A little while ago I warned DO NOT UPGRADE (yet) to Ubuntu 12.04. That advice still holds. Unlike versions 10 and 11, which seemed stable, 12.04 continues to have serious X windows problems.

The subject of this post is different from the compiz error I was talking about before, which caused hard lockup and kernel panic when using multiple monitors. This new bug causes X to freeze due to an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU/GPU issue but the mouse still moves mockingly around the screen. A switch to a terminal session (Ctrl-Alt-F1) shows everything running happily along and still functioning while the X session (Ctrl-Alt-F7) is frozen.

Update: I should have made it more explicit that this is an interesting area to me because it is a dangerous future direction for exploits, as I wrote about before. Expect attackers to direct their attention towards unprotected boundaries of GPU memory/paging.

Killing X from a terminal brings the system back but blows all the X sessions, which can be very ugly and destructive especially to virtual machines. You will lose work but at least at this point you can gracefully restart Ubuntu. Some have suggested killing compiz processes (e.g. compiz-decorater) to unfreeze X without losing work but it doesn’t prevent lockup.

I guess it’s a good thing they call it LTS because it might be a long time before it’s secure enough to upgrade. Alas, here is the sad and disgusting image of a frozen Pangolin.

Yuck. Not what you want to see every day. After numerous crashes and bug reports there seems to be a solution emerging with a new kernel (linux-image-3.2.0.27-generic).

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel for Precise in -proposed solves the problem (3.2.0-27.43). Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag ‘verification-needed-precise’ to ‘verification-done-precise’.

If verification is not done by one week from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

That’s one week from July 9th. The documentation you get from their link isn’t complete so here’s a step-by-step that should work on any Ubuntu 12.04 system if you’re experiencing a frozen X and want to help verify a fix.

1. Type “uname -a” in a terminal to verify current version. You will see something like this:

Linux systemname 3.2.0-26-generic #41-Ubuntu...

2. Open Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center -> Edit -> Software Sources -> Updates and add a check in the precise-proposed box. If you want to verify or add it manually, the following line is added to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-proposed restricted main multiverse universe

3. Block precise-proposed from updating all packages, as suggested by Ubuntu; “create the file /etc/apt/preferences with this content”

Package: *
Pin: release a=precise-security
Pin-Priority: 990

Package: *
Pin: release a=precise-updates
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release a=precise-proposed
Pin-Priority: 400

4. Update apt to recognize the new source

sudo apt-get update

You should see something like the following lines in the update results

Get:60 https://us.archive.ubuntu.com precise-proposed/main amd64 Packages [163 kB]
Get:64 https://us.archive.ubuntu.com precise-proposed/main i386 Packages [164 kB]


5. Install the proposed linux-image-3.2.0.27-generic kernel (38.5MB)

sudo apt-get install linux-image-3.2.0.27-generic

Note: if you also have VMware Workstation installed you will have to install the headers

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-3.2.0.27-generic

The good news is that a custom module patch seems no longer to be needed to start VMware Workstation. If you make certain to install headers that match the new kernel, Workstation should be able to reconfigure itself without error.

When apt completes you will see a line like this
Unpacking linux-image-3.2.0-27-generic (from .../linux-image-3.2.0-27-generic_3.2.0-27.43_amd64.deb) ...
Done.

6. That’s it! To verify the new kernel, restart the system, open a terminal and type “uname -a” again

Linux systemname 3.2.0-27-generic #43-Ubuntu...

7. As a finishing step, and to make validation easier, Ubuntu prefers that you enable and allow Apport to help them isolate the bug(s)

When running proposed it is recommend that you re-enable Apport bug filing to capture and report crashes. In the event that you end up reporting a crash about a proposed package please tag the bug as proposed-pkg so we can distinguish it from other crash reports.

You can enable Apport on a stable system with:

gconftool -s /apps/update-notifier/show_apport_crashes –type bool true

A new report called “Rapid Inversion: Running Animals and Robots Swing like a Pendulum under Ledges” explains how a study of cockroach and gecko escape tricks is being translated into robotics.

We video recorded cockroaches and geckos rapidly running up an incline toward a ledge, digitized their motion and created a simple model to generalize the behavior. Both species ran rapidly at 12–15 body lengths-per-second toward the ledge without braking, dove off the ledge, attached their feet by claws like a grappling hook, and used a pendulum-like motion that can exceed one meter-per-second to swing around to an inverted position under the ledge, out of sight.

[…]

Quantification of these acrobatic behaviors provides biological inspiration toward the design of small, highly mobile search-and-rescue robots that can assist us during natural and human-made disasters.

My mind doesn’t easily make the leap from bugs trying to escape death to their prediction of robots trying to save lives.

I know researchers wouldn’t want to end their study with visions of small, highly mobile robots that can escape detection but that seems to be the more obvious application.

Insect-sized surveillance drones could be quite dangerous seeing as how they will be virtually undetectable and indistinguishable from real life insects. Along with the fact that their sheer size would make them difficult to shoot down, it’s no surprise that the military is pouring resources into miniaturization.

On the other hand, there’s probably nothing to worry about. Just imagine being told “have no fear, the search-and-rescue cockroachbots can find you…in a disaster.”

I recently wrote of a controversial armored car order that led many to ask about the need for militarization in Berkeley.

Officials have now formally announced a change in plans. The “armored emergency rescue vehicle” debate is over.

Campus administrators evaluated the proposal and concluded that such a military-style vehicle is not the best choice for a university setting. UC Berkeley officials are in the process of canceling the order for the vehicle. Officials in Berkeley and Albany agree with the University’s decision.