Yesterday my Linux Mint 17.1 (Rebecca) installation started becoming unstable. The X login screen had some visual artefacts here and there and the whole system became unresponsive shortly after logging in to the Cinnamon desktop. Issues seemed to present themselves when animating the "throbbing" icon in the launcher, or when animating the opening of a window.
Now I can't seem to get into Cinnamon at all. Just a black screen with cursor after entering my credentials. Eventually, even the cursor will stop responding to mouse movements.
Other times, the animated login screen itself will hang.
Sometimes, I am able to switch to a different TTY and log in to the CLI. No problems here. I've managed an apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. After again failing to get Cinnamon going, I've gone into the CLI as root and run dmesg (the output of which seemed suspiciously slow to render). The last few messages left me deeply troubled:
[ 12.296499] nvidia-modeset: Allocated GPU:0 (GPU-22663de9-024b-cd1f-e5e6-a4da4cff39d0) @ PCI:0000:03:00.0
[ 12.358654] nvidia-modeset: WARNING: GPU:0: Unable to read EDID for display device DVI-I-0
[ 12.625846] nvidia-modeset: WARNING: GPU:0: Unable to read EDID for display device DVI-I-0
[ 13.003536] init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (1938) terminated with status 1
[ 42.258367] NVRM: GPU at PCI:0000:03:00: GPU-22663de9-024b-cd1f-e5e6-a4da4cff39d0
[ 42.258375] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 8, Channel 00000001
[ 44.258062] NVRM: os_schedule: Attempted to yield the CPU while in atomic or interrupt context
[ 48.252652] NVRM: os_schedule: Attempted to yield the CPU while in atomic or interrupt context
[ 50.249958] NVRM: os_schedule: Attempted to yield the CPU while in atomic or interrupt context
[ 50.258736] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 69, Class Error: ChId 0001, Class 0000902d, Offset 00000220, Data 00007f62, ErrorCode 0000000c
[ 50.271930] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 0, TPC 0): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.271936] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 0, TPC 0): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.271940] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x504648=0x1000d 0x504650=0x4 0x504644=0x1beff2 0x50464c=0xf
[ 50.271956] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 0, TPC 1): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.271959] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 0, TPC 1): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.271962] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x504e48=0xd 0x504e50=0x4 0x504e44=0x1beff2 0x504e4c=0xf
[ 50.271978] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 0, TPC 2): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.271982] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 0, TPC 2): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.271985] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x505648=0x24000d 0x505650=0x4 0x505644=0x1beff2 0x50564c=0xf
[ 50.272002] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 0): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272006] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 0): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272009] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x50c648=0xd 0x50c650=0x4 0x50c644=0x1beff2 0x50c64c=0xf
[ 50.272024] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 1): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272028] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 1): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272031] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x50ce48=0x1a000d 0x50ce50=0x4 0x50ce44=0x1beff2 0x50ce4c=0xf
[ 50.272047] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 2): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272050] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 2): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272053] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x50d648=0x1000d 0x50d650=0x4 0x50d644=0x1beff2 0x50d64c=0xf
[ 50.272069] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 3): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272072] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 1, TPC 3): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272076] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x50de48=0x1000d 0x50de50=0x4 0x50de44=0x1beff2 0x50de4c=0xf
[ 50.272093] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 0): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272096] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 0): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272100] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x514648=0x19000d 0x514650=0x4 0x514644=0x1beff2 0x51464c=0xf
[ 50.272113] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 1): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272117] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 1): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272120] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x514e48=0x2000d 0x514e50=0x4 0x514e44=0x1beff2 0x514e4c=0xf
[ 50.272131] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 2): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272134] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 2): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272137] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x515648=0x1000d 0x515650=0x4 0x515644=0x1beff2 0x51564c=0xf
[ 50.272148] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Warp Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 3): Out Of Range Register
[ 50.272152] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics SM Global Exception on (GPC 2, TPC 3): Physical Multiple Warp Errors
[ 50.272155] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ESR 0x515e48=0xd 0x515e50=0x4 0x515e44=0x1beff2 0x515e4c=0xf
[ 50.272174] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:03:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ChID 0001, Class 00009097, Offset 00001b0c, Data 1000f010
[ 80.453445] nvidia-modeset: Freed GPU:0 (GPU-22663de9-024b-cd1f-e5e6-a4da4cff39d0) @ PCI:0000:03:00.0
I've got a Palit GTX 465 and am using the proprietary nvidia driver. The machine (a self build) is now over 6 years old and has always been running Linux in some flavour or other; this edition of Mint for maybe 2 years now.
I don't want to fork out for a new GFX card if that's not problem, so can anyone give me any tips on diagnostics? Or can anyone tell me for sure that it's a hardware issue?
A beer for the person who gets me up and running again.*
*Collection only
