MATE 18.3 Desktop Freeze

[JoHubb]

First post, thanks for having me on these boards.

New Linux user. Running 18.3 MATE 64-bit. Dual boot with W10 x64. I am not running VB.

Yesterday I configured triple screens using the generic graphics driver (Nvidia card GTX1070 Ti). This was easily done. The OS appeared to be running perfectly and I was exploring the menu etc.

Today, when I booted up in Linux, the program asked for my password in the usual way. It accepted this but when the desktop opened the screen was locked.
I could not open anything with the mouse cursor. The context menu was there but was non-functioning.

I'd be grateful for advice. Bear in mind, please, that I have never written any Linux script and that, at this early stage, I do not understand a lot Linux jargon.

Many thanks!
John

[tovian]

@JoHubb

You may have already done this, but I couldn't tell from your post...

Do not research a problem until it has happened several times (consistently). Often, some undefined "cosmic event" will cause a one-time problem that will never happen again. Those should not get any work-time (other than curiosity). If the problem recurs then you must sort it out.

[JoHubb]

Thanks. I know what you mean.

I managed to 'unlock' the desktop by re-booting and going into restore mode. I had to do this several times before I got a low res desktop (safe mode-style) which I could work with.

First, I updated everything which seemed relevant. Second, I found that the screensaver was set to 3 mins and that, by default, the screen was locked thereafter. I corrected these, thinking I had found the cause of the problem.

For several hours, Mate ran well (separate screens in the three monitors) and I was able to extract and read .docx files from a W10 machine in the same network. But, all of a sudden, the destop and the open libreofffice file froze.

After a re-boot I am back up and running and all seems well. I will update over the next few days.

[JoHubb]

Everything seems to be fine so far. I even managed to install an Nvidia driver for my GTX 1070 Ti.

Next thing is to arrange for my 3 monitors to have 3 separate backgrounds. The two side screens can be solid black, with a picture background in the centre screen. I can do this in Windows 10 but it requires 3rd party software.

I'd be grateful for advice. Thanks!

[tovian]

I can do this in Windows 10 but it requires 3rd party software.

Take the name of that 3rd party software then go to:
https://alternativeto.net/

Plug in your Windows software name and see if you get any hits for alternatives.

[JoHubb]

The 3rd party program is DisplayFusion.

I checked with https://alternativeto.net/

There are lots of alternatives for Windows, but none I could find for Linux.

Might have to think laterally and create a .jpg which opens with a hotkey on the main display, post boot. Or something like that..

John

[Arch_Enemy]

Everything seems to be fine so far. I even managed to install an Nvidia driver for my GTX 1070 Ti.

Next thing is to arrange for my 3 monitors to have 3 separate backgrounds. The two side screens can be solid black, with a picture background in the centre screen. I can do this in Windows 10 but it requires 3rd party software.

I'd be grateful for advice. Thanks!

Which nVidia driver? A lot of people have been having issues between the security updates and nVidia drivers. A lot have had to go back to the open-source nouveau driver to stop freezes.

Also, I was reading this at work, and my first thought was futex_wait. I think your CPU is similar to mine, and it was driving me up a friggin' WALL! (pardon my French) bu slowing my system to a crawl and freeezing the whole thing up.

Open System Monitor and set the update interval for 1 second, and leave it open and see if futex_wait pops up. However, I am running kernel 4.4 and have not had an issue with the futex queues since I did.

So, you have two gremlins going for you...the nVidia driver, ands the futex bunk. I dunno about you, but because of these two issues I am now nearly completely bald...

[Arch_Enemy]

Oh, BTW...futex_wait REALLY kills Firefox, badly!

[tovian]

This is waaaaay beyond my scope so I may be asking a stupid question... DisplayFusion has a Steam/SteamOS version. Will that run on Mint/KDE? Have you looked into that already?

[JoHubb]

Guys, thanks but most of this is waaay over my head too.

I have the 64-bit 390.25 drivers running in Mate 18.3. I have three separate screens. I can drag stuff around from screen to screen no problem. (Incidentally, the screens are wired through a KVM switch with a Windows 7 PC).
Firefox runs ok so far. I can open Windows 7 files on at least two other Windows 7 machines on the network. Word stuff opens into LibreOffice 5 without a prompt, and carries the format through - very impressive.

I had hoped to put a background pic on the main centre screen with solid black on both side mons. DisplayFusion lets me monkey around with displays in W7 - menus, taskbars and all sorts. It's the sort of program you run, set up, and forget you ever had it.

Tovian, no, I've not tried the Steam version of DisplayFusion. What makes you think it will run in Linux?

John

[tovian]

Tovian, no, I've not tried the Steam version of DisplayFusion. What makes you think it will run in Linux?

I did some very low-level research on both SteamOS and DisplayFusion. SteamOS is a Debian-based Linux variant, and Displayfusion claims to have something that works with Steam (or SteamOS). I found no direct correlation, but I just thought that some Linux guru could probably make these two work together. After doing further checking I found comments from an expert at BFS (maker of DisplayFusion) that states that there is no DisplayFusion for Linux - but that was two years ago. Anyway, like I said, this is a long way from my skill-level so my comment may have been out of place. But, when seemingly disjointed alternatives are looked at carefully they sometimes come together quite nicely.

Also, read THIS
Make sure to read the comments at the bottom - one of them may interest you.