Mint 12 freezes up

[vinoman]

I've been running Mint 12 64bit all day and a couple times I would have Firefox and Banshee media player playing music and then every freezes! Can't turn anything off or close programs out. I've never seen this before in Mint and I've used Mint since Mint 4.

What could this be? I had some trouble with screensavers, but until I get that fixed I turned them off.

Any clues?

[Kevin108]

Have you installed the updates?

[frenchie]

Same here. Mint 12/64 (Lisa) Installed on an empty 250GB, applied all updates. AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM. Totally, with no apparent pattern, freezes when running Fox and Bansh.
I'm perhaps not a newbie on Linux but, can anyone tell me where I find logfiles and how to perhaps turn on extensive logging? Maybe I can send the devloper team some debugging info?

On some thread I read that Ubuntu had an issue not running on VGA-mode. Are we barking up the same tree here, you think?

[vinoman]

Have you installed the updates?

yes.

if its a Banshee problem, I'll use VLC instead.

[xpander]

Same here. Mint 12/64 (Lisa) Installed on an empty 250GB, applied all updates. AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM. Totally, with no apparent pattern, freezes when running Fox and Bansh.
I'm perhaps not a newbie on Linux but, can anyone tell me where I find logfiles and how to perhaps turn on extensive logging? Maybe I can send the devloper team some debugging info?

On some thread I read that Ubuntu had an issue not running on VGA-mode. Are we barking up the same tree here, you think?

check /var/log folder for logfiles

dmesg.log , kern.log and xorg.log are the common places where to search for the info.

[VanR]

I had this same thing happen yesterday. Very frustrating. Was playing Banshee and had Firefox open and everything froze up. Had to use the power button to reboot. So this is a Banshee problem? Maybe I'll try Rhythmbox. Seems to happen randomly and not everytime I have Firefox and Banshee open together.

[Stepquick]

I actually noticed this today, I had to restart three times.

I'm testing rhythmbox at the moment, maybe that's the solution. :\

[vinoman]

I actually noticed this today, I had to restart three times.

I'm testing rhythmbox at the moment, maybe that's the solution. :\

I uninstalled Banshee... I use VLC and its fine.

[Stepquick]

Oh cool. You reminded me to re-add that. Thanks.

... Correction. already there.

[atlee]

I have 2 different machine, fresh installs, all updates and I also get freezing. whole desktop, graphically freezes. CTRL + ALT + Backspace close dm and i can login again. very annoying...menus used to disappear now instead it just locks up, this isnt even while pc is being used, I can walk away and it does this.

[hydn]

same here. Have to hold power button for 5 - 10 seconds to reboot. What was that about Linux vs Windows and crashing etc? JK

[atlee]

it's not in build 11 so it's definitely 12 related. Could be an issue with Gnome 3 and MATE, system works and runs perfectly but randomly freezes the graphical desktop. not a complete freeze system freeze, more like software freeze, mouse cursor freeze, no menus work, cannot click anything. ctrl + alt + backspace fixes this because it kills everything open. However who wants to do this all the time? especially when I'm using it on a commercial level and have vmware worksation open too. not acceptable really, Have plans to change distros if this continues.

[Stepquick]

It only seems to be related to actual gnome, and not mate, I never had this problem with mate when using this. I'll just switch to mate if this problem persists. It appears to be related to either my sound or something else.

[atlee]

everyday after each update the problem still exists freezing of gui dm and menus disappearing, thats quite poor really.

[revdjenk]

Add another one to the freezing category!

Running liveusb on LinuxCertified laptop; dual T4300 (2.1 GHz); 2 Gb ram; Intel G45 chipset, 1280 x 800 screen with LinuxMint 12 32bit.
First run-through, like the others, using FF, Banshee in background (accessing music from laptop's hdd); had changed desktop wallpaper to photo on hdd; I had opened and closed several apps, installed wine and e-Sword (a windows-based Bible program) as a test and then began searching with FF when browser lost focus, the mouse would move, but nothing was clickable. Volume control, screen brightness controls also locked. No other key combination worked except CTRL-ALT-Backspace, and then had to hard reboot using the power button. I put it all down to running out of space on my 2Gb usb.

Second run-through, had used FF, and Banshee running again (with same music chosen from same hdd source), closed FF, then opened VLC. Used VLC to view several (three) vids from the laptop hdd, but on trying to open the fourth, the same locked condition as noted above...and same escape using power button.

This could be a timing issue, as it seemed to me to be similar time frame in both instances 10-15 minutes or so.

On the GOOD side, in my use of the system, it seemed faster than 11 (which is my current sole OS on this machine) it was very snappy in accessing files, apps and configuration.
I have a test laptop (Lenovo T60, dual booting XP with openSUSE 12.1 Gnome). I will install Mint12, replacing the openSUSE to test an installed Mint12 system. I had none of the lockups in using openSUSE, using both FF, and then chromium while using Rhythmbox is the media app (already installed). I did similar usage tests, as above, including installing wine, e-Sword. But I did have to spend time with openSUSE getting codecs, installing peripherals which I did not need to do with Mint.

Hope this helps! I will report back on the T60 test.

-- EDIT --
Well, installed Mint 12 on the T60 it took 30 minutes for it to freeze, right as an update finished! Banshee is still playing an audio (i had forgotten that little bit, this was true in the other freezing instances, too). The FF window lost focus as the update finished. The mouse cursor moves (trackpad is not working [worked while live], which is why i did update, thinking it would get it working after the install.) But since Lenovo's have the Trackpoint, I was still able to move around. But clicking does not get a response, in notification area in top panel, bring up the menu or the desktop windows in the bottom panel. Cannot close minimize or move FF window. Banshee continues to play audio files one after another. I can still change volume and brightness with the T60, however.
I am puzzled! and glad I didn't install on my production system!

-- Second EDIT --
The update DID fix the T60 trackpad issue, I have also installed chromium and removed FF as a test.

-- Third EDIT -- and SOLVED?
Ok, I have been over an hour with Mint 12 installed on a T60, with no freezing, have six desktop windows open, Banshee playing, youtube video playing in Chromium, 3 powerpoints open and play one every so often, downloading audacity with synaptic, while downloading and installing a windows program through wine. No freezing... don't think it is Banshee's fault ... I think we can place this at Firefox's feet, or at least it may have a problem with Banshee.

-- Fourth EDIT --
Froze today. Had chrome open, Banshee playing, Gimp open, terminal open and working in it, when the freeze happened. Mouse moves, but no clicks register on anything. hard reboot. I was reading a bug report on this combination causing this freeze, so I had to try it. It is NOT Firefox's fault... sorry. I also cannot find the bug report as I lost that reference when the computer crashed. It is here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/889706


God Bless
Doug

[mogdad]

I have had the same problem - freezing with Banshee and Firefox open. Replaced Banshee with Rythmbox and still get the same thing. This is day two of my first experience of Mint (i'm a refugee from Ubuntu) and I'm not impressed.

[karashata]

Try disabling the MGSE Media Player extension and see if it stops the freezes. (You may need to log out and back in again, or hit Alt+F2, type 'r', hit Enter to trigger a Shell restart for the changes to fully take effect.)

A growing number of people have run into issues with the Shell freezing while listening to music through Banshee or Rhythmbox with the MGSE media player extension enabled, and disabling it stops the freezes.

Check this bug report: MGSE media player extension seems to break Shell after a period of time in use

Also, check these forum threads: GUI hangs, need to kill Xorg, Mint 12 - Gnome-Shell locking up randomly, A question and issue about the MGSE media player extension.

I hope that helps.

[carburador]

Hey, I have the same problems with Mint 12 64bits using Google Chrome and Banshee. Curiously, the music keeep reproducing when the freeze up took place, but all the menus bar disappeared.

[hairybiker]

I am having the same problem, one of the many reasons I am still using Mint 11!.
I don't use Rythmbox and have the media extension OFF. I do listen to internet radio via radiotray, the music continues but all the menus disappear, no KEYBOARD shortcuts work (ctrl-q/w etc), mouse still works and I can switch to a tty and log in so keyboard is still working.

I also have FF open and maybe it is a combination of FF and pulseaudio?

[carburador]

I've found this solution (it's in Spanish, so traduce it to your language) http://emslinux.com/problema-de-rendimi ... x-mint-12/

Apparently it is caused by some themes, that makes a 100% usage of the cpu...