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Suffering occasional system freezes

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Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #25 on: January 13, 2018, 09:18:50 AM »
 

trinidad

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Again to use LUKS the way you want to use it requires learning the neccessary commands. There are many ways to set it up (though you have chosen one with some difficulty). If you are intent on the configuration you have described, and intent on encrypting the whole disk before installation, it is best to install the system without swap and without any other partitions, and configure swap afterwards which will require a knowledge of LUKS. You probably already have misalligned partitions on all three of your machines. Read up on LUKS first and be sure you understand what you are trying to accomplish, and read the LL help manual before reinstalling.

TC
All opinions expressed and all advice given by Trinidad Cruz on this forum are his responsibility alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or methods of the developers of Linux Lite. He is a citizen of the United States where it is acceptable to occasionally be uninformed and inept as long as you pay your taxes.
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #24 on: January 13, 2018, 07:36:40 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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Firstly, the terminal command is actually sudo fdisk -l in my previous post.  Sorry for missing the sudo part out.

Secondly, both my other LL laptops (my alternate and my test unit), still running kernel 4.4.0-generic 98 without serious issues, report the same under sudo fdisk -l.  This suggests the configuration was set up at installation ("build time").

This means that anyone (especially a fellow newbie) who follows the prompts from the 64-bit LL 3.6 live-DVD during installation, but checks "encrypt entire hard disk" (and the wipe disk) option may get the same configuration as I have.

Using the terminal commands suggested at

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-check-swap-usage-command/

I get the following:-

Code: [Select]
ian@linux02:~$ cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/dm-2                               partition 4108284 0 -1
ian@linux02:~$ swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/dm-2                              partition 4108284 0 -1
ian@linux02:~$ free -g
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:              3           0           2           0           0           2
Swap:             3           0           3
ian@linux02:~$ free -k
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        3960120     1026068     2187332      127540      746720     2555424
Swap:       4108284           0     4108284
ian@linux02:~$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3867        1002        2135         124         729        2495
Swap:          4011           0        4011
ian@linux02:~$ vmstat
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ------cpu-----
 r  b   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs us sy id wa st
 0  0      0 2186944  32080 714664    0    0    51     8   85  300  4  1 94  1  0
ian@linux02:~$ vmstat 1 5
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ------cpu-----
 r  b   swpd   free   buff  cache   si   so    bi    bo   in   cs us sy id wa st
 0  0      0 2187068  32088 714992    0    0    50     8   85  300  4  1 94  1  0
 0  0      0 2185952  32088 716096    0    0     0     0  355  982  3  2 95  0  0
 0  0      0 2186324  32088 716096    0    0     0     0  407 1303  2  4 93  0  0
 0  0      0 2186200  32096 716096    0    0     0    12  314  950  2  2 96  1  0
 0  0      0 2186324  32096 716096    0    0     0     0  327 1000  3  1 96  0  0

However, one of these three units (I am not sure which), has shown swap being used when I was running task manager previously; complete with noticeable disk activity.  This suggests that at some point in ..98, ..101 and/or ..102 kernels swap had been working.  Also, I have tended to use very large, scripted spreadsheets in a project in recent past in LibreOffice, without any issues.

Again, I hope this helps.

It looks to me like swap is (or had been) working, even if it is not configured as expected(?)  Though I am certainly concerned by the red error message under sudo fdisk -l in my previous post (which is present on all three machines).

Is there any safe way to test the swap file operation?  I.e., to run a test use of the swap space, which will not cause any harm but will report the success or failure of the use of the swap space?
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Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #23 on: January 12, 2018, 09:04:35 AM »
 

trinidad

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What you are trying to do must be done via command line, as configuring an installer for this many instructions and using MBR would be too big and unusual of an undertaking. A litte research on LUKS should make this obvious to you. To start with given you decided on whole disk encryption you would use fdsik to configure the LVMs and install afterwords with your fingers crossed.

TC
All opinions expressed and all advice given by Trinidad Cruz on this forum are his responsibility alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or methods of the developers of Linux Lite. He is a citizen of the United States where it is acceptable to occasionally be uninformed and inept as long as you pay your taxes.
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2018, 08:15:56 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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Thanks again.

Also, is there any way I can avoid this problem during the actual build process as well?  For example, when upgrading to v3.8 I plan to build from fresh, rather than update from v3.6.  And I'm shortly to receive a new laptop which I plan to put LL on and would like to get the build right from the outset.

I guess this would be useful to anyone else who installs by following the prompts and opts to encrypt the hard disk.  (For example, family and friends which are expressing an interest in moving from Windows to LL!)

And if it is any help in this instance, the fdisk -l command returns as below:-

Code: [Select]
Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x435f1829

Device     Boot   Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *       2048    999423    997376   487M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2       1001470 976771071 975769602 465.3G  5 Extended
/dev/sda5       1001472 976771071 975769600 465.3G 83 Linux

Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.




Disk /dev/mapper/sda5_crypt: 465.3 GiB, 499591938048 bytes, 975765504 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/linux--vg-root: 461.4 GiB, 495380856832 bytes, 967540736 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/linux--vg-swap_1: 3.9 GiB, 4206886912 bytes, 8216576 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Don't worry about artificial intelligence.  Worry about natural stupidity.  :)
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2018, 07:53:41 AM »
 

trinidad

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Yep swap is wrong. I'll get back to you with the fix.

TC
All opinions expressed and all advice given by Trinidad Cruz on this forum are his responsibility alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or methods of the developers of Linux Lite. He is a citizen of the United States where it is acceptable to occasionally be uninformed and inept as long as you pay your taxes.
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2018, 07:04:19 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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Menu>System>Parttion Drives displays as follows:-



Process for installing LL was as follows:-

1)   Boot and insert live DVD (currently version 3.6 64-bit)
2)   Restart (CTRL-ALT-DEL)
3)   Boot from Live DVD and select Live option
4)   Connect to the Internet
5)   Change software repos to local
6)   Start the Install Linux Lite app
      English
      DO NOT download anything while installing!
      Erase disk and install + encrypt for security
      Enter encryption key + overwrite empty disk space
      Locale:  London
      English keyboard with extended WinKeys
      Enter ID, etc.  + DO NOT encrypt home folder
      Remove install media when prompted
7)   Boot from HD at restart

(and so on).

Essentially, following the default installation instructions here, except for choosing to encrypt entire hard disk (and not to encrypt home folder).
Don't worry about artificial intelligence.  Worry about natural stupidity.  :)
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #19 on: January 12, 2018, 06:50:41 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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Thanks, TC,

I've taken a screenshot, but will have to read up on how to get it uploaded here...
Don't worry about artificial intelligence.  Worry about natural stupidity.  :)
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #18 on: January 09, 2018, 10:01:41 AM »
 

trinidad

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Please open >Menu>System>Parttion Drives and post a screenshot, or post the contents of fstab from within the LL system up and running. Externally mounted (media channel) gparted will not show informative results because of LUKS. I am not satisfied that swap is correctly configured on your machine.

TC
« Last Edit: January 09, 2018, 10:03:13 AM by trinidad »
All opinions expressed and all advice given by Trinidad Cruz on this forum are his responsibility alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or methods of the developers of Linux Lite. He is a citizen of the United States where it is acceptable to occasionally be uninformed and inept as long as you pay your taxes.
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #17 on: January 09, 2018, 07:01:56 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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Hi, all,

I've got to a point now where I can begin to report back what I've found, as much in case my findings are useful to someone else, as for myself.  I haven't experienced any system freeze since (i) ceasing to use task manager unless absolutely necessary, and (ii) no longer turning off bluetooth from the default option and (iii) turning on the laptop's internal monitor (while I actually am using the external monitor.)  Kernel 4.4.0-generic 101 and 102 are the versions which seem affected in LL 3.6 (64-bit).

Technical Summary.
================

Symptom:  Linux Lite kernel 4.4.0-generic 101 and 102 (no later version yet tested) experiences total system freezes requiring hard reset (with a mean time between failures of about 16 hours).  No syslog error messages generated, system simply locks up randomly.

Main variables in play:-
BIOS vendor:  American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS version:  5.11 (03/30/2016)
Base Motherboard:  CLEVO W94_95_97JU
CPU architecture:  Intel Core i3-6100U (Sky Lake) 2.3GHz x86_64 (Family 6, Model 78)
GPU architecture:  Sky Lake Integrated Graphics (Intel) ID: 2, version: 07 (i915)
GPU driver:  ? (no proprietary driver installed by choice - xorg-server 2:1.18.4-0ubuntu0.7)
LL version:  3.6 (64bit)
Kernel version:  4.4.0-generic #x (OK *prior* to version 4.4.0-generic 101); current installed is 102, also affected.
Triggering application:  Task Manager (most likely); possibly blueman applet with bluetooth turned off or laptop internal monitor disabled.

Brief Summary.
=============

The triggering application is most likely Task Manager.  I was running this permanently in the background both in earlier Kernel versions not experiencing system freezes and those which have done so.  I then stopped performing any updates, and systematically stopped using each application in turn during which system freezes had occurred.  Three applications and one usage configuration remain suspect:-

1)  Task Manager.  This continuously updates, including plotting of graphs.  During every system freeze (including one with the computer locked - windows-L - and screens off) task manager was running.  Since no longer running task manager, no system freezes have occurred.  My hunch is that this is most likely the triggering application.
2)  Blueman applet.  I had routinely been disabling bluetooth immediately after booting up using the panel icon.  Since stopping doing so (coincident with no longer using task manager), no system freezes have occurred.
3)  Operating an external monitor with laptop internal monitor turned off; MORE LIKELY:  Just with the internal monitor turned off.  (I have also stopped locking the laptop for now.)

Additional Note.
==============

Prior to updating to kernel 4.4.0-generic 101, and with task manager running and bluetooth disabled, I had been experiencing momentary instability which coincided with syslog reports that the GPU engine had hung and been reset (stuck on render ring ... GPU HANG: ecode 9:0:0x84dffff8, in Xorg [1251]).  It seems plausible that this could be related in some way, except that one system freeze subsequent to updating to kernel 4.4.4-generic 101 occurred with the screens off during a windows-L system lock (and before I attempted to unlock the laptop).

Common causes suggested with kernel 4.4.x Ubuntu system freezes (search "freeze ubuntu skylake") is the C-State bug in the Sky Lake family of Intel processors.  I cannot rule this out.  It seems also plausible that the processes continually called by task manager (even with system windows-L locked) are causing the CPU to enter or leave this triggering state.  But it is beyond my current technical knowledge to attempt to falsify this hypothesis.

One other triggering state may be the use of an external monitor, with the internal monitor on the laptop disabled.  No system freeze has occurred since re-enabling the internal monitor as well.  Given the windows-L lock state had both monitors disabled, it would seem that it would have to be more likely the state of using the laptop simply with the internal monitor turned off.

Conclusion
=========

As far as I am concerned, pending the problem starting up again, for me the issue is solved.  I am satisfied that the most likely trigger was something task manager was doing, and so not running task manager has either prevented the issue recurring or else greatly increased the mean time between system freezes.  The other most likely possibility is that simply re-enabling the laptop's internal monitor (possibly while also using the external monitor as my main one) has solved the problem.

I note that most of the problems experienced with system freezes (but not all) in Internet searches were from users of kernel 4.4.x where a kernel was specified.  This may suggest that this kernel series (v4.4.x) is buggy in certain commonly experienced circumstances.
Don't worry about artificial intelligence.  Worry about natural stupidity.  :)
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #16 on: December 21, 2017, 09:09:12 AM »
 

trinidad

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Have a good Christmas.

TC
« Last Edit: December 21, 2017, 09:59:00 AM by trinidad »
All opinions expressed and all advice given by Trinidad Cruz on this forum are his responsibility alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or methods of the developers of Linux Lite. He is a citizen of the United States where it is acceptable to occasionally be uninformed and inept as long as you pay your taxes.
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #15 on: December 21, 2017, 07:17:01 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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Thanks TheDead and Trinidad.

It's getting close to my leaving to my parents for Christmas, so I'll have to pick this up afterwards.

I'll look for a temperature measuring app for LL.  I'll also set up the recommended image posting after xmas too.

Meanwhile, to answer your Trinidad sans-screenshot I installed using the default options except that I encrypted the whole drive.  GParted lists the following partitions:-

/dev/sda1 | ext2 | /boot | 487.00 MiB | 130.48MiB used | 356.52 MiB unused | Boot flag
/dev/sda2 | extended | | 465.28 GiB | --- used | --- unused | No flag
  /dev/sda5 | crypt-luks | | 465.28 GiB | --- used | --- unused | No flag
unallocated | unallocated | | 1.02 MiB | --- used | --- unused | No flag

/dev/sda1 has a "calculator" icon next to it,
/dev/sda5 has a "! in a speech bubble" icon next to it.
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Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #14 on: December 20, 2017, 10:56:27 AM »
 

trinidad

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How did you install this system? Did you allow the installer to partition the drive, or did you use gparted first? Disk entries in the report appear wrong.

Open >Menu>System>Partition Drives in the LL system in question and post a screenshot of your drive partitioning scheme.

TC
« Last Edit: December 20, 2017, 11:20:31 AM by trinidad »
All opinions expressed and all advice given by Trinidad Cruz on this forum are his responsibility alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or methods of the developers of Linux Lite. He is a citizen of the United States where it is acceptable to occasionally be uninformed and inept as long as you pay your taxes.
 

Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #13 on: December 20, 2017, 09:50:44 AM »
 

TheDead

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When you have a system freeze, tap the Caps Lock key a few times. If the CapsLock light does not turn on or off, you can't type anything with the keyboard usually, the computer itself has crashed...
If nothing move and mouse is frozen too of course.

The problem seems to be hardware at first glance. Can you check in the BIOS for the powersupply voltages (3v,5v,12v,etc.)? Then check temperatures either in BIOS or Linux.
Also, if you can open the computer physically and check if some capacitors or "bumped" and/or have leaked.
This is mainly for PC's and not laptops though.

I also saw electrical troubles leading to this kind of problem. An AC, Toaster, Heater or Microwave on same electrical circuit for exemple.

Software wise, maybe trying to use the computer off a live USB Linux for a day?

Good luck and Merrrry Chrrristmas! ;)
- TheDead (TheUxNo0b)

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Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #12 on: December 20, 2017, 06:48:19 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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Addendum:

So, newbie here,  alt-sysrq R E I S U B may not be working for me because I have not been HOLDING alt-sysrq while pressing in turn R E I S U B.

Correct me if I'm wrong - but as I'm reading it the correct process is to HOLD alt-sysrq while pressing in turn R E I S U B (with pauses between each of those letters)?

Also, Ubuntu only has S U B enabled by default as I understand it (though I did enable all options, and hopefully wrote how above as I now can't recall it)!
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Re: Suffering occasional system freezes
« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2017, 06:36:16 AM »
 

ian_r_h

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OK, second attempt to post and attach.

Can't be sure it is the same problem, but this unit just refused to wake-up from a Windows-L lock-with-screen-off state (usually done by wiggling mouse and entering password).

Ctrl-Alt-F1 (wait), then Ctrl-Alt-F7 failed,
Alt-Sysrq R E I S U B failed,
Ctrl-Alt-Del failed,
Tap power button failed.

Had to hard reset.

Tying to attach today's syslog and xorg logs...
Don't worry about artificial intelligence.  Worry about natural stupidity.  :)
 

 

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