[SOLVED]Cinnamon crashing seemingly at random

[deerpic]

Cinnamon randomly crashes on me, while I'm simply scrolling up or down on a page. Most of the time scrolling causes no problem, so not sure if it's related. The following two entries appear in the syslog each time:

Oct 17 11:36:14 Coruscant NetworkManager[553]: <info> [1634492174.5353] agent-manager: agent[9fcdc09fb7101c88,:1.128/org.freedesktop.nm-applet/1000]: agent registered
Oct 17 11:36:15 Coruscant /cinnamon-killer-daemon: Bound Cinnamon restart to <Control><Alt>Escape.
Oct 17 11:36:15 Coruscant cinnamon-session[6148]: WARNING: t+5.29591s: Detected that screensaver has appeared on the bus

I tried disabling the screensaver, but it crashes anyway. Any help would be appreciated. When it crashes, it takes me back to the login screen, so whatever I was working on is gone. But it's instant, it does not reboot.

[mikeflan]

Howdy. Please type this in a terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz

Post the output to this forum in "Code" tags. The button that inserts these tags is marked </>, which is in the mini toolbar above the edit box where you type your reply.

[deerpic]

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-88-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 info: cairo-dock 
           wm: muffin 5.0.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: VivoBook_ASUS Laptop E210MA_L210MA v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: E210MA v: 1.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: E210MA.307 date: 01/21/2021 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 26.0 Wh condition: 37.5/38.0 Wh (99%) volts: 7.9/7.9 model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery type: Li-ion 
           serial: <filter> status: Discharging 
           Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M705 serial: <filter> charge: 15% rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Celeron N4020 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Goldmont Plus rev: 8 L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 4377 
           Speed: 857 MHz min/max: 800/2800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 796 2: 796 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 605 vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:3185 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 600 (GLK 2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:0e.0 chip ID: 8086:3198 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-88-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter vendor: AzureWave driver: rtl8821ce 
           v: v5.5.2.1_35598.20191029 port: e000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:c821 
           IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 177.40 GiB used: 109.49 GiB (61.7%) 
           ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: TA2964 size: 58.31 GiB serial: <filter> rev: 0x8 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/mmcblk1 type: USB vendor: Swissbit model: SF128 size: 119.08 GiB serial: <filter> scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 56.65 GiB used: 23.21 GiB (41.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/mmcblk0p2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/estmob-sendanywhere.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://update.send-anywhere.com/linux/debian/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:      Processes: 225 Uptime: 9m Memory: 3.67 GiB used: 1.36 GiB (37.2%) Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
           gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: guake inxi: 3.0.38 

[mikeflan]

I don't see anything glaringly wrong. Yeah, it's a weak system, but I would not expect freezing unless running a bunch of apps at once.
At least this bumps the topic for you.

I bet you have had xfce installed on this and it ran better with that??

[deerpic]

I just recently bought the laptop, particularly because reviews said Mint ran well on it. Have only used cinnamon on it. Would an upgraded kernel help?

[Michael_Hathaway]

I could be wrong, but I think that laptop only comes with 4Gb of memory? Run htop and see how much memory you are using while randomly using apps. If you have firefox open when it crashes, chances are you have ran out of memory. You can try increase your swap size and increase swapiness number. I love Cinnamon, but it does tend to run heavier than Xfce and Mate. If it were me, I would increase the memory size before I tolerated Xfce.

[deerpic]

It's showing about 1.93/3.67GB in use, but I'm not doing much here. Swap partition basically untouched but size is only 2GB. I recall in previous installations that manual instructions were to make swap at least as large as RAM. Is this still the case, and maybe it randomly gets too high causing the crash? If so, can I simply adjust it in Gparted?

[SMG]

Open the Effects app and turn all of them off (slider to the left).

That's how I run my Cinnamon on a Celeron with only 4GB of memory and I've never had random Cinnamon crashes. However, I am not running cairo dock. Maybe that or another add-on might be causing the crashes. You would want to check the ~/.xsession-errors.old file after you log in again to see what messages might be there. That is a hidden file in your home directory. Choose a text editor program to read it.

[Michael_Hathaway]

I would just keep an eye on it. Right now I have 10 tabs of Firefox open + htop and I am using 5.42Gb/32. Mint Cinnamon.

[Edit] I lied, I have Discord, Skype and Whatsapp running also. I am a memory hog.

[Michael_Hathaway]

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System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-88-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 info: cairo-dock

Oooh...
Are you running cairo-dock in OpenGL?

You do know that you can put all your icons on the center and make the panel transparent in Cinnamon..

[deerpic]

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-88-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 info: cairo-dock

Oooh...
Are you running cairo-dock in OpenGL?

You do know that you can put all your icons on the center and make the panel transparent in Cinnamon..

I just switched Cairo-dock to the non-OpenGL 'fallback mode' instead. Will that make a difference? Also, yesterday had a Cinnamon update, and it hasn't crashed since. But it didn't do it terribly often anyhow.

[deerpic]

Open the Effects app and turn all of them off (slider to the left).

That's how I run my Cinnamon on a Celeron with only 4GB of memory and I've never had random Cinnamon crashes. However, I am not running cairo dock. Maybe that or another add-on might be causing the crashes. You would want to check the ~/.xsession-errors.old file after you log in again to see what messages might be there. That is a hidden file in your home directory. Choose a text editor program to read it.

I turned off the OpenGL version of Cairo-dock to see if there's a difference. Cinnamon updated yesterday too which hopefully helps.

[deerpic]

So it's actually 3 lines always present in syslog:

Oct 17 11:36:14 Coruscant NetworkManager[553]: <info> [1634492174.5353] agent-manager: agent[9fcdc09fb7101c88,:1.128/org.freedesktop.nm-applet/1000]: agent registered
Oct 17 11:36:15 Coruscant /cinnamon-killer-daemon: Bound Cinnamon restart to <Control><Alt>Escape.
Oct 17 11:36:15 Coruscant cinnamon-session[6148]: WARNING: t+5.29591s: Detected that screensaver has appeared on the bus

It just crashed again a few minutes ago with these 3.

[SMG]

So it's actually 3 lines always present in syslog:

None of those lines are errors. One is a warning, but warnings do not cause crashes. I can pull those lines out of my syslog and my Cinnamon is not crashing.

As I mentioned earlier, Cinnamon issues are logged in ~/.xsession-errors and ~/.xsession-errors.old. I again suggest you check there for what may be causing the issue.

[deerpic]

It just almost crashed with these entries in syslog:

Oct 18 11:46:09 Coruscant org.cinnamon.ScreenSaver[9471]: Trying to connect to logind...
Oct 18 11:46:09 Coruscant org.cinnamon.ScreenSaver[9471]: Starting screensaver...
Oct 18 11:46:09 Coruscant org.cinnamon.ScreenSaver[9471]: Cinnamon Screensaver support not found in current theme - adding some...
Oct 18 11:46:09 Coruscant org.cinnamon.ScreenSaver[9471]: Successfully using logind
Oct 18 11:46:09 Coruscant cinnamon-session[1442]: WARNING: t+7221.66334s: Detected that screensaver has left the bus

[deerpic]

So it's actually 3 lines always present in syslog:

None of those lines are errors. One is a warning, but warnings do not cause crashes. I can pull those lines out of my syslog and my Cinnamon is not crashing.

As I mentioned earlier, Cinnamon issues are logged in ~/.xsession-errors and ~/.xsession-errors.old. I again suggest you check there for what may be causing the issue.

xsession-errors shows the following:

Cjs-Message: 11:45:50.866: JS LOG: [LookingGlass/info] [weather@mockturtl#38]: Weather Information refreshed
[35421018/114558.902182:ERROR:connection_factory_impl.cc(429)] Failed to connect to MCS endpoint with error -106
cinnamon-session[1442]: WARNING: t+7211.65686s: Detected that screensaver has appeared on the bus
cinnamon-session[1442]: WARNING: t+7221.66334s: Detected that screensaver has left the bus

Thanks for your help.

[SMG]

It just almost crashed with these entries in syslog:

What does "almost crashed" mean?

xsession-errors shows the following:

Code: Select all

Cjs-Message: 11:45:50.866: JS LOG: [LookingGlass/info] [weather@mockturtl#38]: Weather Information refreshed
[3542:3573:1018/114558.902182:ERROR:connection_factory_impl.cc(429)] Failed to connect to MCS endpoint with error -106

Because you indicate the issue does not happen that often, I would not think the weather app would be the issue.

The other line seems to be related to a browser trying to make a connection? I found both references of a similar message with both Opera and Chrome. Has something to do with DNS? No one mentioned anything crash-related happening because of it.

Going back to your original post, you mention when the crash happens, "it takes me back to the login screen". Unless a browser is crashing and is bringing down Cinnamon with it, I'm not sure if what you posted is related to the crashes.

It is possible that maybe an error earlier in .xsession-errors might be a trigger. Sometimes a cascading effect happens and what triggers an event happens earlier in the session.

[deerpic]

Am trying these instructions now:

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... .html#ID25

Hoping this solves it. Will let you know.

Nope, crashed anyway while I was scrolling in Nemo.

[deerpic]

Gdk-Message: 17:36:03.048: nemo: Fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server :0.

[SMG]

Gdk-Message: 17:36:03.048: nemo: Fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server :0.

That message sounds worse that what you were getting earlier. I suggest undoing the change you made which is listed as addressing freeze issues. Freeze issues are usually of a different source than crashes might be. You did not mention getting freeze issues.