[SOLVED] Desktop freezes

[waverider]

I have a fresh install of 18.04. I'm not sure if I am in the right part of the forum as I am not exactly sure what is causing my problem.
Everything starts OK but after about ten minutes the desktop begins to cause problems eventually freezing. It begins with the background images disappearing and goes to a black screen - no menu is displayed and the only way to recover is to reboot the system with a hard reboot. On reboot everything works OK again until the same thing starts again. Often while working on an application the application will freeze and when closed the screen is black.

Any help with diagnosis would be appreciated.

[sithlord48]

If you want help you need to help us help you by telling us some basic things like , What kind of hardware, did this just start, what have you done to try to fix it? Is this every time?

[chimak111]

If you can, install inxi and then post the output of inxi -Fxxxz here.

[waverider]

Thanks for the response - sorry about the lack of information.
The problem seems to begin with menu items being inoperable eg unable to use the menu to open Konsole but I am able to access it by typing term on the desktop. Unable to start apps such as Firefox from the menu either. The it progresses to the black screen and everything is frozen - only a hard reboot will resolve the problem.

System: Host: Comp1 Kernel: 4.15.0-23-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.12.5 (Qt 5.9.5) dm: sddm,sddm Distro: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Machine: Device: desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8P67-M PRO v: Rev X.0X serial: N/A
BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0703 date: 02/12/2011
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i5-2500K (-MCP-) arch: Sandy Bridge rev.7 cache: 6144 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 26486
clock speeds: min/max: 1600/3700 MHz 1: 1605 MHz 2: 1605 MHz 3: 1605 MHz 4: 1605 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Juniper XT [Radeon HD 5770] bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:68b8
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 2560x1440@59.95hz
OpenGL: renderer: AMD JUNIPER (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.15.0-23-generic, LLVM 6.0.0)
version: 3.3 Mesa 18.0.0-rc5 (compat-v: 3.0) Direct Render: Yes
Audio: Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Juniper HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5700 Series]
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa58
Card-2 Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-23-generic
Network: Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: c000 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 124.1GB (8.1% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WDS120G2G0A size: 120.0GB serial: <filter>
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: Cruzer_Blade size: 4.0GB serial: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 110G used: 9.4G (9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
RAID: System: supported: N/A
No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Unused Devices: none
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 33.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 31.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info: Processes: 220 Uptime: 4 min Memory: 918.7/7958.9MB Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: N/A
Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191 running in konsole) inxi: 2.3.56

[chimak111]

One diagnostic you could try is to keep a konsole window open and visible with top running. Note whether some particular process is misbehaving over time.

Maybe someone else with AMD graphics has some advice.

[waverider]

One diagnostic you could try is to keep a konsole window open and visible with top running. Note whether some particular process is misbehaving over time.

Yes I have tried this but nothing seems to stand out. Processes seem to be operating normally.

[GreyGeek]

Did you keep an eye on the total memory used? Have you installed some application after the initial install? If so, it may be eating your memory. Ksysmonitor will show a live graph of memory usage. If the line continually climbs you have a memory leak. On the process tab sort by memory with the most used at the top (click on the memory header to toggle increase or decrease). The one that continues to grow (may or may not be at the top initially, but will be when you notice things slowing down) is your culprit. IF the problem is a memory leak, which is what it sounds like it is.

[waverider]

Thanks GreyGeek. I am monitoring it but the problem appear to be random. I have replaced my ssd and re-seated RAM modules so will see what happens over the next few days. I have installed about 5 applications after the initial install as well as nfs-server. I will monitor over the next few days to see if I can identify what is causing the problem