Fix for frozen graphical interface in Ubuntu 16.04
1 Description
- Ubuntu 16.04 Server Edition, installed with desktop environment
- Freezes suddenly and randomly, everything except the mouse
- ssh works fine
- restart works, only until login screen. Once logged in, nothing appears (system menu, desktop, mouse click doesn’t work, etc.)
2 Diagnosis
Look at /var/log/kernel.log
and /var/log/syslog
for the related message
Dec 1 16:44:36 neurocan kernel: [ 140.789097] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Xorg[2366]: failed to idle channel 4 [Xorg[2366]]
Dec 1 16:44:37 neurocan kernel: [ 141.293360] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Xorg[2366]: failed to idle channel 3 [Xorg[2366]]
Dec 1 16:44:51 neurocan kernel: [ 155.794412] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Xorg[2366]: failed to idle channel 4 [Xorg[2366]]
Dec 1 16:44:52 neurocan kernel: [ 156.298538] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Xorg[2366]: failed to idle channel 3 [Xorg[2366]]
nouveau
is the open source equivalent of graphics driver, indicating that the problem can be with the graphics driver.
Check current graphics card with this command
lspci | grep VGA
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107GL [Quadro K620] (rev a2)
3 Fix
3.1 Secure-shell login
3.2 Stop lightdm
service
sudo service lightdm stop
3.3 Install the NVIDIA driver
Add the ppa entry
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
Look carefully at the output to determine the proper driver version
Fresh drivers from upstream, currently shipping Nvidia.
## Current Status
Current official release: `nvidia-387` (387.34)
Current long-lived branch release: `nvidia-384` (384.98)
For G8x, G9x and GT2xx GPUs use `nvidia-340` (340.104)
For NV4x and G7x GPUs use `nvidia-304` (304.137)
Support timeframes for Unix legacy GPU releases:
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3142
...
Then install the driver and reboot the system
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-387
sudo reboot -h now