[SOLVED] Debian Sqeeze Issue - GPU Hangs

Issue

This happened after I performed a clean install of Debian Squeeze 6.0.5 on my Zenith PC with Intel Graphics card. The installation went smooth and the Gnome desktop is very fast and responsive. However, every now and then the desktop just freezes at certain events. This happened on a few occasions:

1. When I opened an html file in the epiphany browser.
2. A user logged out.
3. A flash-drive was inserted.

When the desktop froze, I switched to a tty terminal by pressing alt+f1 and performed a root login. When I then tried to switch to my main desktop, I read this on the black screen:

X.Org X Server 1.7.7
Release Date: 2010-05-04
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 i686 Debian
Current Operating System: Linux workstation1 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Sun May 6 04:01:19........
Kernel Command Line....
...
...
..
FATAL: Module fbcon not found.
SELinux: Disabled on system, not enabling in X server
(EE) Intel(0): Detected a hung GPU, disabling acceleration.

To me this seems to be a driver related issue, though it could also be an X related problem. My graphics card is of type:

Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller

Is there a way to know whether Debian has installed the correct driver? I do have all the driver CDs that came with my PC, but they are specifically for the Windows OS.

Could any of you Debian Experts throw some light on this?

Solution

Other people seems to have been having problems with that chipset as well: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=71083

You could give the vesa driver a spin and see if that works: http://packages.debian.org/sid/xserver-xorg-video-vesa

Remember to remove other drivers. I'm not a Debian user but you should be able to list installed packages with:

dpkg -l

If the list is to long just grep for xserver or xorg.

Answered By - Jacob Midtgaard-Olesen