[SOLVED]:LM 20.1 regularly freezes

[Oldfiddler]

I hope I have this in the right section - co-ordinators please place elsewhere if appropriate.

A few weeks ago, I installed LM 20.1 Cinnamon, having run LM 19.3 Cinnamon without problems for quite a long time. Since then, I have seen the system freeze from time to time - sometimes once a day, sometimes several times a day. I have never noticed any pattern in when the freezes happen or in what is on the machine at the time.

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john@john-System-Product-Name:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.8.0-45-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa 
  base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME Z370-A II v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 0411 date: 09/21/2018 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i3-8100 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Kaby Lake rev: B L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 
  bogomips: 28800 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 
  3: 800 4: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model 
  vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
  Device-2: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
  bus ID: 1-4:2 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.0-45-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
  port: f040 bus ID: 00:1f.6 
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 65.17 GiB (14.0%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO 500GB 
  size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.96 GiB used: 65.16 GiB (14.3%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 216 Uptime: 55m Memory: 15.50 GiB used: 1.50 GiB (9.7%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 
  inxi: 3.0.38 

I looked at the syslog at the time of a freeze today at 09:17, and the only entry around that time was:

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Mar 22 09:17:01 john-System-Product-Name CRON[3713]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)

A freeze which happened yesterday, at a time I cannot be precise about, showed the following syslog entries up to the time of restart:

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Mar 21 13:17:01 john-System-Product-Name CRON[6551]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Mar 21 13:30:01 john-System-Product-Name CRON[6869]: (root) CMD ([ -x /etc/init.d/anacron ] && if [ ! -d /run/systemd/system ]; then /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d anacron start >/dev/null; fi)
Mar 21 13:30:46 john-System-Product-Name systemd[1]: Started Run anacron jobs.
Mar 21 13:30:46 john-System-Product-Name anacron[6870]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2021-03-21
Mar 21 13:30:46 john-System-Product-Name anacron[6870]: Normal exit (0 jobs run)
Mar 21 13:30:46 john-System-Product-Name systemd[1]: anacron.service: Succeeded.
Mar 21 13:31:42 john-System-Product-Name dbus-daemon[538]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.PackageKit' unit='packagekit.service' requested by ':1.93' (uid=0 pid=7574 comm="/usr/bin/gdbus call --system --dest org.freedeskto" label="unconfined")
Mar 21 13:31:42 john-System-Product-Name systemd[1]: Starting PackageKit Daemon...
Mar 21 13:31:42 john-System-Product-Name PackageKit: daemon start
Mar 21 13:31:42 john-System-Product-Name dbus-daemon[538]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PackageKit'
Mar 21 13:31:42 john-System-Product-Name systemd[1]: Started PackageKit Daemon.
Mar 21 13:36:47 john-System-Product-Name PackageKit: daemon quit
Mar 21 13:36:47 john-System-Product-Name systemd[1]: packagekit.service: Succeeded.
Mar 21 13:38:54 john-System-Product-Name systemd-modules-load[353]: Inserted module 'lp'
Mar 21 13:38:54 john-System-Product-Name systemd-modules-load[353]: Inserted module 'ppdev'
Mar 21 13:38:54 john-System-Product-Name systemd-modules-load[353]: Inserted module 'parport_pc'

Can anyone please suggest what is going wrong and how to correct it?

[AndyMH]

You are running a 5.8 kernel, try the 5.4 kernel.

[Oldfiddler]

Thanks for the suggestion, AndyMH.
I have installed the latest kernel in the 5.4 series but now I cannot find a way to get into the menu to choose the kernel at boot. The Shift key (as per the Update Manager) does nothing and the system goes straight into the 5.8 system. The Delete key gets me into the ASUS BIOS screens but I cannot find how I get to the very simple menu which allows the choice of kernels.
Any ideas?

[pythonmegapixel]

Thanks for the suggestion, AndyMH.
I have installed the latest kernel in the 5.4 series but now I cannot find a way to get into the menu to choose the kernel at boot. The Shift key (as per the Update Manager) does nothing and the system goes straight into the 5.8 system. The Delete key gets me into the ASUS BIOS screens but I cannot find how I get to the very simple menu which allows the choice of kernels.
Any ideas?

When the system starts up, you should see the Grub bootloader menu. Select "Advanced options for Linux MInt [Whatever]", using the arrow keys, then there will be a list of kernel versions.

Once you boot into the 5.4 kernel uninstall the 5.8 kernel; that should cause it to default to the 5.4 one on next boot. (You obviously can't uninstall the kernel you're currently running on)

[Oldfiddler]

Yes, I've seen that menu previously. But I can't find a key which will get me into it now. I either get the ASUS Bios menu or I go directly into the full system (using 5.8 of course). What key gets me that bootloader menu?

[AndyMH]

It's usually the shift key.

[pythonmegapixel]

Yes, I've seen that menu previously. But I can't find a key which will get me into it now. I either get the ASUS Bios menu or I go directly into the full system (using 5.8 of course). What key gets me that bootloader menu?

Escape?

[Oldfiddler]

The Shift key does nothing - the system boots up as normal.
The Escape key produces a run of "Grub>". I entered Bootloader and it was rejected. I entered Boot and it told me that I needed to load the kernel first. No sign at any point of a Menu.
More ideas, please.

[pythonmegapixel]

The Shift key does nothing - the system boots up as normal.
The Escape key produces a run of "Grub>". I entered Bootloader and it was rejected. I entered Boot and it told me that I needed to load the kernel first. No sign at any point of a Menu.
More ideas, please.

What exactly do you see on a normal boot up without pressing any keys?
Is it just the OEM/motherboard logo (presumably Asus in your case), then a blank screen for a couple of seconds, then the green and white "lm" logo? Or is there something else in between?

If this is a laptop with a USB keyboard plugged in, have you tried using the laptop keyboard rather than the external one? Grub can sometimes be a bit funny with USB keyboards on laptops, I've found.

[Oldfiddler]

I don't see the Asus logo (unless it's so quick I can't see it!). After a short while, I see the small lm logo in the centre of the screen, followed soon after by the log-in screen, with full lm background.
It's a desktop, with a USB keyboard.

[pythonmegapixel]

I don't see the Asus logo (unless it's so quick I can't see it!). After a short while, I see the small lm logo in the centre of the screen, followed soon after by the log-in screen, with full lm background.
It's a desktop, with a USB keyboard.

That's quite odd. Every time I've installed LM in the past, a Grub menu has appeared before booting, allowing changing of settings if desired, but clearly this isn't happening in your case.

I think what you'll probably have to do is boot with your current kernel and reconfigure Grub so that the menu appears on startup for a few seconds - however, I'm not that familiar with configuring Grub so I can't really advise on how best to do this.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, and best of luck in resolving your issues.

[SMG]

That's quite odd. Every time I've installed LM in the past, a Grub menu has appeared before booting, allowing changing of settings if desired, but clearly this isn't happening in your case.

That only happens when one has more than one operating system installed. If only Mint is installed, the default is to not show grub.

The Shift key does nothing - the system boots up as normal.
The Escape key produces a run of "Grub>". I entered Bootloader and it was rejected. I entered Boot and it told me that I needed to load the kernel first. No sign at any point of a Menu.
More ideas, please.

Someone I helped this weekend had a similar problem not being able to see grub. That person ended up adding a few lines to grub as described in this post

However, this link Show the GRUB Boot Menu in Linux Mint at Startup describes commenting out the line GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden in /etc/default/grub which may be easier than adding lines.

In either case run sudo update-grub after editing and saving the file so the changes take effect.
_____________________________________
Edited to add: For the second option, you may also want to change the timeout time. Final file would change:

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GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

To this:

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#GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

[Oldfiddler]

Thank you, SMG (and the others who offered help)!
I succeeded in getting into the grub menu and am now running on the latest version of kernel 5.4. I have uninstalled the 5.8 kernels so that I'll just go into 5.4 for the next few days.

What I don't know yet is if this makes all the difference to the freezing problem. If I don't get any more freezing over coming days, I'll mark this topic as solved.

John

[Oldfiddler]

My computer has now been running throughout 3 days without a single episode of freezing, whereas I would have expected several freezes previously. It seems, therefore, that the switch to the 5.4 kernel has done the trick. I will label this topic as solved.
Thanks again to all those who contributed.
John

[Moem]

The related new question by bernd.wechner is now here. Please do not post your questions on other people's topics. Thanks!