Get out of a freeze

[claude_edmonton]

OK this is the newbie section. I'm not necessarily a newbie as I've been using Linux Mint and Ubuntu for several years, but sometimes still feel like a newbie, as I've never mastered the terminal or some more advanced functions.

I never understood why there wasn't a crtl+alt+del function that would bring up a GUI task manager or restart the PC if pressed multiple times.

Before, I could restart by doing ctrl+alt+printscreen+REISUB, but now it's not working anymore...

Every tutorial I read to how to get out of a freeze always says to go to terminal, but PC can't do that, it's unresponsive, or press ctrl+alt+f1, but it never works for me, I'm stuck pressing on the power button to force restart.

What are the easiest ways to get out a freeze when pretty much everything is unresponsive?

[carum carvi]

Cut the power and restart the computer is the easiest way.

The fact that REISUB does not work anymore, might point to something more serious going awry inside your computing machine.

What are your specs?

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

[Hoser Rob]

If REISUB isn;t working try REISUO

[claude_edmonton]

Cut the power and restart the computer is the easiest way.

The fact that REISUB does not work anymore, might point to something more serious going awry inside your computing machine.

What are your specs?

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

System:
Kernel: 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 4.6.6 Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana
base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP EliteBook Folio 1040 G2
v: A3009DD18303 serial: <filter>
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 2270 v: KBC Version 81.2B serial: <filter>
BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: M76 Ver. 01.16 date: 04/18/2019
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 36.8 Wh condition: 38.5/38.5 Wh (100%)
model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: Unknown
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M510
charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-5300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Broadwell rev: 4 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
bogomips: 18358
Speed: 867 MHz min/max: 500/2900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 798 2: 798
3: 798 4: 798
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
resolution: 1600x900~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.0.8
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0
Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0
Device-3: RODE Microphones type: USB
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus ID: 2-2.4:4
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-42-generic
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-LM driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 5080
bus ID: 00:19.0
IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: ef80
bus ID: 03:00.0
IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 1.00 TiB (88.0%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Kingfast model: N/A size: 238.47 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Seagate model: Portable size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 232.08 GiB used: 164.30 GiB (70.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
ID-2: /boot size: 703.5 MiB used: 304.1 MiB (43.2%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda1
ID-3: swap-1 size: 980.0 MiB used: 46.7 MiB (4.8%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-2
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: 0.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 243 Uptime: 18h 34m Memory: 7.65 GiB used: 3.83 GiB (50.0%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17
inxi: 3.0.38

[Moem]

Cut the power and restart the computer is the easiest way.

It is. But not the safest. Damage to the file system may occur.

[BG405]

Damage to the file system may occur.

... And often does.

I assume Terminal will open when the system is running normally? I see you're using about half your RAM; maybe it's filling up & causing swappage.

Might be an idea to leave a Terminal window open with e.g. watch -n5 free running in it. Restart your browser before it fills much above 7GB: this should release RAM.

YouTube is the worst culprit for hogging memory, it seems.

I often use htop for monitoring (and occasionally killing) processes. Not sure if that's pre-installed in Mint these days but it should be in the repos if not.

[Flemur]

I never understood why there wasn't a crtl+alt+del function that would bring up a GUI task manager or restart the PC if pressed multiple times.

crtl+alt+del "should" log you out; then the display manager GUI (e.g. lightdm) "should" let you log back in or let you reboot/shutdown.

Also ctrl+alt+F1 (or try F2,F3,...) "should" show a console login screen where you "should" be able to reboot.

If (alt+sysreq/printscreen) + REISUB doesn't work, try typing REISUB slower.

Also,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key
says:
(for Linux Mint, the combination is Ctrl Alt+SysRq ) ???
(is that correct?)
Edit: I just tried it with Mint 20 and you don'tneed the Ctrl...

[GS3]

YouTube is the worst culprit for hogging memory, it seems.

I seem to have more of a problem with pages with "infinite scrolling" like MSN.com. Infinite scrolling is the work of the devil.

When my computer freezes, sometimes REISUB works and sometimes not. I try to be patient and wait a bit before doing a hard reset.

Now that I think about it, I was having more freezes when I had only 4 GB RAM and I do not remember having any since I upgraded to 8 GB.

[BG405]

Infinite scrolling is the work of the devil.

I agree totally. Not just hard to navigate with that ever--moving-and-shrinking scrollbar handle but one can not pre-load pages for offline viewing, like I do sometimes with this Forum.

I try to be patient and wait a bit before doing a hard reset.

This is often the key. Wait for it to finish swapping and it should recover somewhat.

[claude_edmonton]

Thank you, I will remember to try to be patient with the REISUB. It's just, when PC freezes, fan will go up at full speed like it will explode and it doesn't seem to stop.

Is there a way to pull up a task manager when everything is frozen and terminal doesn't want to open, like ctrl+alt+del in Windows? Or the only when that happens is really to reboot?

[BG405]

If the fan is running full-pelt it means the CPU is doing some serious number-crunching. Likely swapping or possibly indexing ( but the latter usually just results in excessive disk-chattering without degrading performance too much, on modern systems). If you aren't in a major hurry, wait until it slows down before attempting anything. How long have you been patient enough to leave it for? Mine has been known to take 20 minutes when REALLY bogged-down.

It's frustrating but can save the headaches of a corrupted filesystem & the resultant fsck or even a completely borked system.

As I said, keep an eye on memory usage with the watch command I gave you; if it's getting full you are shortly going to hit the buffers, so to speak, unless you release memory by stopping and reloading those memory-hungry processes.

EDIT - This:

[If (alt+sysreq/printscreen) + REISUB doesn't work, try typing REISUB slower.

... wait a few seconds between keypresses.

[ptrbrn]

I had the same problem w/ installed ubuntu-20.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso & Live on USB drive, both tried on 2 separate PCs & keyboards.
The right Alt key does not work for above & on linuxmint-20.1-xfce-64bit.iso Live.
The left Alt key works in all cases above. Left-Alt+PrtScn+R-E-I-S-U-B