[RESOLVED] System Becomes Unresponsive then Freezes

[mowzeh]

I have recently switched over to Kubuntu from Manjaro trying to escape this very issue, thinking it was a bug that could be resolved by using a more stable distribution. The scenario is as follows. Occasionally on startup the system will become unresponsive and then freeze. I know it is unresponsive because the icons on my Task Manager become unresponsive or if I open Konsole/Yakuake I see an error "Warning: Could not find an interactive shell to start." This is closely followed by my Task Manager icons vanishing and then the entire Task Manager vanishing and nothing but my wallpaper remains on the screen with the system completely unresponsive. I have several systems with Kubuntu installed; a notebook, a desktop and an Intel Nuc. This only ever occurs on my Intel Nuc. The Nuc is an 11th gen Panther Canyon if that is relevant, and I should note that the SSD being used is not on the supported list of m.2 drives provided by Intel, however I am unsure if this could be an SSD issue.

I am not sure what output would be useful for diagnosing this problem, so please let me know what output you think would be beneficial to view and I will provide it (I am still a relative newcomer to Linux in general).

Thank you in advance.

[ShadYoung]

You should start by opening K System Log Viewer, and seeing if anything is being reported for those times. Being a very specialized little machine, it is entirely possible that your M.2 is causing some issues. Remember that it resides on your PCIe bus, so if its causing errors there, it can propagate to both the CPU and GPU. I would put the standard drive back in and test that first.

[mowzeh]

You should start by opening K System Log Viewer, and seeing if anything is being reported for those times. Being a very specialized little machine, it is entirely possible that your M.2 is causing some issues. Remember that it resides on your PCIe bus, so if its causing errors there, it can propagate to both the CPU and GPU. I would put the standard drive back in and test that first.

Unfortunately I do not have any other SSD at the moment to use. However, I can go through my system logs, is there anything I should look for in particular?

[ShadYoung]

Unfortunately I do not have any other SSD at the moment to use. However, I can go through my system logs, is there anything I should look for in particular?

Everything. See if you can find something that looks like what is happening. It is likely something is logged. You may only recognize it by the time. Obviously the best time to check is just after it happens.

[mowzeh]

Ok, so I had a related issue occur just earlier. I was working and then suddenly the desktop became unresponsive with icons and the Task Manager eventually disappearing. I tried to switch to a different non-gui terminal (tty2) but couldn't even enter any input, it just keep printing EXT4-fs errors. I have uploaded an image of these errors and pasted a link below. Any thoughts? This looks like a bad/corrupt SSD issue?

Imgur link to errors: https://imgur.com/a/1fD2egN

[claydoh]

This looks like a bad/corrupt SSD issue?

Seems like it definitely is.

[mowzeh]

Seems like it definitely is.

Damn. Any advice on applying for a successful warranty claim? The drive is less than 1.5 years old so it's still covered, but I'm aware that SSD's can be tricky to try and get a warranty claim approved.

[claydoh]

Not really, I have never tried. as I have only had two go south, and for the most recent one (last week) I am almost 100% positive the cause was user shenanigans. I am only out 20 bucks on that small one. The other one I never registered, was inexpensive cheep, so I figured it would be a hassle.

But it might be worth running diagnostics on it from a live OS session, just to see if it might be a file system problem.

[Snowhog]

You can reboot and from the Grub Menu choose Advanced options for Ubuntu and on the next screen select the first (recovery mode) entry and press Enter.

When it finishes loading, at the Recovery Menu down arrow to highlight root then press Tab to highlight <Ok> and then press Enter twice.

At the prompt type: lsblk

Identify the partition containing / on your SSD under column NAME. Mine is sda1.

Type: fsck -f /dev/root_partition (For mine it is: /dev/sda1)

Let it finish and note any errors. You might need to run it more than once.

Report back the results.

[mowzeh]

You can reboot and from the Grub Menu choose Advanced options for Ubuntu and on the next screen select the first (recovery mode) entry and press Enter.

When it finishes loading, at the Recovery Menu down arrow to highlight root then press Tab to highlight <Ok> and then press Enter twice.

At the prompt type: lsblk

Identify the partition containing / on your SSD under column NAME. Mine is sda1.

Type: fsck -f /dev/root_partition (For mine it is: /dev/sda1)

Let it finish and note any errors. You might need to run it more than once.

Report back the results.

I just gave this a go and it would not let me perform fsck -f /dev/nvme0n1p2 as it was currently mounted. It would immediately abort the operation.

[Snowhog]

Yeah, I should have been aware of that. If you can boot a Live Kubuntu, you could try again.

[mowzeh]

Yeah, I should have been aware of that. If you can boot a Live Kubuntu, you could try again.

OK, so two things to note. I had already ordered a new SSD last night which arrived today. After a clean install, almost immediately after configuring my desktop how I like it I encountered the same issue. I then booted into the live USB and did as you said. Each time returned the same results, I have an Imgur link below to a photo.

https://imgur.com/i7VrbmU

[mowzeh]

Some after thoughts about the situation. Initially I encountered this issue with Manjaro KDE. Thinking this may be a stability issue with Manjaro I moved to Kubuntu only to have it occur again. I have now tried Kubuntu on to different SSDs and both have presented the same issue. So perhaps the issue lies with something in common between Manjaro KDE and Kubuntu, i.e, KDE. Considering the NUC is running an 11th gen CPU which has Intel Iris Xe onboard graphics, perhaps the issue is support for this GPU on the OEM Intel motherboard?

Regrettably, maybe it is time I try a GNOME desktop? Thoughts?

[mowzeh]

I tried and (immediately) failed to be able to appreciate a GNOME desktop. So I decided to give Kubuntu another go with a different tactic. In all my previous installations I setup and use activities for multi-tasking in my workflow. This setup is not an issue on my office desktop and notebook, only ever a problem on my NUC. So perhaps the issue lies with the activities and their load on the GPU?

I have reinstalled Kubuntu and ditched activities in favour of virtual desktops. After doing some research, virtual desktops are in fact what is most appropriate for my application, where I would like my windows spread neatly over different desktops to be able to hop between. I will keep track of this and how it goes over the next work day.

[claydoh]

I tried and (immediately) failed to be able to appreciate a GNOME desktop. So I decided to give Kubuntu another go with a different tactic. In all my previous installations I setup and use activities for multi-tasking in my workflow. This setup is not an issue on my office desktop and notebook, only ever a problem on my NUC. So perhaps the issue lies with the activities and their load on the GPU?

I have reinstalled Kubuntu and ditched activities in favour of virtual desktops. After doing some research, virtual desktops are in fact what is most appropriate for my application, where I would like my windows spread neatly over different desktops to be able to hop between. I will keep track of this and how it goes over the next work day.

if it helps, and you want to have a completely separate workflow for something (which Activities are more geared towards), or just play with Activities sometimes, you can just turn them off and on as needed. This should save on graphics resources.