How to recover from a Frozen System

[Pierre]

I'd stick to ALT-backspace in Mint, coz that just restarts the X session.

P.

[tawan]

There could be a lot of different reasons why the computer freezes. It's usually either hardware or drivers related. In the second case if you think your 3D support is dodgy, just go and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, comment out "load dri" and "load glx" and replace whatever driver it's using with "vesa". That basically means no 3D at all... but it also could mean no more freezes.

I noticed this on a Compaq Presario 1715AP.

Clem

My HP laptop freezes on the first launch of a movie every day (after reboot it works) just the first movie i launch on any one day will kill the system completely.

REISUB is my only way out of this, no other thing is responded to by the frozen system.

Clem, I followed your advice to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf but there was no Load dri or Load glx in the file, so commenting them out is not an option as they are not even there :S

[xieu90]

that is a good trick, but how can i use it ?
I am using a german keyboard. there are two button F1 with Druck = print and F6 S- Abf = system request but
so i pressed Alt/Alt Gr together with Fn and F1/F6 and typed reisub/REISUB but mint opened a lot of save screenshot windows and my laptop was frozen

so any idea how i can use that trick ?

[Pierre]

RESUB is used in the US / international K/Board - can you use ALT-Backspace

[xieu90]

I have no idea
I pressed and hold down alt + backspace and at the same time i started to type reisub and REISUB
but nothing happened. (when i typed my computer wasn't frozen, i just tried it)
if i am in firefox then some menu will open like i press the hot key.

could it be that that combi only work when my computer is frozen ? or it simply doesnt work ?

[Husse]

I think that if you don't have a separate Prtscr/Sysreq key this may not be possible

[Pierre]

I think that if you don't have a separate Prtscr/Sysreq key this may not be possible

probably right -so that rules out the RESUB command, but if xieu90 does have alt -backspace,
( press alt 1st then backspace 2nd)
then it should work - like - immediately

[eddie]

Random
Entry
If
System
Utterly
B*gg*r*d

Wish I'd known this the other week when my system hung due to a rogue CD rom. Ended up reformatting and re-installing.

eddie

[halocog]

thanks!!

[Husse]

@ eddie
It's mostly fairly safe to cut the power - but of course one day you do that when it's not - has happened to me (in Windows though)

[Nervewax]

Thanks for this, I had this exact problem on my first ever Linux experience and I did just reach for the power button...

I will probs end up using ctrl + alt + backspace though as 'linux n00b' and 'pierre' suggested...

[alanMor]

So if i actually shut down with the power can i damage the hard drive??? cuz i did that (before i read this thread ) and now my laptop doesn't want to boot and its making a strange noise....

[kai3345]

Fuuny! This is a nice way to reboot. Don't want to try it yet though.

[Lolo Uila]

So if i actually shut down with the power can i damage the hard drive??? cuz i did that (before i read this thread ) and now my laptop doesn't want to boot and its making a strange noise....

Damage the hard drive... not likely (especially on a laptop). Corrupt the data on the hard drive, yes. Modern hard drives cache data to enhance performance. If the power is cut before that cached data is written, then the data will likely be lost. If the data happens to be something needed by the file system then the file system itself can become corrupt. Modern journaling file systems can often recover from this, but nothing is guaranteed. Always better to do a "safe" shutdown/reboot when possible.

[jxgreat]

Well good.
But while completing typing it unmounted all the drives and terminated the tasks but it doesn't restart my computer. I have to manually press the power button to shutdown it.

[NPBrowning]

Awesome tip! I have encountered some System freezes lately on Linux Mint 8 so I switched to 10.

[geazzy]

Good tips, I do if my PC hangs

[Tannn3r]

This didn't work for me. I ended up having to force a shut down.

[donec]

Does anyone have any ideas as to why our computers are freezing?

[sabresofparadise]

you will know when to utilize REISUB as all other keyboard commands basically have no effect whatsover when your system freezes, it's probably the best get out jail card there is in Linux...