[SOLVED] A Reboot Method that Always Works?

[Lord Smedley]

I just lost more than a half hour to trying to get my frozen Mint Cinnamon-Tara laptop to reboot.

I did repeated Google searches and tried every keystroke combination I could find to force reboot or bring up a terminal or bring up a task manager. Not one of these keystroke combinations worked. I finally ended up closing my laptop for a few minutes and when I opened it back up I got the login screen. After logging in, things were back to normal.

One of the only good things you can say about Windows 95 and later is that you could always force a reboot or open the task manager. It doesn't appear to me that a clean install of Cinnamon-Tara offers this functionality in a way that can be counted on to work every single time.

Is there anything that I can install that will more reliably give me the power to force a reboot or to kill processes in situations like this?

[all41]

I don't think there is a method that always works, even with windows.

This will reboot most stubborn freezes, except in rare situations where the keyboard is also locked:

Press Alt and continue to hold, press and release PrtScn,
while continuing to hold down the Alt key enter the letters r e i s u b with a couple seconds pause between each.

[AscLinux]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

Note, this feature must be enabled in kernel. Which probably is the case with mainstream distros.

[AZgl1800]

I don't think there is a method that always works, even with windows.

This will reboot most stubborn freezes, except in rare situations where the keyboard is also locked:

Press Alt and continue to hold, press and release PrtScn,
while continuing to hold down the Alt key enter the letters r e i s u b with a couple seconds pause between each.

Press and Release PrtScn ??

this is the first time I have read this, all instructions I have seen, and always do,
is to hold both ALT and PrtScn down continuously while using the kybd r e i s u b keystrokes

might as well mention, that r e i s u o powers off the PC.

[carum carvi]

This will reboot most stubborn freezes, except in rare situations where the keyboard is also locked:

Press Alt and continue to hold, press and release PrtScn,
while continuing to hold down the Alt key enter the letters r e i s u b with a couple seconds pause between each.

The above advice from All41 works for me as well.

Just as Azgl mentions, I had read as well that one had to hold both "alt" and "prtscn" down, all the time. But nothing happens when I do that.

An easy way to remember the long Alt PrtScn R E I S U B command is the following: Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring

[JoeFootball]

I too had read many instructions detailing that both Alt and SysRq had to be held throughout the procedure, but within the last year, I've learned that it's indeed just Alt that needs to be held down throughout. I've found better results with the left Alt key vs. the right one (but this may be circumstantial evidence).

Also, wait a second or two between keystrokes, and give some time for the reboot/shutdown to occur. Realize that this procedure is invoking a series of processes to gracefully bring the system down, and they don't always execute instantaneously, especially on a frozen one.

Lastly, for clarity, it's actually SysRq, not PrtSc, that needs to be used. Yes, on most keyboards this is the same key, but not always.

PrtSc-SysRq.png

Joe

[AndyMH]

As well as a system reboot with REISUB & REISUO, if you know the offending process, you can also open a terminal and use the kill command, for example killall conky will shutdown conky, something I've done frequently when debugging my conky scripts.

[trytip]

if your system is froze your keyboard or mouse may also be frozen. hold the POWER button to turn OFF usually works on almost every device. you can also take out the battery if nothing works.

[AZgl1800]

if your system is froze your keyboard or mouse may also be frozen. hold the POWER button to turn OFF usually works on almost every device. you can also take out the battery if nothing works.

if at all possible, this method is to be avoided.....
does terrible things to the file system..... just so everyone is on the same page....

99% of the time, when my PC freezes up, I can be very patient with Alt-SysRequest and entering the R E I S U O very slowly, like 3 or 4 seconds between each key and it will answer that request eventually

I prefer to use the Off command, not the Boot command......
on my laptop, the results are more consistent

[Lord Smedley]

This will reboot most stubborn freezes, except in rare situations where the keyboard is also locked:

Press Alt and continue to hold, press and release PrtScn,
while continuing to hold down the Alt key enter the letters r e i s u b with a couple seconds pause between each.

Thanks, all41, for the response!

I took a moment to try this on my non-frozen laptop, and it rebooted right away. I'll eagerly try it the next time my laptop freezes, which seems to be every week or so with my Cinnamon/Tara installation and heavy use of Chrome and Signal.

[all41]

This will reboot most stubborn freezes, except in rare situations where the keyboard is also locked:

Press Alt and continue to hold, press and release PrtScn,
while continuing to hold down the Alt key enter the letters r e i s u b with a couple seconds pause between each.

Thanks, all41, for the response!

I took a moment to try this on my non-frozen laptop, and it rebooted right away. I'll eagerly try it the next time my laptop freezes, which seems to be every week or so with my Cinnamon/Tara installation and heavy use of Chrome and Signal.

Eventually you will need to address the cause of these lockups though. Use the log viewer app included with your system.
Also run your ram tests from the grub screen--that is a likely culprit for such intermittent issues.
Post back your teminal results of

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

You will get expert advice with this information

[Lord Smedley]

Eventually you will need to address the cause of these lockups though. Use the log viewer app included with your system.
Also run your ram tests from the grub screen--that is a likely culprit for such interminnent issues.
Post back your teminal results of

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

You will get expert advice with this information

I can't get Grub to open by tapping the left or right shift keys during boot. I've got the latest Acer Swift 1 that's all stock so I'm just going to assume for now that the memory is good.

Since these lockups moving forward should now only cost me five minutes a week I'm going to wait to after Tessa is installed to see if they persist. If they do, I'll access Grub through a live Mint install from a USB drive to check the memory, and then I'll do the other diagnostic work you recommend. But hopefully between Tessa and the next version of Chrome my laptop's instability will spontaneously resolve.

I greatly appreciated your advice!

[all41]

can't get Grub to open by tapping the left or right shift keys during boot

When the oem splash screen appears press and hold the left shift key to display the grub menu

[Lord Smedley]

can't get Grub to open by tapping the left or right shift keys during boot

When the oem splash screen appears press and hold the left shift key to display the grub menu

Nope, doesn't work. I think because I didn't set up my laptop to be dual-boot with Windows, partly out of lack of disk space and partly from never wanting to use Windows ever again. I'm confident I can open Grub if I do a live Mint boot from my USB drive, but I haven't gotten around to buying a USB drive yet. I would like to do a RAM test, even though I'm confident that it's working properly.

[all41]

can't get Grub to open by tapping the left or right shift keys during boot

When the oem splash screen appears press and hold the left shift key to display the grub menu

Nope, doesn't work. I think because I didn't set up my laptop to be dual-boot with Windows, partly out of lack of disk space and partly from never wanting to use Windows ever again. I'm confident I can open Grub if I do a live Mint boot from my USB drive, but I haven't gotten around to buying a USB drive yet. I would like to do a RAM test, even though I'm confident that it's working properly.

You can do a ram test booting to a usb/dvd install medium.
Make sure the medium is selected in bios.
When you see the Automatic Boot countdown screen press Enter.

[kaylux]

This was a really useful and fascinating post. If anyone is interested in what the letters REISUB mean, hereś a site which explains: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key