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Tomas Aschan
Asked: 2012-05-25 06:03:34 +0800 CST

Keep getting messages about internal system errors

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I keep getting popups about internal system errors (see screenshot below) on irregular intervals (several times a day), that I don't know what to do about. If I continue through the dialog and try to report the error back to the Ubuntu project, I get a message stating that development on this version of Ubuntu has been completed, and that I should ask for help here if I don't know what to do about it.

I don't.

enter image description here

If I show the details of the error message, the "executable path" parameter shows /usr/share/apport/apport-gpu-error-intel.py.

Is this a bug I should report to Launchpad, or just a configuration error somewhere? If it's a bug, how do I collect the data I (and the devs) need?

Update in response to comment: I am running an ASUS N53SN, sporting an Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU and an NVidia GeForce 550M GPU.

12.04

4 Answers

  1. Potential Reason for These Unreportable Errors

    I think I've figured this out. I think that this particular bug reporting avenue is a hangover from the alpha and beta development stages--when the developers wanted as many bug reports as possible, regardless of whether the user was willing to file a full launchpad bug report or not. Once 12.04 was released, the developers no longer wanted anonymous bug reports so they disable this ability. They only want bug reports that the user themselves manually takes the time to file.

    This is understandable but I would consider it a bug that apport/ubuntu-bug is presenting the user with non-actionable information. When development stops and they no longer want a high volume of bug-reports turning off automatic bug reporting is one thing, but leaving the user without a path (at the very least a link) to report to launchpad, and without a way to save the information contained within the bug report should be rethought.

    My Solution to Non-Actionable Error Reports

    I know what I am going to do next time I get one of these unreportable/unsavable errors. I'm going to take a screenshot of the window, run apport-bug apport and file a bug saying that apport should not present the user with non-actionable information. At the very least the user should be able to save the report for their own use or for manually reporting a bug.

    How to Proceed Regarding your GPU Bug

    As for your problem, apport was running a script to debug GPU problems.

    If you aren't actually noticing problems with your GPU other than these error messages I'd say you can safely ignore them.

    If you are seeing any weird graphics related behavior, keep an eye on your logs--specifically xorg.0.log and syslog, but maybe the kernel logs as well. If you are noticing errors copy them down, and try to make a best guess (or ask) whether it is a driver problem, kernel problem or X11 problem. Then use apport to file the bug against what you determine to be the best package (for example for my nvidia driver I would enter apport-bug nvidia-current-updates), be as detailed as you can be in the resulting bug report and put the symptoms you experience and any errors you noticed into the description when you file the bug. More information about filing bugs is here and here. Good luck.

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  2. Go ahead and run xdiagnose. Uncheck "Enable automatic crash bug reporting". You will never going to be bothered again by those messages.

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  3. If you're having NVidia drivers and experiencing frequent crashes and frozen desktops, try to switch to propitiatory NVidia driver instead of open source one.

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  4. This may help. Open the GParted program and check if the you see an error message on one of the Ubuntu partitions.

    I recently wiped my mac partitions and installed Ubuntu on my hard drive. I see that Ubuntu has created a small 977 KB partition which has the flag bios_grub.

    I wonder if that is what is causing the system errors. Macs do not have a BIOS.

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