybe some of the corrections for high-impact bugs where in the GLX and DRI which are known to cause probs in ubuntu.

[freen]

There were several problems with the 8.04 upgrade and nvidia, and I I gathered that some at least were at nvidia’s end, but I’m not sure of that.

[thelowlander]

Hope this thead isn’t dead yet. I’m on a notebook compal92 BTO15W26 and UBUNTU 8.04. In edit mode, blender freezes occasionally, and sometimes even makes other apps freeze (if I have one open anyway) This happens mostly in edit mode. Could this be due to ubuntu 8.04 and Nvidia not working nicely, or is that 8600M GT just a bad chipset? nothing’s failed so far, but some things tend to be very slow from time to time.
And this is a pretty new laptop.

[freen]

Question 1: Is compiz enabled?

[thelowlander]

no every eyecandy related thing is turned off…