Mint 19 XFCE keeps sporadically freezing up

[papertool87]

Hello, I installed Mint 19 a couple days ago on my Acer Aspire ZC-606, and it's been running very smoothly except for the fact that it keeps entirely freezing up, which I have to force shutdown to fix. I have the cpu/mem/swap metres in the taskbar and they never seem to be high when it happens, so I doubt that it's the processor being overwhelmed or whatever, but I'm not sure - while typing this it froze up with 21 minutes of uptime and none of the bars being even close to half full. here's the output from inxi -Fxz:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: [MYNAME]-Aspire-ZC-606 Kernel: 4.15.0-30-generic x86_64
           bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.31) Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Acer product: Aspire ZC-606 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Acer model: IAXBT-BL v: 1.02 serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: P11-A4 date: 09/17/2014
CPU:       Quad core Intel Pentium J2900 (-MCP-) 
           arch: Silvermont rev.8 cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 19325
           clock speeds: max: 2665 MHz 1: 1544 MHz 2: 1437 MHz 3: 1333 MHz
           4: 1332 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
           drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1600x900@59.99hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Bay Trail
           version: 4.2 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Def. Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-30-generic
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter
           driver: ath9k bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCIE Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: enp4s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (21.8% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST1000LM024_HN size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 916G used: 203G (24%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 189 Uptime: 14 min Memory: 1293.2/3772.4MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56 

Any help is appreciated to fix this! I'm sorry if I haven't included sufficient info, let me know if so and I'll do my best to fill in the gaps, & if I'm on the wrong part of the forums let me know and I'll post wherever's more appropriate. thanks so much in advance!

[karlchen]

Hello, papertool87.

Hello, I installed Mint 19 a couple days ago on my Acer Aspire ZC-606, and it's been running very smoothly except for the fact that it keeps entirely freezing up, which I have to force shutdown to fix.

Regular freezes is not what I would describe as "running very smoothly", though.
Are you sure the operating system is really frozen?
Users have a tendency of considering the whole system frozen in cases, where actually only the desktop environment, xfce in your case, does no longer react.

Have you tried pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Del> in situations where you think that the whole system is frozen?
Have you tried pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> in situations where you think that the whole system is frozen?
Unless this keyboard shortcut is not disabled by default on xfce, pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> might quickly return you to the graphical login screen.
This would spare you the hard shutdown, which should always be the last resort.

Even if <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> should still work and return you to the graphical login screen, this will always be a workaround only, till you have found out what the root cause is.

You should inspect the logfile /var/log/syslog for error messages, which are generated a short time before the "freeze" occurred.
You could also use the terminal command journalct -b, because it will display a few details which will not be found in /var/log/syslog.

Personally, I have a vague feeling the problem might be the modesetting graphics driver. Wonder whether device manager offers a proprietary intel graphics driver for your machine.

Best regards,
Karl

[papertool87]

Hello, papertool87.

Hello, I installed Mint 19 a couple days ago on my Acer Aspire ZC-606, and it's been running very smoothly except for the fact that it keeps entirely freezing up, which I have to force shutdown to fix.

Regular freezes is not what I would describe as "running very smoothly", though.
Are you sure the operating system is really frozen?
Users have a tendency of considering the whole system frozen in cases, where actually only the desktop environment, xfce in your case, does no longer react.

Have you tried pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Del> in situations where you think that the whole system is frozen?
Have you tried pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> in situations where you think that the whole system is frozen?
Unless this keyboard shortcut is not disabled by default on xfce, pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> might quickly return you to the graphical login screen.
This would spare you the hard shutdown, which should always be the last resort.

Even if <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> should still work and return you to the graphical login screen, this will always be a workaround only, till you have found out what the root cause is.

You should inspect the logfile /var/log/syslog for error messages, which are generated a short time before the "freeze" occurred.
You could also use the terminal command journalct -b, because it will display a few details which will not be found in /var/log/syslog.

Personally, I have a vague feeling the problem might be the modesetting graphics driver. Wonder whether device manager offers a proprietary intel graphics driver for your machine.

Best regards,
Karl

I've tried Ctrl+Alt+F1, Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, and Ctrl+Alt+Del, none of them have any effect when it happens. I've tested Ctrl+Alt+F1 outside of the freezing and it has brought me to a terminal, so I know it works otherwise.

I'll look in the syslog and see if I find anything - if it was a driver issue, how would I go about finding the proper drivers? I've gone through the usual Driver Manager and it's installed everything there was available there, that was the first thing i did after installing LM. So if it's just missing the proper drivers, where should I look to find those?

[papertool87]

i'm not seeing anything in the syslog, it doesn't go back far enough to when the last freeze was. i'll take note of the time if it happens again and post what happens though.