while replacing the nvidia driver seemed to fix the problem, after working with a mathematica notebook for some time, it still crashes the xserver on exit. this time xorg left some trail in the Xorg.0.log.old:
[162589.945] (EE) [162589.945] (EE) Backtrace: [162589.945] (EE) 0: /usr/bin/X (xorg_backtrace+0x3d) [0x7f9c6e96602d] [162589.945] (EE) 1: /usr/bin/X (0x7f9c6e7c4000+0x1a5d99) [0x7f9c6e969d99] [162589.945] (EE) 2: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x7f9c6d8c4000+0xfbb0) [0x7f9c6d8d3bb0] [162589.945] (EE) 3: /usr/bin/X (dixDestroyPixmap+0x4) [0x7f9c6e814e54] [162589.945] (EE) 4: /usr/bin/X (0x7f9c6e7c4000+0x76bf2) [0x7f9c6e83abf2] [162589.945] (EE) 5: /usr/bin/X (FreeClientResources+0x6c) [0x7f9c6e83bc1c] [162589.945] (EE) 6: /usr/bin/X (CloseDownClient+0x5f) [0x7f9c6e8184df] [162589.945] (EE) 7: /usr/bin/X (0x7f9c6e7c4000+0x55046) [0x7f9c6e819046] [162589.945] (EE) 8: /usr/bin/X (0x7f9c6e7c4000+0x4456a) [0x7f9c6e80856a] [162589.945] (EE) 9: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xf5) [0x7f9c6c4ffde5] [162589.945] (EE) 10: /usr/bin/X (0x7f9c6e7c4000+0x448af) [0x7f9c6e8088af] [162589.945] (EE) [162589.945] (EE) Segmentation fault at address 0x7f9c00000338 [162589.945] (EE) Fatal server error: [162589.945] (EE) Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting [162589.945] (EE) [162589.945] (EE) Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help. [162589.945] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information. [162589.945] (EE) [162590.544] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X, which is subscribed to xorg in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1256561 Title: starting mathematica 9 crashes xserver To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1256561/+subscriptions _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat Post to : ubuntu-x-swat@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp