Lock Screen Freezes

[thunderclap]

I have the latest Linux Mint (Cinnamon) installed on a Dell Workstation that has an nVidia GPU in it. Every few days the lock screen freezes and I'm forced to drop to the command line and start the mdm service. Does anyone know why this continually happens and how to fix it? I hate having to do this so often.

Thank you.

[Cosmo.]

Does this happen exactly at midnight? We had such a case here in the forum and to my remembrance it was a kernel issue.

[CaptainKirksChair]

I have the latest Linux Mint (Cinnamon) installed on a Dell Workstation that has an nVidia GPU in it. Every few days the lock screen freezes and I'm forced to drop to the command line and start the mdm service.

When you say "the lock screen freezes" do you mean that the computer goes into suspend mode? Check the Num Lock light on your keyboard. Make sure it is on when you lock the system. Then check to see if it's off when it freezes. If so, I think you're falling into suspend mode. I had that same problem with suspend and the Num Lock light with Mint 18.3 Cinnamon on an iMac 9.1 with an nVidia GeForce 9400. I had to back-level to 18.2 so the computer wouldn't freeze. It may be a kernel thing though I don't know. I did change the suspend options in power management to turn suspend on, then I turned it off. The iMac with 18.3 still froze. Everything works perfectly in 18.2.

[thunderclap]

Does this happen exactly at midnight? We had such a case here in the forum and to my remembrance it was a kernel issue.

No, not specifically at midnight. The times have varied from 1:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

When you say "the lock screen freezes" do you mean that the computer goes into suspend mode? Check the Num Lock light on your keyboard. Make sure it is on when you lock the system. Then check to see if it's off when it freezes. If so, I think you're falling into suspend mode. I had that same problem with suspend and the Num Lock light with Mint 18.3 Cinnamon on an iMac 9.1 with an nVidia GeForce 9400. I had to back-level to 18.2 so the computer wouldn't freeze. It may be a kernel thing though I don't know. I did change the suspend options in power management to turn suspend on, then I turned it off. The iMac with 18.3 still froze. Everything works perfectly in 18.2.

I don't know if it's suspend mode or not. I'll enable Num Lock and see what happens the next time it freezes the lock screen (i.e. it shows the current time).

[Cosmo.]

You wrote in the starting post, that you use the latest version (I hate such wording, they say nothing, especially nothing about a possible user error) of Cinnamon. You also wrote about mdm, but this does not necessarily match.

So we need the basic system specs.Open a terminal and enter:

Code: Select all

inxi -Sz

Paste the output here.

You need to give this information for every help request in every thread.
Do not forget this in the future.

We also need to know, if this version, which will be reported in the output, was a original install or if this is an upgraded system. In the latter case: What was originally installed?

[thunderclap]

You wrote in the starting post, that you use the latest version (I hate such wording, they say nothing, especially nothing about a possible user error) of Cinnamon. You also wrote about mdm, but this does not necessarily match.

So we need the basic system specs.Open a terminal and enter:

Code: Select all

inxi -Sz

Paste the output here.

Output is:

System: Host: media-relations-server Kernel: 4.13.0-32-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia

We also need to know, if this version, which will be reported in the output, was a original install or if this is an upgraded system. In the latter case: What was originally installed?

It was an original install. The drive was reformatted and Mint installed fresh. No upgrade.

[Cosmo.]

Your last reply creates a new question. In the starting post you wrote, that you need to restart mdm. But in Mint 18.3 / fresh install there does not exist mdm, but only lightdm - except you have changed that by yourself.

[thunderclap]

Your last reply creates a new question. In the starting post you wrote, that you need to restart mdm. But in Mint 18.3 / fresh install there does not exist mdm, but only lightdm - except you have changed that by yourself.

You would be correct. I mistyped. In my researching the problem I came across the restart mdm solution and wrote that down in my notepad. I have below it lightdm as well. When I wrote my initial post I typed the wrong command.

[Cosmo.]

After having now put the puzzle pieces into the right place we need to find out, if this is a user account specific problem. Create a fresh new user account and do setting changes inside of it. Wait, if the problem reoccurs there.

BTW: What is "every few days" in numbers (roundabout)?

[thunderclap]

After having now put the puzzle pieces into the right place we need to find out, if this is a user account specific problem. Create a fresh new user account and do setting changes inside of it. Wait, if the problem reoccurs there.

I'll give that a try and report back. I also noticed my nvidia driver was old so updated it through the driver manager. Maybe that was causing a problem?

BTW: What is "every few days" in numbers (roundabout)?

The shortest was 3 days, the longest was 10.