FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

When I play Minetest, every once in a while, my computer will freeze up for a period of time, sometimes requiring a hard reboot. No switching windows, no switching workspaces, and the sound either cuts off or repeats the last second (give or take) over and over again. The only thing that keeps working is the cursor. Any ideas on what might be wrong or how to fix it? I'm running Minetest 0.4.9 on an Intel i3 processor with an Intel HD 3000 graphics card.

Its maybe just low RAM.

Does Alt+SysRq+B reboot it when this happens?

(If you can't find the SysRq key, look for "Print Screen". They're the same key)

I've had this problem before too. Usually when I run both minetest and firefox. For a while 4.7 would do it on its own if I pushed the map generation too far (aka trying to reach the nether with fly and noclip). I had always attributed it to a hardware issue of not being able to keep up. The interesting part is that you can still move the mouse. Can you go into the command line mode? For me it is alt + ctrl + f1. You may be able to terminate minetest from that view.

The odd part is how it enters that half-second audio loop. I think there is a bug in the software somewhere. Whether it is minetest or the video driver, I have no idea.

I'm going to try to get the glitch to happen again. I'll be leaving System Monitor open while playing, so hopefully, I'll have something interesting to share.

try listening to internet radio at the same time. I found it usually had something to do with overtaxing the system. also, try turning on no-clip and fly and try to reach the bottom of the map. these just might work.

There's probably nothing you can do, apart from trying to run a development version of the drivers (oibaf's PPA), known bug with Intel HD 2000/3000s. Also, an Intel HD 3000 is not a graphics card, it's an integrated graphics processor (IGP).