system freeze on ubuntu linux, but not on windows :(

It's most likely an issue with drivers/Linux. I will point our resident Linux guru here to see if he may be able to help...

Sorry for the delayed response.

I wouldn't call myself a linux guru...
I haven't dealt with the 8800 at all, and It's been a while since I've tried to install any nvidia drivers, but I'll try to help.

what version of the nvidia drivers are you using? (the latest is 169.12)

What method did you use, besides envy (which I have no experience with), to install the nvidia drivers? did you follow the instructions given here? If I'm not mistaken, you can also install them using the synaptic package manager, you might give that a shot.

I'll drop a PM to some others who will probably be more help than I am.

One more suggestion would be to give a look on the ubuntu forums, they usually have a lot of good help over there.

good luck,

Hmm likely this thread will be better placed in the Linux section, not strictly notebook related, but in general we handle a variety of stuff over there.

At any rate, having problems understanding your update edit, is it working for you now?

In as far as the original problem, that is almost certainly a bug in the NVidia drivers. I can look around and see what I can find out about it, but in the meantime the first thing I might try is a different version, and if that is the newest try rolling back to an older version of the driver(Might be a regression). Sadly it is hard to troubleshoot these things as they are closed source, and the kernel folks won't help you because they really can't as there is now closed source things in your setup.

One other thing that it might be would be the card itself overheating, probably not likely however. There are other possibilities, but given that it seems to work in Windows I would count them out for the time being.

I can't say I have run with the 8000 series yet as my workstation died just as I got my 8600 GT in. However they should be supported.

Hmm taking a look at phoronix, it appears that Nvidia recently released an update to their drivers(What you downloaded via that link) that improves stability with the 8000 series. I would bet that if I am reading your last edit statement there correctly, this is what fixed your problem. For future reference, you in general will want to do most things through your package manager (APT/Synaptic) as that keeps your system a bit easier to manage. You don't have to, but some things will get confusing down the road sometimes.

Seablade

Thread moved.

Thanks Buck.

To the OP... Welcome to our little corner of the Asylum!

Seablade

I thought about this off and on today and had another thought, are you by chance running Beryl? I had problems(and others have too) with Beryl causing system hangs. you might try using metacity (I forget what your options are).

So is it still freezing or no?

Seablade

The first thing to do is probably going to have to be to switch to the open source or vesa drivers. This will mean you will no longer be able to run a 3D window manager, but this is to see if that makes a difference.

If it does, then the problem is likely in the drivers. Unfortunately because those drivers are closed sourced we cannot trouble shoot past that, sorry. If that does not make a difference then we can continue troubleshooting.

Seablade

If using the Vesa drivers increases your stability, there are two likely options. One is that Compiz was causing the freeze. It is not yet, I do not believe, the most stable thing in the world. Actually taking a quick look at a site or two, it appears Compiz will run with the Vesa drivers, so doing that first might narrow it down to whether it is the cause or not.

The second, and more annoying, is that the NVidia drivers might be buggy. Unfortunately with them, there is not much we can do. I can't even direct you to the kernel folks for that one as they can't do a thing for you. Other than wait for a new release to come out and hopefully fix their bug.

Seablade

NVIDIA only has one version of it's drivers available now - they're all 64 bit. Could still be that it's a bug that only crops up if you're running it on a 32bit system, so hopefully this will fix the problem, but it's probably a long shot.

I had to run a non-3D desktop in order to be stable (ie no compiz/Beryl) - you might be experiencing the same thing.

Hmm for the record, NVidia has another new version of their drivers out as of the 7th or March again, 171.06. I believe it is still a beta driver however and the only noted change is the addition of the 9600 support, but the bet is that there are some unnoted changes as well(Version numbering shift).

Seablade