Random lock up or hang when in Gnome or KDE

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (SLED 11)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11)
Intel Sandy Bridge GPU

Situation

While a user is in Gnome or KDE a lockup or hang of the system can happen randomly and a black screen is displayed. It seems to be more common when the system has been sitting idle for some time and then becomes active, but can also happen when in constant use.

Resolution

Add the following as a kernel parameter in YaST-->System-->Boot Loader. Edit the default selection and add the parameter to "Optional Kernel Command Line Parameter". Alternatively, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst directly.

i915.i915_enable_rc6=0

Cause

RC6 technology provides a power saving low consumption state for the GPU and has been enabled on later kernel versions. Kernel versions later than 3.0.42-0.7 are causing a problem with the Sandy Bridge chipset that can result in a lock up. Adding the kernel parameter above disables the RC6 functionality and avoids the problem. A fix has been submitted upstream which disables it for the Sandy Bridge chipset and should be provided in a future update.

Disclaimer

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