Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

Mark7 · 2021-01-18 23:12:50

Hmm

mark@mark-HP-EliteBook-8460p:~$ sudo apt install grub
[sudo] password for mark:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package grub is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
However the following packages replace it:
grub2-common grub-pc grub-efi-ia32 grub-efi-amd64

E: Package 'grub' has no installation candidate
mark@mark-HP-EliteBook-8460p:~$

Mark7 · 2021-01-19 00:08:46

Okay, so I checked Synaptic and Grub is installed. So I searched for Grub not showing on boot and got directed to edit /etc/default/grub and change one line from hidden to menu, then update-grub. Which I did and...

Grub still doesn't appear when I boot the computer up.

Why do bad things always happen to me?

MrEen · 2021-01-19 00:27:37

Also set GRUB_TIMEOUT to something greater than zero. I use 10 myself.

Mark7 · 2021-01-19 01:02:37

That did the trick.

mint4all · 2021-01-19 02:09:09

Mark7 wrote:

That did the trick.

Good news -- your system remains bootable, but you're not out of the wheeds yet. When you try to repair your partition, take a note of the file names that are cross-linked (if any) or orphaned (no parent directiory). If the files are in system folders, you will have to reinstall them. If they are in data folders, ie ~./Documents, those files are lost for good, ime.

That brings me to xfce ... Its configuration is stored in the ~/.config/xfce4 folder tree (read: user space) and can suffer breakage just like any other user-owned file. If the DE is broken (missing buttons, icons, non-responsive menus, messed-up themes) be prepared to reinstall xfce4 and rework your customizations. Worse, xfce keeps its config files updated in real time and might override any fixes you might try outside of xfce's settings utilities...

Btw: your volumes look ok (enough free space) and your RAM looks good although you could have thermal faults if your laptop heats up. Since i did not spot a swap partition, your system is likely to use a swapfile for its virtual memory allocations. Located in a disk area alongside any other ordinary files, the i/o demand to this file will contend with the i/o traffic to all other user-space files (xfce, firefox, thunderbird etc). So a system-freeze (bad) or crash (kernel panic) may corrupt other files, too.

Cheers, m4a

Mark7 · 2021-01-19 10:55:12

Should I make a swap partition? I'm surprised the installer didn't make one for me as a matter of course.

Also, whilst I had the bottom door off I checked to see if the fan was working properly. It started up when I booted but then it just stopped. So, after a lot of fussing with the retaining screws, I removed the fan and cleared out some dust bunnies underneath it, then I replaced the fan in its original position, booted up and... It still stops after initially spinning up. Is this normal?

Mark7 · 2021-01-19 12:02:28

I made a swap partition of 2.2 GiBs (it was meant to be 2, but I've no idea how MiBs and GiBs work so I made it 2048 MiBs). Will the system use it automatically or do I need to activate it in some way?

Update. Activated swap. Let's hope it helps mitigate the issue.

Last edited by Mark7 (2021-01-19 12:57:48)

Mark7 · 2021-01-19 15:20:18

Here's the contents of my fstab file. Could someone check it out for me

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=a471f470-bac9-4dd2-a9a2-678d4a36ec48 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=F49C-9EA3 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/dev/sda6 none swap sw 0 0 0 0

CwF · 2021-01-19 15:35:46

Looks fine.
Generally you can allow the system to mod fstab and you never really need to directly. I have system with 6-10 disk and have never touched that file.

Look into zram-tools or zramswap, it's very helpful. You can use it with or without your swap partition.

little;

#  swapon
NAME       TYPE      SIZE USED PRIO
/dev/zram0 partition 128M   0B  100
/dev/zram1 partition 128M   0B  100

big;

#  swapon
NAME        TYPE      SIZE   USED PRIO
/dev/dm-2   partition 4.6G 708.4M   -2
/dev/zram0  partition 128M  45.2M  100
/dev/zram1  partition 128M    47M  100
/dev/zram2  partition 128M  47.3M  100
/dev/zram3  partition 128M  48.9M  100
/dev/zram4  partition 128M  45.3M  100
/dev/zram5  partition 128M    49M  100
/dev/zram6  partition 128M    47M  100
/dev/zram7  partition 128M  49.1M  100
/dev/zram8  partition 128M  44.4M  100
/dev/zram9  partition 128M  46.6M  100
/dev/zram10 partition 128M  46.4M  100
/dev/zram11 partition 128M  45.3M  100
/dev/zram12 partition 128M  44.5M  100
/dev/zram13 partition 128M  47.1M  100
/dev/zram14 partition 128M  46.9M  100
/dev/zram15 partition 128M  47.5M  100

herbie643 · 2021-01-19 20:32:35

I found that my problem was similar in nature and was caused by Firefox. I run 84.0.2 and no longer have hangs.

Mark7 · 2021-01-19 22:18:40

I'm also running 84.0,2

herbie643 · 2021-01-19 23:59:05

Ah well, sorry I couldn't help

mint4all · 2021-01-20 02:10:28

herbie643 wrote:

I found that my problem was similar in nature and was caused by Firefox. I run 84.0.2 and no longer have hangs.

About a year ago, after upgrading a latest-model HP laptop to dual-booting Win10/Mint19.3, a firefox crash completely corrupted the Mint volume. I found out about this crash after running the "fsck.ext4" disk repair in verbose mode. Countless files belonging to the firefox session-cache were cross-linked with fonts, themes, icons, pictures, AND xfce4 config files.

Usinf Mint's "timeshift" backup of the previous day/week/month I was able to restore the mint volume to a bootable state. Alas, most of APT was broken along with virtually all of the xfce desktop. So i just scrubbed the volume and rebuilt & reconfigured it anew. The eventual culprit: firefox's default settings save the current session (all open tabs, assets, urls etc.) every 15 seconds which creates a lot of disk i/o load with little benefit (imho).

The fix -- working to this day flawless on 10+ systems -- was to change the default 15-second default to a 25-minute default. This is done by editing the firefox profile via the about:config page. The 2 settings that need changing (ime) are:

browser.sessionstore.interval

and

browser.sessionstore.interval.idle

by adding 000 to the default value of 15000 (read: milliseconds). The downside of this tweak are obvious: firefox's session restart function (after a crash) are next to nil. I hope this info helps with some of your hangs or crashes.

Cheers, m4a

Mark7 · 2021-01-20 08:49:42

I'll give that a go

Wait. You didn't say what value to change sessionstore:idle to.

Last edited by Mark7 (2021-01-20 08:54:19)

alcornoqui · 2021-01-20 10:07:36

My values are:

browser.sessionstore.interval = 15000000
browser.sessionstore.interval.idle = 3600000 (Firefox default)

Working fine.

Mark7 · 2021-01-20 10:49:48

I'm going to try reinstalling Xubuntu and my files with the new sessionstore values in the Firefox config

mint4all · 2021-01-20 16:37:12

Mark7 wrote:

Should I make a swap partition? I'm surprised the installer didn't make one for me as a matter of course.
Also, whilst I had the bottom door off I checked to see if the fan was working properly. It started up when I booted but then it just stopped. So, after a lot of fussing with the retaining screws, I removed the fan and cleared out some dust bunnies underneath it, then I replaced the fan in its original position, booted up and... It still stops after initially spinning up. Is this normal?

The arguments pro & con a swap-volume/-file are numerous and would be off-topic here. All I wanted to point out that its disk i/o load to a swap-file allocated in user-space contends with normal user-space i/o load. And when a disk drive fails, or is about to fail, file curruptions are inevitable ime.

Fan spinning up is a good sign but any rattly/creaky noise would be bad (calling for fan replacement). Modern laptops throttle their fan a lot to conserve the battery's charge. I'd suggest to watch for fan spin-up when the cores get stressed, ie while watching a video or dvd. If it doesn't, look for a replacement.

Also, keep an eye on your disk's SMART monitoring values -- they should now be stable.

Cheers, m4a

Mark7 · 2021-01-20 21:39:09

I tried fscking (that sounds rude) my primary partition, but nothing much seemed to happen. It seemed to be over in a few seconds. Which is odd for a 320 gb drive.

Also,another thing that happens is that if I have more than one window open the mouse will swap between windows when I try to scroll or click anywhere with the raised window. Even if the other windows are minimised and on other desktops. This is especially problematic with pop ups, (like those in Thunderbird, not pop ups from websites) which don't have a menu bar I can right click on to grab the window. In the cases where they occur I usually have to force close all applications..

mint4all · 2021-01-20 21:50:40

Mark7 wrote:

I tried fscking (that sounds rude) my primary partition, but nothing much seemed to happen. It seemed to be over in a few seconds. Which is odd for a 320 gb drive.
Also,another thing that happens is that if I have more than one window open the mouse will swap between windows when I try to scroll or click anywhere with the raised window. Even if the other windows are minimised and on other desktops. This is especially problematic with pop ups, (like those in Thunderbird, not pop ups from websites) which don't have a menu bar I can right click on to grab the window. In the cases where they occur I usually have to force close all applications..

Re; fsck ... If the volume was flagged as "clean", the normal check disk will bypass any error checking. The only way to get this to work is to go through grub's recovery menu, or using a live system to boot up and run from terminal. But it looks like you recovered your volume ok, and that the xubuntu refresh went well, right?

Re. focus problems ... I suggest you review xfce's "Window Manager" focus-tab settings. There's a setting where "focus follows mouse". Unclicking that option ought to fix it.

Cheers, m4a

Last edited by mint4all (2021-01-20 22:02:26)

Mark7 · 2021-01-21 10:10:09

I checked the focus tab (click to focus). I also checked the window list plugin settings. That seems to be set to use mouse scroll wheel to change windows by default, so I changed that.

Another thing that happens is that application sub windows don't respond to the mouse AT ALL and can only be controlled through the keyboard. Has anyone else had this problem?

Also, last night I completely wiped my hard drive and reinstalled Xubuntu 20,04 (after backing up my home folder). I also took the precaution of deleting the Mozilla folder after restoring my files and then deleting all history after recovering my logins via sync.

Mark7 · 2021-01-21 15:22:36

When trying to run the Google hangouts client Yakyak I get this (I ran it from a terminal to see what would happen

yakyak
2021/01/21 15:17:42.790512 system_key.go:129: cannot determine nfs usage in generateSystemKey: cannot parse /etc/fstab: expected between 3 and 6 fields, found 8
Starting Yakyak v1.5.10...
using hangupsjs v1.3.10
--------
GLib-GIO-Message: 15:17:44.173: Using the 'memory' GSettings backend. Your settings will not be saved or shared with other applications.
hangupsjs:: connecting
reconnecting 0
resolving proxy http://plus.google.com
resolving proxy https://plus.google.com
resolved proxy DIRECT
resolved proxy DIRECT
connected 0

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#26 2021-01-18 23:12:50

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#27 2021-01-19 00:08:46

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#28 2021-01-19 00:27:37

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#29 2021-01-19 01:02:37

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#30 2021-01-19 02:09:09

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#31 2021-01-19 10:55:12

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#32 2021-01-19 12:02:28

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#33 2021-01-19 15:20:18

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#34 2021-01-19 15:35:46

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#35 2021-01-19 20:32:35

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#36 2021-01-19 22:18:40

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#37 2021-01-19 23:59:05

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#38 2021-01-20 02:10:28

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#39 2021-01-20 08:49:42

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#40 2021-01-20 10:07:36

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#41 2021-01-20 10:49:48

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#42 2021-01-20 16:37:12

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#43 2021-01-20 21:39:09

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#44 2021-01-20 21:50:40

Re: Why Does My Xubuntu 20.04 Desktop Keep Freezing?

#45 2021-01-21 10:10:09

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#46 2021-01-21 15:22:36

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