[BUG] freezes when I have "dim screen when inactive" enabled

It freezes so badly that I have to literally hold the power button down & emergency shut off, then restart. I think this only happens when i have "dim screen when inactive" enabled in "Power" settings. I disabled it for months, but i didnt like my laptop screen being on without a timed dimmer, so i enabled it again recently, but forgot that months ago this had caused the same exact issue, and i had disabled it back then too.

I've been in the middle of very important things recently, and had to step away from my laptop for a minute & come back & i potentially lose all that temp data i'm working on. The freezing happens 30% of the time that the screen dims, not all the time. I've recently let my laptop run for 6 hours at night & wake up to it, and the screen has went black, and i move the mouse & everything works fine, no freezing.

When it freezes the screen dims to black, then when i move the mouse again, the screen turns on and i can move the mouse & everything, but nothing is interactable. And doesnt matter what keys i press.

There might be a key command that gets me to a terminal or something, that might fix it, i dont know. Dont know much about that stuff.

Please help, thanks.

Is this a previous thread on this issue?

You can try using xset in the terminal instead of the GUI settings:

xset s 60

The above will set for 60 seconds. You can change that as needed.

You may need to list what Graphics Card(s) you use. And if you have checked your logs after a freeze using journalctl.

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Thanks. That post I made back in March 2023 was when you start the OS and the login screen freezes, this current problem is very different. This is when you are already logged in and the dimmer triggers a freezing sometimes. I will check journalctl next time the error happens. Also whats the difference between "journalctl" and the Zorin "Logs" app?

Have you tried the xset suggestion I made above?

Nothing, really. You can use whichever works for you.

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@Aravisian , I just tried xset s 60. But it appears to work the same exact way. I dont think it will help. However, I've made some progress.

So, I need to mention something, when i print something, 30% of the time my taskbar will malfunction and become all messed up.

This is what my taskbar looks like normally:

--The taskbar will malfunction, and will become this nightmare:

I lose the time & date,etc. And i have to scroll left & right to move around and see all the pinned shortcuts, its all messed up. This only happens when i print something. I'm not sure the dimming always causes this, it might. And this malfunction only occurs 30% of all the times i print something, not always.

How i figured out how to return it to normal is i go to "Tweaks", see screenshot:

Then I go to Extensions>Zorin Taskbar:

Then i turn it off & on again. And that fixes it. And I'm back to the below again:

However point of all this is is the freezing particularly happens at a much higher rate when i'm printing something. But the dim screen will also freeze when i'm not printing too.

Sometimes when I'm printing something i'll step away for 60 seconds, come back from the printer & the screen is then black/dimmed and then i wake the screen up.

Then this happens for a split second, this "blue screen with the time", it was very hard to get a screenshot of this, in a millisecond the screen awakens and goes from black to this below, and then to the regular desktop & windows/programs:

Then in the screenshot below the blue screen with the time quickly goes up, in an upward motion and disappears and brings me to the desktop, you can see it moving up and then disappearing completely, which brings me to the normal desktop interface:

This is the exact time it always freezes, but it doesnt always happen, I'd say 30% of the time it freezes.
When it does freeze, i can see all the programs & stuff like the screenshot above, and i can move my mouse around, but i cant interact with anything, and no matter what keys i press either. Sometimes depending where my cursor is pointed, the cursor will change, but it wont correlate to what i'm looking at, or what window is at the front, my cursor will change to a "caret," "i-cursor" or "I-beam," cursor:
image

Which is probably from the 2nd window which is the internet browser behind the GIMP window thats at the front.

Also, something important to mention, is that when my screen freezes the taskbar icons change from the 1st ones on the left to a slightly different look on the right, its all bizarre:
image

Gnome uses the Gnome Shell. This is different from Cinnamon, Mate, XFCE or LXDE...
The elements that make up the desktop include the Window manager, the panel, the display of icons, etc.
What makes Gnomes Shell different from the rest is that it is all integrated as one package. With the other D.E.'s listed above, these elements are Modular and can be run independently. In fact, I have done this, using XFCE4-Panel on LXDE. You also can use the Window Manager, XFWM4 on LXDE or on Mate...
Gnome shell cannot do that. It is also one reason why Gnome uses more resources.

With the Shell integrated as it is, modifying any element within the shell (This is what Gnome-Extensions do) can affect the entire Desktop Shell.

The Caret Cursor being visible demonstrates that the "Field Input" function of the Mouse is being activated.

The gnome-shell-extension for the taskbar may be the culprit. You can try reinstalling it and resetting the configurations:
First, (tap ctrl+h if you need) enter your ~/.config directory and navigate to gnome-shell and extensions and remove any files. Be warned, this will reset your configurations for any extensions to default. You can focus on if there are any TaskBar extension files, only, at first..
Reinstall the extension:

sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-shell-extension-zorin-taskbar

Reboot and test. Sadly, though running a print may increase the odds of hitting the bug, it may take a while to test this.

You can also test against resetting all extensions, since in actuality, it may be a different extension causing the issue, like gnome-shell-extension-zorin-printers

Great Job on your lightning quick Screen photo grabbing, by the way.

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@Aravisian , I went to .config folder, but there is no "gnome-shell" folder anywhere i can find.
image

No problem, then you do not need to worry about any custom configurations.

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@Aravisian , I did your sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-shell-extension-zorin-taskbar command successfully, but problem still persists.

See malfunction:

Something that i've for the 1st time just now noticed though is an error i never seen before with tweaks, which i've for a while suspected that "Tweaks" might be the cause of the glitching/malfunction:

I will try your gnome-shell-extension-zorin-printers command now.

@Aravisian , I tried gnome-shell-extension-zorin-printers
but it didnt work in terminal, i got this:

gnome-shell-extension-zorin-printers: command not found

That was not a terminal command; just a suggestion of another extension to check.

However, you have noted an error on the Zorin Taskbar, so let's look into that.

sudo journalctl /usr/bin/gnome-shell | grep 'zorin-taskbar'

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@Aravisian , here are the errors i get with that:

Nov 08 20:51:53 gnome-shell[2138]: Can't update stage views actor Gjs_zorin-taskbar_zorinos_com_utils_ZorinTaskbar-PreviewMenu is on because it needs an allocation.

Nov 07 03:35:47 gnome-shell[2113]: JS ERROR: Extension zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com: GLib.FileError: Failed to open file “/home/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/custom-hot-corners@janrunx.gmail.com/schemas/gschemas.compiled”: open() failed: Too many open files
disable@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panelManager.js:330:28
disable@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/extension.js:114:18

Nov 06 05:25:46 gnome-shell[1666322]: Can't update stage views actor Gjs_zorin-taskbar_zorinos_com_utils_ZorinTaskbar-Panel is on because it needs an allocation.

Nov 06 04:43:08 gnome-shell[2140]: JS ERROR: Extension zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com: GLib.FileError: Failed to open file “/home/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/custom-hot-corners@janrunx.gmail.com/schemas/gschemas.compiled”: open() failed: Too many open files
disable@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panelManager.js:330:28

disable@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/extension.js:114:18

Oct 31 20:31:59 gnome-shell[2086]: Can't update stage views actor Gjs_zorin-taskbar_zorinos_com_utils_ZorinTaskbar-PreviewMenu is on because it needs an allocation.
_updatePosition@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/windowPreview.js:473:26
updatePosition@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/windowPreview.js:248:14
_assignWindowClone@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/windowPreview.js:815:39
_assignWindowClone/this._waitWindowId<@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/windowPreview.js:821:29

Oct 24 19:49:00 gnome-shell[2125]: #1 55d5b7b3c018 i /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panelManager.js:116 (1e5180d508d0 @ 48)
enable/<@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panelManager.js:116:61

Are you running showing a high RAM usage?

The errors above suggest that your system is running out of memory. It indicates "Too many open files", as well.
And if it is freezing... you can see how that would relate.

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@Aravisian , hmm, yep, i dont have much RAM unfortunately. And my RAM & CPU is often very high. I plan to get a better laptop soon.
So maybe thats whats causing it.

It is possible. You might test a LiveUSB of Zorin OS Lite and see if it gives better performance.

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