<SOLVED> Linux Mint freezing on login screen <SOLVED>

[Migue5862]

Hi, I am currently using Linux Mint 19 64bit Mate version, and I am currently encountering this issue in which the computer 2 out of 3 times will get frozen at the login screen, the mouse pointer will keep moving however trying to interact with anything on the screen does not work, trying to input the password or using any of the on screen option will not register, I am currently using LightDM which is the login manager that was installed by default, I have already installed all updates and I have made new installs several times now, I have also checked the syslog but I have not found anything, I appreciate any help and if you could point me to the right direction
This is my inxi output

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System:    Host: migue5862-Inspiron-5565 Kernel: 4.15.0-32-generic x86_64
           bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: MATE 1.20.1 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1)
           Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 5565 v: 1.1.1 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Dell model: 0WJM4N v: A00 serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: Dell v: 1.1.1 date: 07/17/2017
Battery    BAT1: charge: 39.7 Wh 100.0% condition: 39.7/42.0 Wh (95%)
           model: Simplo 59364253000000 status: Full
CPU:       Dual core AMD A9-9400 RADEON R5 5 COMPUTE CORES 2C+3G (-MCP-) 
           arch: Excavator rev.0 cache: 2048 KB
           
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 9582
           clock speeds: max: 2400 MHz 1: 1563 MHz 2: 1486 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device 98e4 bus-ID: 00:01.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
           drivers: ati,amdgpu (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,radeon)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD STONEY (DRM 3.23.0 / 4.15.0-32-generic, LLVM 6.0.0)
           version: 4.5 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device 157a
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:09.2
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Device 15b3
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-32-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCIE Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter
           driver: ath9k bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-3: Atheros usb-ID: 002-003
           IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (5.0% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD10JPVX size: 1000.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 55G used: 6.3G (12%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: /home size: 858G used: 37G (5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 4.61GB used: 0.00GB (0%)
           fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-0
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: 38.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 3600
Info:      Processes: 181 Uptime: 17 min Memory: 1744.3/7431.8MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56 
           

[gm10]

I don't know what's wrong but as a workaround press Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in, run startx, that should load your desktop environment.

[Migue5862]

I don't know what's wrong but as a workaround press Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in, run startx, that should load your desktop environment.

I have tried this since I found a similar answer on another post but pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 does not do anything, I know that I should get a terminal screen to sign in but that does not happen, thank you for your answer

[gm10]

Interesting. Have an external keyboard that you could plug in in those situations to see if that works? Also can you click on anything? Note that tap-to-click won't work, you'll have to use the actual buttons.

[Migue5862]

Interesting. Have an external keyboard that you could plug in in those situations to see if that works? Also can you click on anything? Note that tap-to-click won't work, you'll have to use the actual buttons.

I don't have a different keyboard and once is frozen I am unable to click on anything I can move the cursor just fine but clicking anything does not register, the keyboard seems to be working since it lights up when I press it and it dims out after a while

[gm10]

Do you get tooltips when you move the mouse cursor over one of the buttons at the top panel and leave it there for a moment? Just to be sure whether it's your inputs or whether the login screen is really frozen.

If it's the login screen, maybe start off by reinstalling it:

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apt install --reinstall lightdm
apt purge slick-greeter
apt install slick-greeter
dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

[Migue5862]

Do you get tooltips when you move the mouse cursor over one of the buttons at the top panel and leave it there for a moment? Just to be sure whether it's your inputs or whether the login screen is really frozen.

If it's the login screen, maybe start off by reinstalling it:

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apt install --reinstall lightdm
apt purge slick-greeter
apt install slick-greeter
dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

Hi, thank you again for your support, I tried both options that you recommended me but none seems to work, I got an additional mouse and keyboard but the same happens, it freezes and it does not register, clicking on the power, accessibility, keyboard language icon or another user does nothing, and I have also done the instructions above that also did not work either, I am currently able to sign in by booting to recovery first then forcing any option that will make the system go to rw and then exiting recovery will let me log in properly, I have my computer with my Home parition encrypted because the installer did not allow me to make an unencrypted installation, is it possible that is an issue with the encrypted home partition? is there any known bug similar to this one with ecrypt maybe?

[gm10]

Frankly you're the first one I've seen mention this issue and for now I don't have the slightest idea what is wrong. At this point it could be anything from your amd driver over the kernel to corrupted files or even hardware issues. Might even be installing in UEFI rather than legacy mode would help. It's really hard to diagnose without any more specific evidence of what's actually at fault. I have a feeling if you do grep segfault /var/log/kern.log.1 you'll find something.

Also I wonder what happens if you just configure your system to auto-login (after you logged in go Menu > Login Window > Users and then enter your username at the bottom).

[Migue5862]

Frankly you're the first one I've seen mention this issue and for now I don't have the slightest idea what is wrong. At this point it could be anything from your amd driver over the kernel to corrupted files or even hardware issues. Might even be installing in UEFI rather than legacy mode would help. It's really hard to diagnose without any more specific evidence of what's actually at fault. I have a feeling if you do grep segfault /var/log/kern.log.1 you'll find something.

Also I wonder what happens if you just configure your system to auto-login (after you logged in go Menu > Login Window > Users and then enter your username at the bottom).

I used to have UEFI Activated but it was a real pain and I changed to legacy, since I removed Windows completely anyway and before with Mint 18 I had a similar issue in which the computer would freeze randomly after logging in, but that was a driver issue and I fixed by adding the parameter iommu=soft to grub, I tried the same since I thought that it could be the same issue but that does not seems to be the case, this is all I get with with the command that you provided me

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Aug 20 02:11:42 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1602.831830] firefox[19716]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f44e89f193b sp 00007ffcb5efe6a8 error 6 in libxul.so[7f44e6481000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:13:36 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1716.065685] firefox[31339]: segfault at 0 ip 00007fe420cf193b sp 00007fff376843c8 error 6 in libxul.so[7fe41e781000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:15:25 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1825.282001] firefox[15440]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f462acf193b sp 00007fffe1094b78 error 6 in libxul.so[7f4628781000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:16:33 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1893.538749] firefox[18377]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f6f34cf193b sp 00007ffe81acf5f8 error 6 in libxul.so[7f6f32781000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:16:36 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1896.264798] firefox[18400]: segfault at 0 ip 00007fb0a56f193b sp 00007ffe9ced30e8 error 6 in libxul.so[7fb0a3181000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:16:37 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1897.565983] firefox[18406]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f20a6df193b sp 00007ffd051e66c8 error 6 in libxul.so[7f20a4881000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:16:52 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1912.668744] firefox[18515]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f96f06f193b sp 00007ffc0ba1c548 error 6 in libxul.so[7f96ee181000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:16:55 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1914.954575] firefox[18787]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f2141cf193b sp 00007ffc15be2748 error 6 in libxul.so[7f213f781000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:16:59 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1919.428558] firefox[18817]: segfault at 0 ip 00007ffad03f193b sp 00007ffdbb4a8158 error 6 in libxul.so[7ffacde81000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:17:03 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1922.925442] firefox[18827]: segfault at 0 ip 00007fc04f0f193b sp 00007ffe9ed667c8 error 6 in libxul.so[7fc04cb81000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:17:05 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1925.042262] firefox[18835]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f5936ff193b sp 00007ffd97c21908 error 6 in libxul.so[7f5934a81000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:18:00 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1980.481733] firefox[18931]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f950aef193b sp 00007fff292fddb8 error 6 in libxul.so[7f9508981000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:18:07 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1987.579799] firefox[18937]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f55b56f193b sp 00007fffb3d003a8 error 6 in libxul.so[7f55b3181000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:18:10 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1990.037746] firefox[18943]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f05b49f193b sp 00007ffe32df0dc8 error 6 in libxul.so[7f05b2481000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:18:18 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 1997.991595] firefox[18950]: segfault at 0 ip 00007fb76b9f193b sp 00007ffd28463ff8 error 6 in libxul.so[7fb769481000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:19:04 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 2044.669240] firefox[19117]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f887b1f193b sp 00007ffebba0eb48 error 6 in libxul.so[7f8878c81000+5f9a000]
Aug 20 02:19:17 migue5862-Inspiron-5565 kernel: [ 2057.003469] firefox[19123]: segfault at 0 ip 00007fa20d6f193b sp 00007ffcae499b48 error 6 in libxul.so[7fa20b181000+5f9a000]

Which seems to be unrelated since these are error that appeared when my tabs crashed, something else I have noticed is that currently the computer is running in nomodeset, which I guess is because I ran on recovery mode previously, I will try maybe changing grub to nomodeset and I will update, do you know if there is any impact performance wise by using on this mode ?

[gm10]

No boot related segfault in the kernel logs. Why can it never be easy.

nomodeset is often used when using a GPU that requires binary drivers. It's possible that you will black-screen at boot if you remove it, but it won't affect performance since your binary driver does take over once your graphical environment gets launched, so I don't expect it to make a difference, either. If you were to use xforcevesa that would make a difference since it would force fall-back graphics. Other common fall-back options to try are noapic noacpi irqpoll. Might be an idea to try all of them, see what happens.

[Migue5862]

No boot related segfault in the kernel logs. Why can it never be easy.

nomodeset is often used when using a GPU that requires binary drivers. It's possible that you will black-screen at boot if you remove it, but it won't affect performance since your binary driver does take over once your graphical environment gets launched, so I don't expect it to make a difference, either. If you were to use xforcevesa that would make a difference since it would force fall-back graphics. Other common fall-back options to try are noapic noacpi irqpoll. Might be an idea to try all of them, see what happens.

So it looks like setting nomodeset allows me to login properly without freezing, however the system did not go back to use the graphics driver currently everything is being rendered by software and all videos look really bad, it also does not recognize the monitor as it usually does on the display application it shows as unknown and has a refresh rate of 0 with a 1366x768 resolution, but it seem that is an issue with the graphics where can I look for errors for this maybe I can get a better idea from there

[gm10]

Finally, a lead. While keeping nomodeset in the boot for now, I would purge the amd driver (not sure what it's called) and reinstall it again, maybe check for a different version first. Once it's properly installed you can remove nomodeset again, hopefully it will work.

[Migue5862]

Finally, a lead. While keeping nomodeset in the boot for now, I would purge the amd driver (not sure what it's called) and reinstall it again, maybe check for a different version first. Once it's properly installed you can remove nomodeset again, hopefully it will work.

Thank you for your support, I still have no idea what the issue was but it looks like that updating the kernel solved the issue, so the issue was definitely the driver and the kernel. for the record I followed this guide from FOSS https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/ to do the kernel update, so I will be closing as solved this thread

Thanks again!

[rodia77]

Hi all, new LM forums user, new LM user, new Linux user in general, and this is my first post around here.
I experienced similar 'freezes' twice, on two different machines, both running 19.2.
I'm putting 'freezes' in inverted commas because these weren't full freezes -- the machines were reacting to keystrokes with huge (as in 20-45s) delay. So in the end I was able to get past the login screen by simply entering the passwords blindfold, both the times.
My scenario was as described here, both the times: viewtopic.php?t=290468 -- but I don't think it's related to hibernate/suspend as suggested in that thread, I have power settings set to 'do nothing' and the machines were plugged in at all times.
I'm now updating the kernel to v5.2.13 and will report if the issue repeats (keeping laptops turned on with lids closed is my regular usage pattern).
FWIW.

[Moem]

I'm now updating the kernel to v5.2.13 and will report if the issue repeats (keeping laptops turned on with lids closed is my regular usage pattern).

Hello and welcome! If that doesn't solve the issue, then please start a new thread that will be all yours.

[linuxfan2000]

I am running Mint 19.2 Tina (5.0.0-32-generic kernel) with Cinnamon desktop and have had the same issue as rodia77 twice in the last month - after waking up from suspend state the login screen has a huge delay in reacting to the keystrokes (same 40-50 sec). Upon typing the password and pressing Enter it logs in and everything is working fine after that without any delays. I checked resources in the system monitor and they were not taxed (CPU, memory etc.)

This is running on a low-end Lenovo IdeaPad 130s-11iGM laptop with dual-core Celeron N4000 CPU and 4GB RAM.