Occasional, total system freeze?

[smudge]

Running Cinnamon and occasionally for no real reason, the entire system freezes and all I can do is reset the computer. I can't open a terminal ctrl+alt+del or anything, and no error message so I can't find out what happened. Can anyone suggest what this might be or where I might find an error log? It's as if the system runs out of ram but my PC is pretty high spec and I'm only running menial apps, nothing heavy.


4.10.0-38-generic GNU/Linux
Distributor ID: LinuxMint
Release: 18.3
Codename: sylvia

[BG405]

Hi, could you post the output of inxi -Fxz && sudo inxi -m? This will ask for your password part way through. Paste between [code] & [/code] tags (you can use the button marked </> for this) as per the usual best practice on this Forum.

Logs can be found in /var/log/ eg. syslog, at least in Mint 17.x and you can also use the System Log Viewer. I'll check an LM18.3 system to find out if it's different with these.

System freezes can often be the result of lack of free memory. A handy Terminal command is free. You could watch the memory using a widget or e.g. watch -n 60 free to keep an eye on memory (substitute 60 (seconds) for your preferred value, CTRL+C to quit).

EDIT:
If you need to do an emergency shutdown or reboot, please try the "safe" method first:
For shutdown, hold CTRL+ALT, tap SysRq (usually same key as Print Screen) and press, and release, in order, with a few seconds between each keypress
R E I S U O
For reboot, hold CTRL+ALT, tap SysRq and press & release subsequent keys as above, except use
R E I S U B.
.. & release CTRL+ALT.

[smudge]

Very helpful thank you. Output below:

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user@MACHINE ~ $ inxi -Fxz && sudo inxi -m
System:    Host: MACHINE Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: MAXIMUS V FORMULA v: Rev 1.xx
           Bios: American Megatrends v: 0402 date: 06/01/2012
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i5-3570K (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 27200
           clock speeds: max: 4800 MHz 1: 1652 MHz 2: 1599 MHz 3: 1605 MHz
           4: 1599 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GK104 [GeForce GTX 670] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz, 1920x1200@59.95hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 670/PCIe/SSE2
           GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.111 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 NVIDIA GK104 HDMI Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-3 Hewlett-Packard driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 002-003
           Card-4 Blue Microphones Yeti Stereo Microphone
           driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 003-003
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network Connection
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: f040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Broadcom BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n driver: wl bus-ID: 0b:00.0
           IF: wlp11s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 25849.8GB (54.3% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: M4 size: 256.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
           ID-3: /dev/sdc model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
           ID-4: /dev/sdd model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
           ID-5: /dev/sde model: ST2000DM001 size: 2000.4GB
           ID-6: USB /dev/sdf model: Mass_Storage size: 17592.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 857G used: 71G (9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sde5
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 17.13GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-0
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C gpu: 0.0:38C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info:      Processes: 298 Uptime: 6:08 Memory: 4928.3/15998.9MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 
[sudo] password for user: 
Memory:    Array-1 capacity: 32 GB devices: 4 EC: None
           Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 size: 4 GB speed: 1333 MHz type: DDR3
           Device-2: ChannelA-DIMM1 size: 4 GB speed: 1333 MHz type: DDR3
           Device-3: ChannelB-DIMM0 size: 4 GB speed: 1333 MHz type: DDR3
           Device-4: ChannelB-DIMM1 size: 4 GB speed: 1333 MHz type: DDR3

Copying big files I get jarring suggesting a lack of swap or free memory too..

[smudge]

Update - realised I had Sophos AV running and top would reveal occasional 100% CPU usage.. I typed

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sudo /opt/sophos-av/bin/savdctl disable

This helped immediately. I will now either remove or figure out how to configure amount of resources used by sophos.

[BG405]

Update - realised I had Sophos AV running and top would reveal occasional 100% CPU usage..

AV software is usually a big resource hog and isn't really necessary on Linux systems. Best to just run it on the Windows systems as these AV programs are really only intended to detect Windows virii anyway, if you have Windows machines and shares.

[smudge]

I saw this old post about a similar issue, think copying big files is also a problem. Am I hogging memory or writing to cache? Should I expand my swap?

If anyone has a link on testing and adjusting memory that would be really handy.

[BG405]

My apologies, I missed an essential part of the emergency shutdown/reboot; I've added the missing bits in red to my above post.

I get system freezes (usually temporary) with heavy loading; only have 3GB RAM + 4GB SWAP in this machine & the browser has quite a few tabs open, some of them active (the main hog) & a number of other applications running. However, you should have plenty of RAM. You can test it by accessing the GRUB menu during POST (immediately after power-up) and selecting the memory test option. It's usually left SHIFT or ESC but there are other ways of getting the GRUB menu to show if this refuses to work.