Desktop effects were restarted due to a graphics reset

While using Google Chrome on Kubuntu 14.10, the display hung for about 5 seconds before unfreezing with the following notification:

Once this began occurring with an increasing frequency, I began to do a little digging. Looking through /var/log/kern.log brought the following up:

[70933.132842] [drm] stuck on render ring
[70933.134621] [drm] GPU HANG: ecode 0:0x87d3bffa, in Xorg [1525], reason: Ring hung, action: reset
[70935.132228] [drm] Enabling RC6 states: RC6 on, RC6p off, RC6pp off

Googling the message shows that this issue is an Intel GPU driver bug and is not particular to Kubuntu or to Chrome/Chromium. While the issue has been marked "resolved" in some places, it might take some time to filter down to everybody.

From the looks of things, updating the kernel to 3.18 should fix the issue. If you're bold enough to play around with upgrading your current system's kernel, give it a shot. Else, keep your install up to date and look out for the next release of your distro. In my case, Kubuntu 15.04 (Vivid) will be out in a couple of months. It's currently in -alpha, but I plan to jump on its betas ASAP.

UPDATE: I did end up upgrading my kernel which fixed my issue. Hooray!