Evolution 3.10.4 and Fedora 20

[Gregory P. Ennis]

Everyone,

I have about 6 desktop's running F20 with evolution 3.10.4 that have had
problems related to the desktop gui 'freezing'.  I can go to a terminal
interface by hitting <cntrl><alt>F2, and when I toggle back to the gui
it is still not usable.   The screen is filled with the last object
displayed in this case it is always evolution that does not respond, and
I am unable to switch to anything else on the gui.  All panels are
unaddressable. 

At first I thought the problem was gpaste so I removed it on a test
desktop.  The symptoms appeared less often but were still present.  It
seems to hang with evolution.  

Has anyone else had this problem?  Can anyone help me debug this.

Thank you for your help.

Greg Ennis

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sun, 2014-11-09 at 19:03 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  Everyone,
>  
>  I have about 6 desktop's running F20 with evolution 3.10.4 that have had
>  problems related to the desktop gui 'freezing'.  I can go to a terminal
>  interface by hitting <cntrl><alt>F2, and when I toggle back to the gui
>  it is still not usable.   The screen is filled with the last object
>  displayed in this case it is always evolution that does not respond, and
>  I am unable to switch to anything else on the gui.  All panels are
>  unaddressable. 
>  
>  At first I thought the problem was gpaste so I removed it on a test
>  desktop.  The symptoms appeared less often but were still present.  It
>  seems to hang with evolution.  
>  
>  Has anyone else had this problem?  Can anyone help me debug this. 
You don't say which desktop you're running. I run Evolution under KDE
for example, and had some minor problems around when F20 was released,
due to some missing Gnome packages. Not the same as what you describe,
but still related to GUI issues.

In any case, you might find it useful to ask on the Evolution list. See
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list

poc

[John Mellor]

I have also observed this problem, not just in Evolution, but also in
Firefox.  In my case, the problem appears to be either (a) mail and web
pages that contain images or videos that have problematic render engines on
Linux, or (b) massive processor overload when web pages that have a large
number of videos on them (such as Facebook) try to render them all
simultaneously without limiting the resource utilization.

Because the problems are across more than one client application, I suspect
that the problem is actually an inability to limit resource utilization by
the desktop - in my case Gnome.  It has been like this for quite a few
Fedora releases now, and other than getting away from Gnome, I'm not sure
what else to do.  On an underpowered dual-core, these lockups are
devastating, and sometimes even require an ACPI reboot to recover from.

On Sun, Nov 9, 2014 at 8:03 PM, Gregory P. Ennis <PoMec(a)pomec.net&gt; wrote:

>  Everyone,
>
>  I have about 6 desktop's running F20 with evolution 3.10.4 that have had
>  problems related to the desktop gui 'freezing'.  I can go to a terminal
>  interface by hitting <cntrl><alt>F2, and when I toggle back to the gui
>  it is still not usable.   The screen is filled with the last object
>  displayed in this case it is always evolution that does not respond, and
>  I am unable to switch to anything else on the gui.  All panels are
>  unaddressable.
>
>  At first I thought the problem was gpaste so I removed it on a test
>  desktop.  The symptoms appeared less often but were still present.  It
>  seems to hang with evolution.
>
>  Has anyone else had this problem?  Can anyone help me debug this.
>
>  Thank you for your help.
>
>  Greg Ennis
>
>  --
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>

[Gregory P. Ennis]

On Sun, 2014-11-09 at 19:03 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  Everyone,
>  
>  I have about 6 desktop's running F20 with evolution 3.10.4 that have had
>  problems related to the desktop gui 'freezing'.  I can go to a terminal
>  interface by hitting <cntrl><alt>F2, and when I toggle back to the gui
>  it is still not usable.   The screen is filled with the last object
>  displayed in this case it is always evolution that does not respond, and
>  I am unable to switch to anything else on the gui.  All panels are
>  unaddressable. 
>  
>  At first I thought the problem was gpaste so I removed it on a test
>  desktop.  The symptoms appeared less often but were still present.  It
>  seems to hang with evolution.  
>  
>  Has anyone else had this problem?  Can anyone help me debug this. 
You don't say which desktop you're running. I run Evolution under KDE
for example, and had some minor problems around when F20 was released,
due to some missing Gnome packages. Not the same as what you describe,
but still related to GUI issues.

In any case, you might find it useful to ask on the Evolution list. See
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list

poc

Patrick,

Thanks for your response.  My mistake in not stipulating the desktop; I
am using a gnome desktop. 

I had searched the evolution list, but did not see an entry similar to
my problem.  Since this problem not only 'freezes' the evolution
display, but also freezes the entire gui, I thought starting here would
be better. (Sorry about the use of 'freeze', but I can not think of a
better word).  

Unfortunately, this problem is occurring on more than one machine, and
it has happened to me as well; I would suspect that this affects others
too.  

I will wait a couple of days before I post this on the evolution list to
see if others have had this problem here.  

Thanks again for your response,

Greg

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Mon, 2014-11-10 at 10:10 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  I had searched the evolution list, but did not see an entry similar
> to
>  my problem.  Since this problem not only 'freezes' the evolution
>  display, but also freezes the entire gui, I thought starting here
>  would
>  be better. (Sorry about the use of 'freeze', but I can not think of a
>  better word).   
"Freeze" is fine as a description. Freezes can be caused by video card
problems so it could be relevant to post what make and model you have.

poc

[Gregory P. Ennis]

On Mon, 2014-11-10 at 10:10 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  I had searched the evolution list, but did not see an entry similar
> to
>  my problem.  Since this problem not only 'freezes' the evolution
>  display, but also freezes the entire gui, I thought starting here
>  would
>  be better. (Sorry about the use of 'freeze', but I can not think of a
>  better word).   
"Freeze" is fine as a description. Freezes can be caused by video card
problems so it could be relevant to post what make and model you have.

poc

----------------------------------------

Patrick,

The machines I have access to today is a Dell Optiplex 780, 745, and
755.  There is one HP machine that I do not have access to this
afternoon.

780 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]

745 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q963/Q965 Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

780 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q963/Q965 Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

755 -
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

Also, it should be noted that my observations were the same as John's in
that I was first suspicious of Firefox along with gpaste.  After
removing gpaste and not accessing Firefox the only software that was
consistently associated with the problem was evolution.  I never noticed
this on F16, F17, F18, F19, but John is correct in that this causes a
real problem that is only solved by a reboot. 

Greg

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Mon, 2014-11-10 at 15:50 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  755 -
>  VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Integrated
>  Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
>  
>  Also, it should be noted that my observations were the same as John's
>  in
>  that I was first suspicious of Firefox along with gpaste.  After
>  removing gpaste and not accessing Firefox the only software that was
>  consistently associated with the problem was evolution.  I never
>  noticed
>  this on F16, F17, F18, F19, but John is correct in that this causes a
>  real problem that is only solved by a reboot.  
The built-in Intel video controllers are usually very well supported so
I doubt that is the source of the problem in this case. Since no-one
else has responded I suggest you post on the Evo list, including all
relevant information (version of Evo, video hardware etc.).

poc

[Gregory P. Ennis]

On Mon, 2014-11-10 at 15:50 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  755 -
>  VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Integrated
>  Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
>  
>  Also, it should be noted that my observations were the same as John's
>  in
>  that I was first suspicious of Firefox along with gpaste.  After
>  removing gpaste and not accessing Firefox the only software that was
>  consistently associated with the problem was evolution.  I never
>  noticed
>  this on F16, F17, F18, F19, but John is correct in that this causes a
>  real problem that is only solved by a reboot.  
The built-in Intel video controllers are usually very well supported so
I doubt that is the source of the problem in this case. Since no-one
else has responded I suggest you post on the Evo list, including all
relevant information (version of Evo, video hardware etc.).

poc
---------------------------------

Thanks Patrick.... will do

Greg

[Gregory P. Ennis]

On Wed, 2014-11-12 at 10:28 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  On Mon, 2014-11-10 at 15:50 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
>  > 755 -
>  > VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express Integrated
>  > Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
>  > 
>  > Also, it should be noted that my observations were the same as John's
>  > in
>  > that I was first suspicious of Firefox along with gpaste.  After
>  > removing gpaste and not accessing Firefox the only software that was
>  > consistently associated with the problem was evolution.  I never
>  > noticed
>  > this on F16, F17, F18, F19, but John is correct in that this causes a
>  > real problem that is only solved by a reboot. 
>  
>  The built-in Intel video controllers are usually very well supported so
>  I doubt that is the source of the problem in this case. Since no-one
>  else has responded I suggest you post on the Evo list, including all
>  relevant information (version of Evo, video hardware etc.).
>  
>  poc
>  ---------------------------------
>  
>  Thanks Patrick.... will do
>  
>  Greg
>  
>   
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I never stumbled across a solution to this problem on Fedora 20 so I
decided to do a fedup upgrade to Fedora 21, and the problem is now gone.
If anyone else had this problem switching to F21 worked for me.  I am in
the process of upgraded my other F20 unites to f21 and so far this has
fixed every unit.  

Greg