[LAPTOP] Hard Hangs

[Tahaan]

I've had a few Hard Hangs since installing Neon. (I followed the recommendation to use the install image, not any PPAs) - When it occurs I have a proper hard hang - No mouse moving, No response from the Capslock key/Numlock Key/Ctrl-Alt-Backspace/Ctrl-Alt-Del/etc. The only recourse is to "hold-down-the-power-button-for-10-seconds" :-(


I see there are numerous updates available....

The following NEW packages will be installed:                                                                                                                  
  libclang1-3.8 libkasten3controllers3 libkasten3core3 libkasten3gui3 libkasten3okteta1controllers1 libkasten3okteta1core1 libkasten3okteta1gui1               
  libobjc-5-dev libobjc4 libokteta2core2 libokteta2gui2 qml-module-qtquick-virtualkeyboard qtvirtualkeyboard
The following packages have been kept back:
  kdevelop
The following packages will be upgraded:
  apt-xapian-index bluedevil breeze breeze-cursor-theme fwupd grub-theme-breeze gtk3-engines-breeze kactivitymanagerd kate kate5-data kde-cli-tools
  kde-cli-tools-data kde-config-gtk-style kde-config-gtk-style-preview kde-config-screenlocker kde-config-sddm kde-style-breeze kde-style-breeze-qt4
  kde-style-oxygen-qt5 kdeplasma-addons-data kdevelop-data kgamma5 khotkeys khotkeys-data kinfocenter kmenuedit kscreen ksshaskpass ksysguard ksysguard-data
  ksysguardd kwayland-integration kwin kwin-addons kwin-common kwin-data kwin-style-breeze kwin-x11 kwrite kwrited libdfu1 libdrm-amdgpu1 libdrm-dev
  libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libfwupd1 libharfbuzz-icu0 libharfbuzz0b libidn11 libkdecorations2-5v5 libkdecorations2private5v5
  libkf5screen7 libkf5sysguard-bin libkf5sysguard-data libkfontinst5 libkfontinstui5 libkscreenlocker5 libksgrd7 libksignalplotter7 libkwin4-effect-builtins1
  libkwineffects8 libkwinglutils8 libkwinxrenderutils8 libkworkspace5-5 liblegacytaskmanager5 liboxygenstyle5-5 liboxygenstyleconfig5-5 libpam-kwallet5
  libplasma-geolocation-interface5 libpowerdevilcore2 libpowerdevilui5 libprocesscore7 libprocessui7 libqt5clucene5 libqt5designer5 libqt5designercomponents5
  libqt5help5 libtaskmanager6 libweather-ion7 milou muon muon-notifier muon-updater neon-desktop oxygen-sounds pam-kwallet-init plasma-dataengines-addons
  plasma-desktop plasma-desktop-data plasma-discover plasma-discover-common plasma-discover-private plasma-discover-updater plasma-integration
  plasma-look-and-feel-org-kde-breezedark-desktop plasma-nm plasma-pa plasma-runners-addons plasma-wallpapers-addons plasma-widgets-addons plasma-workspace
  plymouth-theme-breeze polkit-kde-agent-1 powerdevil powerdevil-data qdbus-qt5 qml-module-qtquick-controls-styles-breeze qttools5-dev-tools
  sddm-theme-breeze snap-confine systemsettings ubuntu-core-launcher user-manager xserver-xorg-video-intel
116 upgraded, 13 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.

Will see how it goes, but any ideas on how to get troubleshooting information when you have hard hangs? I've never had good experiences with Hard Hangs on x86-based hardware. I also saw that others reported slow Dolphin after updates. :-(

[Snowhog]

I've had a few Hard Hangs since installing Neon. (I followed the recommendation to use the install image, not any PPAs) - When it occurs I have a proper hard hang - No mouse moving, No response from the Capslock key/Numlock Key/Ctrl-Alt-Backspace/Ctrl-Alt-Del/etc. The only recourse is to "hold-down-the-power-button-for-10-seconds" :-(

You should try using the Magic SysReq key solution before resorting to using the power button. It's cleaner, and ensures a normal, ordered shutdown and reboot of your system.

Magic SysReq key (Scroll down to Uses for the sequence of keys to use)

[woodsmoke]

Although I have not had such,

but then I do a clean install on bare metal...

SnowHog is a smart fellow.

woodsmoke

[vinnywright]

You should try using the Magic SysReq key solution before resorting to using the power button. It's cleaner, and ensures a normal, ordered shutdown and reboot of your system.

Magic SysReq key (Scroll down to Uses for the sequence of keys to use)

some of those options seem to now be deprecated ,,,,,at least @hear

we used to use "ctrl+alt+sysrq+RSEIUB" ,,,,,,,,,,if in a TTY the R,E,I all give a "deprecated signal" response.

the S(sink)U(unmount rw remount R) and B(reboot) still work just fine

so as it seems @hear ,,,one would be good with "ctrl+alt+sysrq+SUB"

VINNY

[MoonRise]

I can say I experienced something similar here and even though its Maui I think currently its similarities help here since it is base on Neon. What I found casing my issues has something to do with my NVidia graphics card and the Generic driver for it. When staring Minecarft it would do something similar to what you are saying. Even the keyboard goes dead though I do have a mouse cursor that moves around but clicking does nothing. I decided to load backup NVidia's driver and now it loads so there is a connection there, what I don't know. Not saying that is your case but..... ??

[oshunluvr]

You might look at your /var/log/Xorg.0.log. When I get what seems to be a "hard lock" it's actually the nVidia driver going into "wait" mode. I've had this with ever driver past 340 using 16.04.

[Tahaan]

I'm a little Fed Up right now. The Hard hangs comes as often as daily now.

Nothing in Xorg logs.

When hung:
- SysReq magic keys are not responding (have no visible effect). I've tested my sysreq, when the system is not hung I can perform Magic key combinations (I watch dmesg while trying out the key combinations and it works)
- NumLock, CapsLock etc is not responding.
- Power/Lid signals have no effect.
- RF kill switch does not have any effect.
- The system appears to be completely frozen.

This is on an HP / Intel laptop with a Broadcom Wifi chipset and Intel Integrated Graphics.

The system is stable with Kubuntu 14.04.

If someone can help to troubleshoot this I'd be very grateful.

[oshunluvr]

The problem with hard locks like this is they are usually hardware related. Basically, if there are no log files reporting errors then it's not a software issue.

Use your computer until it locks. Then note the exact time it happens. Then reboot and start looking into all the log files on the system to see which were the last to be updated. If none were updated, then it's not software.

Since your system is "stable" on 14.04, it must be something software so a file has to be somewhere.

[Tahaan]

The problem with hard locks like this is they are usually hardware related. Basically, if there are no log files reporting errors then it's not a software issue.

Use your computer until it locks. Then note the exact time it happens. Then reboot and start looking into all the log files on the system to see which were the last to be updated. If none were updated, then it's not software.

Since your system is "stable" on 14.04, it must be something software so a file has to be somewhere.

I will give the logs a shot next time... I'm wondering if there is a way to get the logs going to the serial port at the same time... In case some of them don't make it to disk.

I agree. I don't think it is hardware, my 14.04 never hangs. I also don't think 16.04 ever hang and when I installed Neon though the display was buggy initially it never did hang hard. The hangs started after an update. So I still tend to suspect software.

I'm going to see if I can somehow free up a partition to set up Kubuntu 16.04, but I'm permanently out of disk space (lost of RAW photos coming in all the time) Or else I'll give up my Neon partition and install Kubuntu 16.04. Then the question is do I add the Neon repositories or not...

I actually am holding out for KF 5.8 to see if it gets any better.... oh well.

[Tahaan]

I have installed Kubuntu 16.04.1 and so far I've had no crashes or hangs. Multi-monitor mode is painfully broken, but it doesn't crash. (Yet - Keeping my fingers crossed)

I have installed the updates but not the proprietary drivers or backports PPA. I'll see how it goes for a few more days, then I'll pick one of these to see how it goes.

Is 16.04.1 actually better than 14.04.5? It is hard to say. 14.04.5 at least have more-or-less sane multi-monitor support and a good set of desktop widgets, but some software is starting to fall seriously behind...

[oshunluvr]

"Better" will always be a subjective value.

I'm using KDEneon, which is based on 16.04 but releases new packages faster the the Kubuntu team so it's more up-to-date. I'm using 3 monitors and it's wicked fast and stable - for me at least. I do get an occasional burp on the monitor setup when I switch inputs on my DP monitor. I think it's related to kscreen.

The leap to plasma 5 has a heavy workload (just like when we first switched to KDE4) and will require some time for everything to catch up. If you're looking for stability, stick with 14.04 for another year. If you're into trying something new - install KDEneon (User edition, not Developer) https://neon.kde.org/download

[Tahaan]

"Better" will always be a subjective value.

I'm using KDEneon, which is based on 16.04 but releases new packages faster the the Kubuntu team so it's more up-to-date. I'm using 3 monitors and it's wicked fast and stable - for me at least. I do get an occasional burp on the monitor setup when I switch inputs on my DP monitor. I think it's related to kscreen.

The leap to plasma 5 has a heavy workload (just like when we first switched to KDE4) and will require some time for everything to catch up. If you're looking for stability, stick with 14.04 for another year. If you're into trying something new - install KDEneon (User edition, not Developer) https://neon.kde.org/download

This is why I multi-boot, I have Neon (User Edition), 14.04 and Kubuntu 16.04

I love the look and feel of Neon for the most part. It's multi-monitor handling is much improved over previous versions of Kubuntu, better than Kubuntu 16.04 too, but 14.04 still beats it (sane behaviour when often switching between "on the road" and "at my desk".

I'll probably give up some disk real estate soon for 16.10.... Hmmmmm....