Issue with Intel GMA950 on Debian (read:Linux Mint/Ubuntu) Variant

Question

I have a Dell D420 on which I run Linux Mint Gloria. However every once in a while the laptop completely freezes up. First the GUI freezes, then a minute later the ssh session I had with the computer dies. I've heard of strange issues with the Intel GMA 950 chipset before and am now a little suspicious that it is the reason for the issues. In addition, every once in a while when I try to bring the computer back from sleep, it simply flashes its status lights at me like a BIOS error until I reboot.

Anyone have any thoughts on how I can go about narrowing down the issue, maybe go as far as resolving it?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Apparently the issue I'm running into is a well-documented bug in the kernel.

For those of you suffering from this bug as well take a look at upgrading to the 2.6.30 Kernel, which should fix these issues.