Cinnamon crashing randomly

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fw190

Cinnamon crashing randomly

Post by fw190 »

Since a while a have massive problem with Cinnamon freezing from unknown reasons. As my laptop is my main working machine this sometimes is causing problems with my work flow and generates danger to unsaved data like in libre office writer.

I have been googling about this and there are a few informations that I am not the only one. The question is how can I help to solve this problem? How to provide logs or any other useful information to the people working hard behind the scenes on Cinnamon?

I have found that sometimes I can bring it back to life with the small icon in the right bottom corner which shows all the windows - when I click on it and pick up any window it comes back to life.

I forgot to mention that mouse work, I can switch between applications but the rest is not responding.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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Pjotr
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Re: Cinnamon crashing randomly

Post by Pjotr »

Please generate an overview of your hardware like this:
- launch a terminal window and make it fullscreen, to avoid chopped lines;
- type this command:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz
Press Enter.

Copy/paste the output in your next message.
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fw190

Re: Cinnamon crashing randomly

Post by fw190 »

Code: Select all

fw190@wurger ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: wurger Kernel: 3.13.0-37-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca
Machine:   System: LENOVO (portable) product: 0301FCG version: ThinkPad Edge
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 0301FCG Bios: LENOVO version: 80ET40WW (1.17 ) date: 07/30/2010
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i3 CPU M 370 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9576.12 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 933.00 MHz 2: 933.00 MHz 3: 933.00 MHz 4: 933.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-37-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 3000 bus-ID: 09:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak] driver: iwlwifi ver: in-tree: bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (53.2% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD5000BEVT size: 500.1GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 37G used: 5.1G (15%) fs: ext4 ID: /home size: 413G used: 243G (63%) fs: ext4 
           ID: swap-1 size: 10.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0C mobo: 0.0C 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 735 
Info:      Processes: 181 Uptime: 1:04 Memory: 930.5/3827.0MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4 
fw190@wurger ~ $ 

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Pjotr
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Re: Cinnamon crashing randomly

Post by Pjotr »

Curious name for your machine: wurger. :shock:

Your hardware should run flawlessly on Mint 17.1. What you could try:
- if you've enabled extra visual effects: disable them;
- check for a newer BIOS and when available, install it;
- install the latest kernel within the 3.13 series and reboot:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... el-updates
(item 3, right column)
Last edited by Pjotr on Thu May 28, 2015 5:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tip: 10 things to do after installing Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
Keep your Linux Mint healthy: Avoid these 10 fatal mistakes
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fw190

Re: Cinnamon crashing randomly

Post by fw190 »

I think that visual effects are enabled by default - disabled them.
I wouldn't like to mess with the kernel so left it as is.
Updating BIOS - not that easy on linux and in the light of recent Lenovo behavior I think that maybe it is better to stay with the old one.

ps

Wurger - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrike and the source traces it to my favorite fighter plane. Unfortunately the bad guys have built it :(
nkoropoff
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Re: Cinnamon crashing randomly

Post by nkoropoff »

Disabling visual effects did not stop the freezing on my system. One thing I have discovered recently is that when Cinnamon freezes I can CTRL-ALT-F1 to the console and immediately CTRL-ALT-F8 back to Cinnamon and it is unfrozen. No need to log in and then kill a process to get things running again. I have now done these steps several times so it appears to be repeatable. Hopefully this knowledge will help in troubleshooting the issue. I am now watching dmesg to see if anything comes up on the next freeze.

So it has been a week now and I have not experienced any Cinnamon freezes, the longest period of stability I have encountered since moving from Mint 17 to 17.1.. I made no changes to my configuration but have been applying the updates through the update manager. Keeping my fingers crossed that this continues.

Posted too soon. Froze twice already today. Once just running the update manager for the new Firefox V36. Still can perform the above workaround to keep from restarting X.
Last edited by nkoropoff on Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Cosmo.
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Re: Cinnamon crashing randomly

Post by Cosmo. »

Only an idea, I don't know, if this brings any useful information, but anyway it does not hurt:

After ctrl-alt-f1 log in and enter

Code: Select all

top
to see if there is a process, which eats up your cpu.
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