Mint freezes after screen off

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audio2u
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Mint freezes after screen off

Post by audio2u »

Hi all,
First post here.
I've been running Mint for about 2 years, but had to reformat my machine a couple of weeks ago and reinstall everything (I run a dual boot configuration of Win10/64 and Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 3.6.7).
And ever since then, Mint will freeze once the power management has turned the screens off.
I currently have it set to turn the monitor off after 5 mins of inactivity.
Sure, I can set it longer, but that doesn't fix the problem.
Hardware is as follows:

Asus Sabertooth 990RX 2.0 motherboard
AMD FX8350 CPU
16GB RAM
GeForce GTX760 4GB OC graphics card
Root is located on a Samsung EVO850 SSD (as is Win10).
Swap is 8GB on a separate HDD.
Home is located on another HDD.

So, one the power management kicks in and turns the monitor off, I can come back to the machine and wiggle the mouse, and the screens wake up.
Mouse can move around the screen... but clicking on anything yields no result.
Caps Lock light on the keyboard can be toggled on/off, but hitting the super key will not open the Mint menu, nor will any other key presses result in any other activity.
I'd love to know if anyone has any ideas as to why the system becomes unresponsive in this way.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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kc1di
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Re: Mint freezes after screen off

Post by kc1di »

Hello audio2u and Welcome to Linux Mint Forums,
Have you installed the recommended Nvidia driver using the driver manager tool found in the Menu under Administration? If not try that first.

Nvidia cards can be a little troublesome at times but once tamed they work quite well.
Easy tips : https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/ Pjotr's Great Linux projects page.
Linux Mint Installation Guide: http://linuxmint-installation-guide.rea ... en/latest/
Registered Linux User #462608
audio2u
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Re: Mint freezes after screen off

Post by audio2u »

Thanks for the welcome!

As for nvidia, yeah, I tried that, but after installing the driver, it said the system needed a reboot.
And after the reboot, the login screen came up in gumby mode (something close to 800x640 resolution), and after entering my password and logging in, the taskbar across the bottom of the screen had NO icons on either end (it was like it was rendered to its full resolution but was unable to fit on the page), and any app I launched (I did Super key+'driv'+down arrow, which I knew from memory would enable me to launch the driver module) but nothing would show up on screen.
The one exception was doing Ctrl+Alt+T and actually getting a terminal window on screen. From there, I was able to do:
$ sudo apt-get remove --puge nvidia*
... which DID remove all the nvidia components.
Next log in, everything was back to normal.

However.....
I have just made an interesting discovery. One which requires me to now do some googling and more reading.
From the login screen, if I click on the icon (for loading a session) and choose "Cinnamon (software rendering)", the session is stable. Monitor can go to sleep and wake up just fine. I've just come back to the machine after being away for a couple of hours.
So, I'll need to find out what the difference is between the two session types.
audio2u
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Re: Mint freezes after screen off

Post by audio2u »

OK, so apparently "software rendering" means that the system uses your CPU to do all the graphical heavy lifting, which would explain why that last session felt a little laggy.
So, it's obviously SOMETHING to do with my graphics card.
But given that installing the NVidia drivers does something...
oh, I forgot to mention that in my last post.
When I rebooted after the install of the Nvidia drivers, as soon as I logged in with my password, I got a message that Cinnamon 3.6.7 had crashed, and that I was running in fallback mode. And would I like to restart cinnamon. But clicking 'yes' would simply bring the same error message back.
So, as I was saying... it's obviously all related to my graphics card, but I don't know how.
Another oddity to this install (I completely reformatted a month ago) is that after entering your password at the login screen and pressing 'enter', it takes about 10-12 seconds before the desktop comes up. Prior to the reformat a month ago, the desktop used to appear pretty much instantly.
Ah, which reminds me of ANOTHER oddity.
If I hit the Super key, and RIGHT lick on any app and select "Add to panel", I get 2 shortcut icons added to my panel. I'm assuming that that is somehow related to me having kept my /home directory from prior to the reformat.
If anyone has suggestions for fixing any/all of these issues, I'm all ears!
Thanks in advance.
audio2u
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Re: Mint freezes after screen off

Post by audio2u »

Sorry for the "stream of consciousness"...
I just remembered one other thing which may or may not be important.
Prior to the reformat last month, I was running Mint 18 Sarah.
I'm now running 18.3 Sylvia.
audio2u
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Re: Mint freezes after screen off

Post by audio2u »

Hi again.
I've just made a discovery.
I have 4 different kernels on my system.

4.4.0-128
4.10.0-38
4.13.0-43
4.13.0-45

Naturally, at boot time, the system will default to the most recent kernel; in this case, 4.13.0.45.

If I run with the nouveau graphics driver, my system will hang at the moment that power management shuts off the screen.
If I install the Nvidia 384 driver (nvidia 384.130-0ubuntu0.16.04.1), and boot using either of the 4.13.x series kernels, the Mint splash logo and the login screen are both super low-res, as previously described (something akin to 800x480). And after login, I get a "Cinnamon has crashed. You're running in fallback mode. Would you like to relaunch Cinnamon" error message. Clicking 'yes' simply results in a repeat of the message.
However, if, at the GRUB menu, I choose "Advanced options for Linux Mint" and choose to boot with the 4.10.0-38 kernel, I get a perfectly functioning, 1920 x 1080 login screen, the system WILL wake after power management has turned off the monitor... essentially, all is right with the world.
So, I guess I can uninstall those couple of 4.13.x kernels, and then my system will always launch with the 4.10 kernel.
But it begs the question... why should these later kernels present an issue?
Anyone have any insight on this?
Thanks in advance.
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