Random freezes in Plasma: help to diagnose

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi:
Just as the topics states, I’m having random freezes in Leap-16, with Plasma (Wayland Session). I’ve been using Opensuse for quite a long time (I started probably when it was just Suse, version 9.2), and usually have been able to check and correct these issues by myself (searching the web, reading wikis…) but, this time, I don’t even know what to look for, since it just happens with no (apparently) repeated pattern whatsoever.
What I have observed is the following:

  • Any windows open in plasma (no matter if there are many or just one open with a web browser) become unresponsive.
  • Trying to get into a console is, as well, impossible (ctlr + alt + F1)… any variation to Fx does nothing.
  • The only possible solution to regain some control over system - besides a hard shutdown - is using SysRq key (in my laptop I have to reconfigure that as well).
  • I’ve installed and configure in cockpit kdump (Kernel crash dump). In the last freezes, there is nothing at all in /var/crash
  • I’ve looked into journald register moments before hangs: no warnings, no errors…

Can anybody point me to what to check/look?
Thanks in advance

2

Do you happen to use any kwin effects? I have rounded corners and on Tumbleweed it caused freezes and Dolphin to crash. Flatpaks would take eons to start. I got rid of it and then it all started working as normal.

3

Hi there:
No. No kwin effects for now besides those that come precharged in plasma6. I haven’t touch anything in the preferences box yet.
Thank you for answering.

4

Widgets?
Was this a fresh install? If upgraded from 15.6, how was the upgrade done?

TIP: create a new user, logout, login as the new user and see if the problem exists for the new user.

5

Good that have SysRq working.

In the SysRq “menu”, try “f”, that is call oom_kill, i.e. trigger Out-Of-Memory

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/75gyrz/a_tribute_to_altsysrqf/

6

Hi @knurpht :
Yes. It was a fresh install.
System summary:
Operating System: openSUSE Leap 16.0
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.12.0-160000.7-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (14.9 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics
Graphics Processor 2: llvmpipe
Manufacturer: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
Product Name: Pulse GL76 11UEK
System Version: REV:1.0

Regarding graphics card: (result of inxi -G - just in case):

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] driver: nvidia
    v: 580.95.05
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.15 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
    unloaded: vesa dri: iris gpu: i915,nvidia resolution: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,nvidia
    platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.3.3
    renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (TGL GT1)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland

Just let me know if you need more info.
Kind regards

7

Hei: thanks for the tip.

8

Unfortunately, random freezes can be hard to solve.
In my case, some months ago, I found a workaround after months of freezes when I disabled Extended Idle Power States in BIOS (but in my issue, magic keys didn’t work at all).
Check your memory with memtest and update your BIOS.

9

Hi again:
After last freeze - just happened yesterday -, I’ve just installed two differente DE (it happened in Plasma + wayland). I’m going with Budgie and XFCE. I was just wondering how to check if it’s wayland with Plasma what is causing the freezes: how can I check out this?
Thank you

10

I would check the logs… There must be some errors showing…
sudo journalctl -p 3 --since yesterday
The -p 3 is just to filter messages with higher priority, like errors.
The --since yesterday is to filter on date, in this example just the messages recorded in the last day.

11

Hi:
These is the log of the session that ended in a freeze:

dic 07 19:48:40 localhost kernel: 
dic 07 19:48:51 localhost.localdomain dbus-broker-launch[1846]: Ignoring duplicate name 'org.freedesktop.FileManager1' in service file '/usr/share//dbus-1/services/org.xfce.Thunar.FileManager1.service'
dic 07 19:48:51 localhost.localdomain dbus-broker-launch[1846]: Ignoring duplicate name 'org.freedesktop.Notifications' in service file '/usr/share//dbus-1/services/org.xfce.xfce4-notifyd.Notifications.service'
dic 07 19:49:00 localhost.localdomain sddm-helper[1911]: gkr-pam: unable to locate daemon control file
dic 07 19:49:01 localhost.localdomain dbus-broker-launch[1964]: Ignoring duplicate name 'org.freedesktop.FileManager1' in service file '/usr/share//dbus-1/services/org.xfce.Thunar.FileManager1.service'
dic 07 19:49:01 localhost.localdomain dbus-broker-launch[1964]: Ignoring duplicate name 'org.freedesktop.Notifications' in service file '/usr/share//dbus-1/services/org.xfce.xfce4-notifyd.Notifications.service'
dic 07 19:49:19 localhost.localdomain kwin_wayland[1980]: kwin_libinput: Libinput: event12 - PNP0C50:00 06CB:7E7E Touchpad: kernel bug: Touch jump detected and discarded.
                                                          See https://wayland.freedesktop.org/libinput/doc/1.28.1/touchpad-jumping-cursors.html for details
dic 07 19:49:57 localhost.localdomain kwin_wayland[1980]: kwin_libinput: Libinput: event12 - PNP0C50:00 06CB:7E7E Touchpad: kernel bug: Touch jump detected and discarded.
                                                          See https://wayland.freedesktop.org/libinput/doc/1.28.1/touchpad-jumping-cursors.html for details
dic 07 19:50:14 localhost.localdomain kwin_wayland[1980]: kwin_libinput: Libinput: event12 - PNP0C50:00 06CB:7E7E Touchpad: kernel bug: Touch jump detected and discarded.
                                                          See https://wayland.freedesktop.org/libinput/doc/1.28.1/touchpad-jumping-cursors.html for details
dic 07 20:03:25 localhost.localdomain kwin_wayland[1980]: kwin_libinput: Libinput: event12 - PNP0C50:00 06CB:7E7E Touchpad: kernel bug: Touch jump detected and discarded.
                                                          See https://wayland.freedesktop.org/libinput/doc/1.28.1/touchpad-jumping-cursors.html for details

Kind regards,

12

Not much in those logs… could be the touchpad driver… A good way to verify is to disable the device and see if you still experience freezes.
To disable the device, you need to create a udev file in /etc/udev/rules. The method is explained for example on this page (to apply to your touchpad instead of keyboard)

Worth trying but I’m skeptical…

13

Simple test. At the Login screen, at the lower-left, click on the Desktop Session menu, then select “Plasma X11”. then enter password to login … test | perform work as usual.

If it does not freeze, then you can dig deeper using wayland. (or simply use X11 to get work done :+1: )

x
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14

Hi:
Thanks. I’ll try that out… In case freezes stop taking place, it would be good to know the cause, since X11 support will be dropped sooner or later…

Kind regards

15

Hi.
Thank yoru for the tip. It doesn’t make much sense to me either. I’m now trying Plama (X11 session) to see if the freeze happens again or not. In case it does, I’ll check once again… although I guess I’ll leave out the “since yesterday part”.

sudo journalctl -p 3 --since yesterday

Regards

16

Yes, you can set a date range with format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS as well, for example
--since 2025-12-07 01:00:00 --until 2025-12-08 14:30:00
Good luck

17

Hi everyone:
Few days after my last message (8. Dec), and while being in Plasma (X11) a new freeze took place. Once again, journalctl didn’t give any important info besides what I’ve already shared before. But this time, I was aware about what I was doing in my laptop: I was just using chrome, with around 10 tabs opened. I don’t recall what where these about, but the truth is I was using Chrome. So I decided to switch back to Firefox, as a regular browser and check what happen.
The freeze happened again a few days later. My next step was then to turn off (both in firefox and chrome) hardware acceleration: in Firefox it was set to automatic, but I decided to turn it completely off, and in chrome, I just turned it off (graphics acceleration). Well, since then, there has been no freezes at all.
With my limited understanding, this means that either both browsers are at fault, or my freezes has something to do with the dual graphic card my laptop is equipped with (Integrated Intel + NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3060 GPU).
In this sense, I must add that I’ve already configured Switcheroo Control, and, as indicated in https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_Switcheroo_Control my system is running using the Intel Integrated card:
Result of running switcherooctl list:

Device: 0
  Name:        Intel Corporation TigerLake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics]
  Default:     yes
  Environment: DRI_PRIME=pci-0000_00_02_0

Device: 1
  Name:        NVIDIA Corporation GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q]
  Default:     no
  Environment: __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only

So, the question is now if there is a way to rule out that this issue is only related to chrome/firefox and video hardware acceleration, or that it would happen with everything my systems needs to use that video hardware acceleration and use NVIDIA dedicated card.

Kind regards,