[SOLVED] random video/system freeze on Mint 20.2 & 20.3

[ggill]

I've been using Mint happily for about 30 months on an older system successfully. It's a Dell XPS 8300 desktop from 2012 with 32gb RAM - it's still very functional - no problem for example to watch 1080p video as long as I store the files on the SSDs.

Here's the output of inxi -Fxxxrz:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-94-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 wm: muffin 5.2.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Dell product: XPS 8300 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 3 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0Y2MRG v: A01 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A06 
  date: 10/17/2011 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M510 serial: <filter> 
  charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-2600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54279 
  Speed: 2245 MHz min/max: 1600/3800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2110 2: 2011 
  3: 2238 4: 1839 5: 1925 6: 1928 7: 2255 8: 2662 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Juniper XT [Radeon HD 5770] driver: radeon v: kernel 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:68b8 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: ati,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1200~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD JUNIPER (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.4.0-94-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 21.0.3 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio 
  vendor: Dell XPS 8300 driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  chip ID: 8086:1c20 
  Device-2: AMD Juniper HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5700 Series] 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 1002:aa58 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-94-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network 
  Adapter 
  vendor: Dell Inspiron M5010 / XPS 8300 driver: wl v: kernel port: e000 
  bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:4727 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetLink BCM57788 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe 
  vendor: Dell XPS 8300 driver: tg3 v: 3.137 port: e000 bus ID: 04:00.0 
  chip ID: 14e4:1691 
  IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 10.01 TiB used: 8.79 TiB (87.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1ER164 size: 1.82 TiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC26 scheme: MBR 
  ID-4: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2CV104 
  size: 3.64 TiB rotation: 5425 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 0001 scheme: GPT 
  ID-5: /dev/sde type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM 010-2EP102 
  size: 931.51 GiB serial: <filter> rev: CC43 scheme: GPT 
  ID-6: /dev/sdf type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM003-1ER162 
  size: 931.51 GiB rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC45 scheme: GPT 
  ID-7: /dev/sdg type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM 003-1ER162 
  size: 931.51 GiB serial: <filter> rev: CC45 scheme: GPT 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 
  port: f020 bus ID: 00:1f.2 chip ID: 8086.2822 rev: 05 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 14.96 GiB used: 650.4 MiB (4.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1 
  ID-2: /home size: 359.46 GiB used: 112.24 GiB (31.2%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/sdc6 
  ID-3: /usr size: 119.65 GiB used: 24.67 GiB (20.6%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/dm-3 
  ID-4: /var size: 29.93 GiB used: 18.68 GiB (62.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc5 
  ID-5: swap-1 size: 32.00 GiB used: 2.0 MiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-4 
  ID-6: swap-2 size: 4.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdc7 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 73 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu focal-cran40/
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bit-team-stable.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bit-team/stable/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/font-manager-staging-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/font-manager/staging/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubuntu-ppa-backports-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubuntu-ppa-ppa-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/ppa/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lyx-devel-release.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lyx-devel/release/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qbittorrent-team-qbittorrent-stable-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/slack.list 
  1: deb https://packagecloud.io/slacktechnologies/slack/debian/ jessie main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list 
  1: deb https://paulcarroty.gitlab.io/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/debs/ vscodium main
Info:
  Processes: 403 Uptime: 1h 19m Memory: 31.34 GiB used: 11.51 GiB (36.7%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 7/9 
  Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

Starting with Mint 20.2 and kernel 5.13, I believe, in Fall 2021, I started to get random video freezes which prevented any kind of recovery of control that I could find.

Suddenly both screens on my dual monitor setup would blank but with patterns on each screen. For example, both screens could be white. Or one screen could be gray and the other a kind alternating striped paler/darker green. Or other patterns. (Couldn't take screenshots of course but I suspect it's not too important.)

This could happen within 30 seconds of signing in to my system after startup, or it could be many hours or a couple of days before it happened.

The screen freezes. I've tried the various key sequences that can restart or kill Cinnamon, or kill xorg, or switch to a console: Ctrl-Alt-Esc, Ctrl-Alt-Bksp, Alt-F2 r Enter, Ctrl-Alt-F1. I've tried Alt-SysRq REISUB and REISUO. All with no luck. I can't regain any kind of control when the freeze happens.

While the screen is frozen, system activity does seem to continue at least for a short while - it's very hard to tell. For example if I was running a backup when this happens disk accesses seem to continue on for a while.

Typically after a couple of minutes in the frozen screen state described, I'll get back what was on my screens just prior to the freeze and screen blank, but with a spattering of discoloured pixels here and there. The system is still frozen. Then, in many cases but not all, the system will reboot. It doesn't do a clean shutdown based on the file system checks that occur and the system reporting tool (that shows nothing for this case) that pops up when I login again. There's no crash dump.

Rather oddly, after a couple of months the problem seemed to go away, or I was very lucky and it didn't trigger again for 2-3 weeks. But then I upgraded to Mint 20.3 and it started happening again right away.

I've tried on kernels 5.11 and 5.4 and still get the problem. (I'm running 5.4 now.) I've also tried hardware tests and stress tests:

• Dell diagnostics in thorough mode
• s-tui with stress
• various graphics card stress tests from here: https://www.maketecheasier.com/stress-t ... ard-linux/ (suspecting a card problem) including:
  • glmark2
  • gputest (furmark)
  • glxgears
  • phoronix test suite

Although I got the freeze once while running s-tui with stress and once with furmark and both times I thought "aha!" I was completely unable to recreate the freeze under the same tests subsequently. So I think it was just random. None of the tests suggested there was a hardware problem in the graphics card or in other parts of the system.

What else can I do to check hardware and drivers, please?

Regards,
Graham

[ggill]

I think it's a hardware problem.

From another thread:

But now I know I'm facing a hardware problem. Last night my system would freeze (with only one monitor physically connected) in the way described in [this thread], repeatedly, within a couple of minutes of logging in to Cinnamon, with kernels 5.4 and 5.13.

And then, for the first time, it started freezing even before the OS had loaded, and tellingly, one time it gave a similar behaviour as described in [this thread], where the screen in Cinnamon blanks, then comes back frozen with some pixels altered. In this case, after the Dell logo system startup screen and the RAID controller details screen, after a screen blank, my RAID details came back up on screen (still in video memory I guess) but with the odd pixel lighting up when it shouldn't be, and a patch of blue somewhere (normally the screen has no background colour, it's just an ASCII text screen with mostly white text and some green) and one occurrence of the word "Member" with a j in place of b, "Memjer". That was really weird. Still, ASCII b has code 1100010 in binary, and ASCII j has code 1101010: a change in just one bit. The system was frozen at that point.

So I think my video card is dying, and those two video stress tests which failed but which I couldn't replicate subsequently weren't coincidental, but just inconsistent behaviour of a slowly dying card.

Graham

[miguel91_it]

Yeah, your problem occurred with me too, the exactly same problem. For me there was the additional freezes when i connect any bluetooth or usb.

Random and short freezes but audio and IOs still continue working. In the same mint versions 20.2 and 20.3. It's wierd.

I tryied some kernels (5.4.100, 5.8, 5.13) and nothing.

After a day angry with this and trying to read several forums, i remember that almost a year ago my laptop was running fine my mint. I thought a lot and realized that in that time i was using Mint 20.1.

What I decided to do?

Reinstall the 20.1 from scratch. After the installation i realized that the frozens were gone, specially when i connect any device. I decided go further and discover the exact point the freezes would return. Firstly i've installed the cinnamon 4.8.6, and nothing happened. Then i installed the kernel 5.4.100 again, and all working fine. Upgraded again the kernel to 5.8 and 5.13. Everything was fine.

In that point i realized that the kernel was not the problem.

So, with kernel 5.13 (different from the default mint distributiuons) i've upgraded the mint to 20.3. And boom: the freezes come back.

I saw that the cinnamon default version in mint 20.3 was 5.2.7.

This versions is generating this problem.

And more precisely, the lightDM, in my machine, goes to 100% of CPU usage when it freezes.

How to solve? I don't know.

After all of this i reinstall again the mint 20.1, kernel 5.13 and i'm happy again. I don't care a lot about the mint version.

[SMG]

I saw that the cinnamon default version in mint 20.3 was 5.2.7.

This versions is generating this problem.

Welcome to the forum, miguel91_it.

If the version of Cinnamon was causing a problem, that would be happening to more than just one or two people--everyone would have the problem. That is not the case.

You have different hardware than the OP of this topic which means the source of the issue is likely different. I would recommend you make a new topic and provide the information requested in Section 5 of READ: How To Get Help! in the first post of that new topic in order to get help with your issue.

[ggill]

Problem solved by

1. Disconnecting monitors from my Radeon card and just keeping two of them on my available Intel integrated graphics ports. I needed to mark phantom monitors that appeared to be connected to the Radeon as inactive in the Displays applet, in order to keep the card from doing anything. No freezes as long as I did this. (More dying card weirdness.)
2. Replacing the dying Radeon card with an Nvidia GeForce GT 1030.

All good now, all monitors back, no freezes, no phantom monitors.