Fedora KDE 31 Freezes Too Much

Because I use KDE Plasma, right? :thinking:

Noā€¦ I donā€™t think the desktop make a differrenceā€¦ let me try!

dnf group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces"
systemctl disable gdm
[paul@localhost ~]$ sudo systemctl disable kdm
Failed to disable unit: Unit file kdm.service does not exist.
Oops I meant enable, but it seems to not be installed... let s fix it:
sudo dnf install kdm
sudo systemctl enable kdm
sudo dnf remove xorg-x11-drv-intel
[paul@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep xorg-x11-drv
xorg-x11-drv-nouveau-1.0.15-9.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-ati-19.0.1-5.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-vmware-13.2.1-11.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-evdev-2.10.6-6.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-openchrome-0.6.0-10.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-wacom-serial-support-0.39.0-2.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-wacom-0.39.0-2.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.5.0-5.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-libinput-0.29.0-2.fc32.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-qxl-0.1.5-12.fc31.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-vesa-2.4.0-8.fc32.x86_64
[paul@localhost ~]$ 
systemctl reboot

Oops, I first choosed Plasma as a session but got a black screen:
sudo journalctl -b -1 -o short-monotonic --no-pager|fpaste
https://paste.centos.org/view/26e72a71

Interesting part:

[  115.095551] localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: dbus-:1.11-org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper@0.service: Succeeded.
[  115.096906] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1496]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 935, resource id: 6291474, major code: 20 (GetProperty), minor code: 0
[  115.098294] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1496]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 936, resource id: 6291474, major code: 20 (GetProperty), minor code: 0
[  115.098447] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1496]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 944, resource id: 35651597, major code: 3 (GetWindowAttributes), minor code: 0
[  115.098584] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1496]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 962, resource id: 58720257, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
[  115.098698] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1496]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 979, resource id: 6291498, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
[  115.098809] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1496]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 989, resource id: 6291474, major code: 20 (GetProperty), minor code: 0
[  115.098919] localhost.localdomain systemd[1224]: Starting XFCE notifications service...

So yeahā€¦ donā€™t try it with KDE.

Made a 3day link:
sudo journalctl -b -1 -o -p5 short-monotonic --no-pager to:
https://paste.debian.net/1145856

1 Like

So I:
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-intel
and KDE now works fineā€¦

And got:
sudo journalctl -b -1 -o short-monotonic --no-pager|fpaste
https://paste.centos.org/view/19f9fe0a

sudo journalctl -b 0 -o short-monotonic -p5 --no-pager > with_intel_drv.txt
https://paste.debian.net/1145858

Still have:

[  108.070481] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1506]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 7492, resource id: 6291498, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0
[  108.071027] localhost.localdomain kwin_x11[1506]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 7496, resource id: 6291457, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0

Realizing I am kind of hijacking this thread.

Ok, I did some search and I found this:

As I said before: I understand nothing. So, if you can translate this to a basic-user-lenguage, itā€™ll be appreciated. :nerd_face:

Wellā€¦ the first link refer to problems in 5.5 kernels that are pretty all fixed in 5.6 kernels.

The other thing talk about is CPU sleep. When the CPU have nothing to do, it can stop executing instructions and wait for something to wake it. C levels indicate how deep it sleepā€¦ C0 the CPU is not sleepingā€¦ C1 it is a light sleep ā€¦ C2 is a medium sleep ā€¦ C3 a deep sleep. It is harder to wake from a deep sleep (like C3) than a light sleep like C1.
The deeper the sleep, the less energy the CPU use.
In fact, in case of a bug, it may be impossible to wake up the CPU in a deep sleep.

So there is a parameter on the kernel line of Grub, that allows to specify how deep the CPU is allowed to sleep. The parameter intel_idle.max_cstate=1 tell the CPU that it is only allowed to light sleeps.

sudo grub2-editenv - list
allows you to list the current variables and their valuesā€¦
I have:
kernelopts=root=/dev/mapper/fedora_localhost--live-root00

So if I wanted to add intel_idle.max_cstate=1 I would do:
sudo su -
grub2-editenv - set kernelopts='root=/dev/mapper/fedora_localhost--live-root00 intel_idle.max_cstate=1'

You have to be carefull at recopying the root=[old value] part because you wonā€™t be able to boot if you break itā€¦ maybe this is not the more secure way to do it?

It is so true that I am unable to reboot my computer in Linux anymore!

Ok, I am back with my system.
I did not preformatted the grub2-editenv line, then copied-paste (I think) from this message, but the -- was transform by this website to a single ā€“ character. Which I donā€™t know what it is. I just change the " to ā€™ to avoid variables substitions too.

It is more secure to edit boot entriesā€¦ because you edit just one, and let the rescue entry intact. To do so:
sudo su -
cd /boot/loader/entries/
nano [the entry you want to modify]
at the end of options $kernelopts line, add your additional parameters.
Ctrl-O to write file, Enter to accept the current name
Ctrl-X to exit nano editor

Ctrl-D to quit the sudo shell

I found another two:

Note: if you type ā€œfreezesā€ in the search bar of the subreddit r/linuxquestions, it shows you several entries. The two above where the only ones that said ā€œsolvedā€. Both have the same " solution ".

They basically do in the firware menu (what we used to call BIOS before UEFI) what I am proposing to do in Fedora in the previous message by adding intel_idle.max_cstate=1 to kernel parameters.

Another freeze. Soā€¦ I quit. I give up. Iā€™m done looking for possible causes of the problem.

From what Iā€™ve found in different places on the web, I know that the problem has to do with kernel. It is not a distro problem, as I have read it from Ubuntu (and his family), Manjaro and Arch.

So I will continue to update my system every day with the dnf upgrade command, and wait for a new kernel to arrive with the problem solved. If not, I will learn to live with it.

Iā€™ve been on Linux since 2016. Until November 2019 I was with Ubuntu/Kubuntu and since December I use Fedora. Until the first week of April 2020, I never experienced a problem of this kind. Never.

I keep my system updated accordingly. And all I do is turn on my PC, surf the internet, listen to music and watch some movies. A basic, simple and quiet use. Iā€™m really exhausted from looking for solutions to a problem I didnā€™t create.

I will leave the thread published in case someone else has problems of this kind and some discussed or shared here can be useful to them.

Thank you very much to everyone who participated and contributed in some way to finding the causes and a possible solution to the problem.

:nerd_face:

1 Like

Update: a week ago today (Friday, May 15) I downloaded, installed and downgraded my system to the 5.5.9 kernel for Fedora 31. Since then, I havenā€™t had any more freezes on my PC. I have used it without problems in all possible ways with normal and optimal performance. I keep my system updated with the command dnf upgrade --exclude=kernel* to avoid further kernel updates.

Below I share the links with the information and steps to follow for those who are interested in trying this alternative:

So far it has worked for me with Fedora 31, so I think it would be worth trying with those who have a similar problem with Fedora 32.

I will make weekly reports of the situation until June 15, which is the month of the change. If I complete the 30 days without a freeze, Iā€™ll call it ā€œsolvedā€.

Weā€™ll be in touch.

:nerd_face:

Weekly update: It has been two weeks since the installation of kernel 5.5.9. On Sunday, May 24th, shortly after four hours of use, I had a freeze again. The rest of the week the PC has been running smoothly, with average sessions of three hours. The balance so far: 15 days, one freeze.

I will come back next Friday with a new update.

:nerd_face:

1 Like

Weekly update: On Monday, June 1st I had a freeze with less than an hour of session time. On Tuesday, June 2nd I updated my system completely, that includes the kernel. I am currently using kernel 5.6.15 for Fedora 31, which means that the constant, unbearable freezes are back. So I think the dream is over; changing the kernel was not the solution either. It had to be tried.

This will be the last update. Weā€™re back to step one.

Maybe it is a scheduler problem? It has been suggested in this post for a similar problem.

Yeah, man, I read the post and honestly, I didnā€™t understand a thing. Besides, I have the bad feeling that if I try to apply any of those hypothetical solutions, considering that Iā€™m a basic user, Iā€™ll end up ruining my system completely. Emphasizing that I donā€™t really understand what the problem is.

Now, I want to expand a bit with an opinion on all this: I donā€™t know if I really, as the end user of the product, in this case the OS, should know all this. Everybody in general, no matter what kind of use (work, academic, leisure), wants to turn on our PC and use it as we see fit. And of course, when problems of this kind arise (freezing), the most normal thing to do is to look on the web for possible solutions. But in this kernel issue, I think that the end users donā€™t need so much information. We simply keep our system updated and suddenly we see that overnight, everything that used to work smoothly no longer does.

I also understand that Linux (any distro) awakens many passions. Or, at least thatā€™s what I thought. And thatā€™s why, sometimes, itā€™s difficult to make hardware-nazis understand that suddenly, maybe, thereā€™s a minimal possibility, that the OS, its components and updates, do have a problem. The general response, or almost always, to problems of this kind is that you have a hardware problem. These people have a hard time opening up to the possibility that some users will be affected by some kind of upgrade, whether itā€™s security or performance.

Lately I read a lot of comments in different places (not here. Here they are friendly), in which they want to give you to understand that if you donā€™t have a machine like Linus Torvaldsā€™, you canā€™t use Linux. And Iā€™ve always thought that the Linux world is not exclusive. That itā€™s not like Windows, that it makes you feel your machine is obsolete. I donā€™t think it takes a million PCs freezing up to suspect that the OS and its components might have a problem. However slight that possibility may be.

Linux (any distro) is recommended for being safe, friendly and because it offers very good performance, even with old PCā€™s (mine is eight years old). Whenever someone asks or looks for suggestions to change OS (most common from Windows), these are the three main features. Those were the reasons why I came to Linux in 2016. And I know that as a Linux user it is inevitable, at some point, to have to learn things on the fly: commands, packages, small problems. But nothing else. This kernel problem has made me feel left out. That being a basic user is a huge problem. I donā€™t know if thatā€™s really the image the Linux world wants to have. How can I recommend Linux to family and friends when these kinds of problems appear? Do you honestly visualize any of your relatives, who only know how to turn on the PC and surf the Internet, trying to solve a problem with the kernel?

And the problem is not Fedora (someone on Reddit told me that I should change distro), because if the real problem is the kernel, then this kernel version (5.5.1x, 5.6.x) that brings me (us) problems here today, will at some point arrive or be used by another distro (Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, etc) and the problem will return.

If someone confirms that the kernel problem is really the one you mention (or that it is mentioned in the post), they should report the bug to the kernel maintainers. And report that users with certain type of hardware, something basic or old or ā€œobsoleteā€ by todayā€™s standards, are being affected.

All this is nothing more than thinking out loud about a problem that I have never experienced in my previous years. When I used Ubuntu I didnā€™t even know what version of kernel I had.

Fedoraā€™s community has been quite friendly and helpful. I know they will understand a little of the frustration.

And last but not least, Iā€™m not going to change my distro. Iā€™m not going to leave Fedora (in case anyone wanted to suggest it). I really donā€™t think thatā€™s the solution.

I am sorry that your interaction with the community is suboptimal. It is a known problem that some parts of the wider linux community are toxic to interact with.

The suggestion of trying a new distro is not that bad actually. The linux kernel is not a singular thing. The distros are staying on slightly different kernel versions, usually apply some downstream patches and use their own configuration options for compiling the kernel. If your hardware exposes a bug in an obscure place in the kernel; then you may get lucky and sidestep that place by going to another distro. Itā€™s not a guarantee but maybe a different distro has enough differences in their kernel that you donā€™t encounter the part that causes problems with your hardware.

Lastly, regarding your comments about just using the OS, without having to worry about the details. Keep in mind that you are you are installing linux on hardware that was not certified for linux (apologies if this assumption on my part is incorrect). Just like you cannot easily, if at all, run Windows on a Macbook, running linux on a device that was not certified for linux by the manufacturer has the risk of hitting unexpected problems. Itā€™s true that the wider linux community does a great job of writing the necessary drivers, but thatā€™s a volunteer effort and something may get missed.

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Hi, guys; me again.

Do you think maybe this could be the solution? :thinking:

Feel free to test those kernel parameter by pressing e to edit the linux line in GRUB because these changes are not kept, and go away at next reboot.

Hi, everyone. Itā€™s been a while, hasnā€™t it?

I think itā€™s time to close this subject. My problem was solved several weeks ago already. As I hinted at one time, there was nothing wrong with my hardware (beyond poor and old by todayā€™s standards) and the problem was always the kernel.

The problem started with the 5.5.10 kernel and stayed that way with each upgrade (5.5.1x), continued with the entire 5.6.x kernel, and ended with the arrival of the 5.7 kernel.

Once the system was upgraded to the 5.7 kernel, the freeze disappeared and the PC started working properly again.

At this time my system is already updated to Fedora 32 and the kernel version, as I write this, is 5.8.12.

Thanks to all who contributed, in one way or another, to the search for a possible solution. :nerd_face:

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