Linux lite freezes randomly

[BerryBenson]

Linux lite freezes randomly. I tried doing ctrl+alt+backspace and that dosen't work. I then tried ctrl+alt+f1 and that didn't work. Intresting, if the computer is not frozen, if I do ctrl+alt+f1 then it freezes

[stevef]

When frozen, you can try CTRL + ALT + F3.  This may drop you to a full screen login at which you may be able to log on and diagnose the problem.  Press CTRL + ALT + F7 to return to the GUI if you manage to fix the problem while in the terminal session.  If you can't fix it, then you may be able to initiate a shutdown and reboot from within the terminal.

If you can't get into a terminal hold down ALT + SYSRQ together and with them held press the 'r' 'e' 'i' 's' 'u' 'b' keys in that order allowing a couple of seconds between each letter.  This may initiate a tidy shutdown.

[BerryBenson]

I tried ctrl+alt+f3 can't figure out which login information I am supposed to type.

[stevef]

If CTRL+ALT+F3 gives you a login prompt at a terminal screen you log in with your normal username and normal password.

[Moltke]

I tried ctrl+alt+f3 can't figure out which login information I am supposed to type.

Linux offers the posibility to switch between GUI mode, for example in LL the GUI is XFCE desktop, which you log in to every time you start LL, and a tty, which you can access by holding Ctrl+Alt+Fn usually F7 is reserved for the desktop so you can use the rest; F1, F2 ... to start a tty session. You should get a login prompt where you input you username and passsword, the same ones you use when logging to the GUI. This is useful to debug issues like when in your case, the GUI freezes and/or become unresponsive. What can you do once in a tty? Well, that depends on the kind of issue you're facing, in your case you might want to check X logs, to do that type at the console:

Code:

less /var/log/Xorg.0.log

read the file and look for any error messages that might be related to your issue. You can also restart your pc by typing

Code:

sudo systemctl restart

type in your password when asked and hit enter. Read here for a little more info on ttys https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions...and-a-con/  and here for some tips on how to troubleshoot a GUI freeze https://www.fosslinux.com/39434/5-things...reezes.htm

Hope this helps!

[Paul74]

Hello,

I got a freeze problem when I was using internet navigator intensively, opening lot of new pages.
As I am using a SSD, I put tempfiles in RAM to limitate SSD access.
Using the command "df -h" I was able to see my tempfiles where full and it was the reason of the freeze.
Solution : I updated file "/etc/fstab" to add or modify  following parameters :

tmpfs      /tmp            tmpfs      defaults,size=1G,noatime,mode=1777        0    0
tmpfs    /var/log  tmpfs            defaults,nosuid,nodev,noatime,mode=0755,size=2% 0 0
#
none          /sys/fs/cgroup          tmpfs      defaults,size=20M        0 0
none        /run                            tmpfs      defaults,size=90M        0 0
none        /dev/shm                  tmpfs      defaults,size=800M        0 0


And it's working fine !

[BerryBenson]

My laptop froze yesterday, I tried the ctrl+alt+f3(which worked when not frozen) but it didn't work. Also my laptop dosen't have a sysq key.

[stevef]

On some keyboards, the SysRq key may be labelled 'Print Screen' or 'Prt Scr' or 'prt sc' or something similar but should still function.

It may be the lock up will prevent any keyboard interaction.  One test of keyboard function when locked is to toggle the caps lock or num lock keys and see if the LEDs toggle (if the laptop has LEDs).

If the keyboard is unresponsive when the machine locks then the options are reduced.  Random/intermittent hardware faults are hard to pin down - sometimes the systematic replacement of parts is effective but with a laptop, usually only the memory and disk are realistic to swap.

Can you see a pattern to the incidents (e.g. opening multiple tabs in a browser or running certain applications) ?

You could try booting from the install disk/stick and running the memtest option from there.  This will exercise the CPU and memory and may find something if you run it long enough.

You may consider installing something like gsmartcontrol which allows you to see the health stats of your disk(s) if they are SMART capable.  If the disk is failing, SMART may show something.

Perhaps try operating in a lower screen resolution.

[BerryBenson]

I was able to solve the issue. It deleted zram from my system. And since then my pc hasn't froze