Archlinux desktop becomes almost unresponsive and gives errors

cciva · 2024-01-14 15:47:54

Hello there,

There is a rather strange issues with my system:

$ inxi -b

System:
  Host: arch-pc Kernel: 6.6.10-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce
    v: 4.18.1 Distro: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING v: Rev 1.xx
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 2605
    date: 08/06/2019
CPU:
  Info: 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 2700 [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 1653
    min/max: 1550/3200
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590]
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Device-2: Logitech Webcam C270 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: server: X.Org v: 21.1.10 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.3 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL Message: Unable to show GL data. glxinfo is missing.
Network:
  Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network driver: igb
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 4.08 TiB used: 228.34 GiB (5.5%)
Info:
  Processes: 369 Uptime: 30m Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.27 GiB
  used: 2.95 GiB (9.4%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.31

In most cases, when PC is at idle (overnight), when I come back to the work in the morning, I experience following:

Keyboard shortcuts not working (can not launch terminal, open launcher, can't screenshot etc.).
When trying to launch apps from taskbar (browser, terminal, etc.) nothing happens .
When trying to click launcher in my taskbar (xfce4-session-logout), this pops up.
When trying to right click on desktop, this pops up
When switching to tty(s) (Ctrl+Alt+F3-7) ,can't get to the shell prompt - only cursor blinking there and nothing happens

The only solution for me is to hard reboot the system

After that, when I try to inspect journal from previous boot

journalctl -b -1

nothing important is found there - in fact, I can't see any sort of message for couple of hours prior, and my journald uses persistent storage across boots

[civa@arch-pc: ~]$ cat /etc/systemd/journald.conf
...

[Journal]
Storage=persistent
#Compress=yes
#Seal=yes
#SplitMode=uid
#SyncIntervalSec=5m
#RateLimitIntervalSec=30s
#RateLimitBurst=10000
SystemMaxUse=1G
#SystemKeepFree=
#SystemMaxFileSize=
#SystemMaxFiles=100
#RuntimeMaxUse=
#RuntimeKeepFree=
#RuntimeMaxFileSize=
#RuntimeMaxFiles=100
#MaxRetentionSec=
#MaxFileSec=1month
#ForwardToSyslog=no
#ForwardToKMsg=no
#ForwardToConsole=no
#ForwardToWall=yes
#TTYPath=/dev/console
#MaxLevelStore=debug
#MaxLevelSyslog=debug
#MaxLevelKMsg=notice
#MaxLevelConsole=info
#MaxLevelWall=emerg
#LineMax=48K
#ReadKMsg=yes
#Audit=yes

Also, last night I tried to leave one instance of terminal open, just in case and when I try to list journal entries I also get error in stderr, similar to this:

...VTE input/output error

(cant remember exact message, though)

Does anyone have an slightest idea where should I even begin to look for a root cause because google obviously didn't help much ?

P.S. One important thing here - I'm not asking to you solve all of the problems in this thread, because, obviously there are too many of them, that was not my intention. I simply asked here because these two error messages (see image links above) are the only clue I have and it leads to xfwm malfunctioning (pure guess).

Edit:
Forgot to mention things I tried so far (to no avail):

Disable xfce sessions completely
Replace display manager lightdm -> sddm.

Thank you!
civa

Last edited by cciva (2024-01-14 16:33:43)

ToZ · 2024-01-14 17:32:57

Hello and welcome.

Gut feeling says its a hard drive, or more likely, the drive storage controller that is the issue. Not sure how to test it though.

After that, when I try to inspect journal from previous boot
journalctl -b -1
nothing important is found there - in fact, I can't see any sort of message for couple of hours prior, and my journald uses persistent storage across boots

It might be helpful to have a second set of eyes look at that log file. Also, does the logging stop when this issue happens? Or does the system continue to log during the issue?

Another good potential source of info would be ~/.xsession-errors or ~/.xsession-errors.old if after a restart, especially if its Xfce related.

Feel free to post both if you'd like us to have a loser look.

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2024-01-14 15:47:54

Archlinux desktop becomes almost unresponsive and gives errors

#2 2024-01-14 17:32:57

Re: Archlinux desktop becomes almost unresponsive and gives errors

Board footer