I had this problem on 42.3 but hoped it would be gone after I fresh-installed Leap 15. The issue is simple: I open up a GTK app (such as LibreOffice 5 in the GTK UI or Inkscape), use it for even up to several hours, then my mouse cursor freezes, my screen freezes, my entire computer freezes, and I have to hold down the power button for five seconds to reboot it. Seriously–not even Magic SysRq + REISUB works. This bug kind of ruins my workflow since Inkscape is my go-to vector illustrator, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Thank you so much for your help!
PC specs if they help:
HP 15t laptop (2014)
Intel Pentium N3540 w/ Intel HD Graphics
4GB DDR3-1333 RAM
I’m using BtrFS for the root partition and XFS for the home partition.
4GB RAM is not a lot of RAM to start with if you’re running kDE or Gnome.
So, for starters, I’d recommend you install one of the following Desktop environments before you open LibreOffice and/or Inkscape.
XFCE
LXDE
LXQt
Running one of the above Desktops will lessen the amount of RAM allocated to Desktop “features” but will still not give you much room for running applications… I recommend running only one major application at a time, close all others. A few more running apps might be possible if they’re “light weight.”
You can also determine what ultimately causes your system to freeze by running the following command and reading the last few lines, but unless you install more RAM or set up a swap at least 8GB (which would still result in poor performance but hopefully no freezing),
According to specs ( and experience ) this is nonsense. Of course more RAM is always better, but 4 GB is by far enough for a good KDE or GNOME experience. When will this FUD about heavy-weight desktops stop?
@OP: My guess is it’s your messing with the themes. Installing GNOME themes won’t work for GTK apps in KDE, you need the gtk engines.
It’s not just running KDE.
It’s what the @OP says he was doing as well.
The Libreoffice suite open.
Using Inkscape to edit graphics which depending on the image and what’s done to it can be <very> demanding.
Not closing unused apps.
And, there may be other typical apps open… like web browser tabs and windows, email, etc.
When I hear “long running app” I also suspect apps which aren’t often used being pushed to memory buffers (out of active memory) and then being retrieved when suddenly activated again.
All of which I’d consider not atypical.
So, I consider 4GB possibly adequate if the User is very careful with resources, but the more apps that are opened the OS can be pushed to juggling more than the system can respond reliably.
Teehee. Okay, but I have done all of the above at once on those machines without running into a crash, all on really old machines, early 64-bit.
Yep, I have moved the slowest machines to Xfce to gain speed, snappier operation. But this is after they were running in KDE just fine (only, a bit more sluggish).
Of course, since the move to Plasma 5, I have now switched all machines to Xfce. But, the original motivation for that was not to get a lighter desktop. It was, instead, giving a rude hand gesture to the upstream KDE people for removing my most useful options and for stubbornly ignoring me and all the other users who complained.
So the problem actually happened again today, with only Falkon and a few other apps that I don’t *think *are GTK open. The other day, it also happened while I was trying out Voxelands, which I don’t think uses any toolkit at all.
Regarding potential RAM issues, is it even possible to install openSUSE without creating a swap partition? Would it be possible to check if I have one and add one without booting from a live CD?
Would it be possible to check if I have one and add one without booting from a live CD?
‘free’ reports total, used and free RAM and swap. Look in /etc/fstab to see if you have one configured. Almost certainly you do have one, unless you knew how to prevent it at installation time. Another simple way to test for swap is to try to turn it off: ‘swapoff -a’ (‘swapon -a’ to turn it back on).
