Hello! I have installed Zorin OS 16.3 Lite on four computers, and I am impressed and satisfied of it. However, I have one problem with two of them that I use as media players connected with HDMI-cables to TV-monitors. I try to avoid restarting them daily just not to need login on all streaming services again. Those two computers works excellent for a couple of days, or weeks, maybe nearly a month, but then they just freeze totally, even the clocks stops, and the only thing I can do then is pushing the power switch and restart them. A clue is that when this happens I can hear the CPU fan working hard. Those two are mini computers with Logitech wireless keyboards. Is there anything I can do to try to solve this problem, with the settings or so?
The oldest PC of them is an ASUS VivoPC VM42 with 8 GB memory, and the newer one is a HP Elitedesk 800 G4 i5-8500T with 16 GB memory. Both works perfectly with Windows 10 so I do not believe that it is the same hardware failure on both at the same time. I have installed cifs-utils on both computers for to be able to connect to shared folders on Windows 10 computers. The other differences from the original installations is that I have installed SMPlayer on both computers, and that I have tried with other web readers than Firefox to see if that could solve the problem. Both computers are good enough to run the Core instead of the Lite version, do you believe that can solve the problem?
I have only the HP EliteDesk at home, and I have now installed the program Hardinfo on it. Hardinfo shows: Mesa Intel( R) UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2), version 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 21.2.6 , Direct Rendering: Yes.
HP’s website shows: Intel HD Graphics (integrated), Intel UHD Graphics 630.
this happens also on my devices with zorin (and other gnome distros). When the devices have to go into suspend or sometimes even when turning off, they just freeze. Depending on the last status, the screen might be on or off. I think this also happens when it tries to lock or turn off the screen for inactivity. I couldn't find a solution or reason for this behavior. All the suggestions from the internet don't fit to my case.
Also, it can't be a faulty device because it is happening on two devices which are relatively new, and they worked perfectly on windows.
ps. maybe it is more related to wayland than gnome. because this started happening when I started using them (which happened to be both at same time)
Are these base Zorin OS installs or have you installed additional software on them?
If you have installed additional software or switched the browser, can you relay what you installed?
It sounds like an application is either memory leaking or plugging up RAM.
I recommend disabling all screenlock or screensaver activity for testing.
I have installed cifs-utils on both computers for to be able to connect to shared folders on Windows 10 computers. The other differences from the original installations is that I have installed SMPlayer on both computers, and that I have tried with other web readers than Firefox to see if that could solve the problem.
I already have disable the screen settings in the power manager, otherwise the screen went black after 15 minutes when I was streaming a movie from my Windows 10 network share but the sound continued playing.
Now I have unactivated the screen saver totally as a test, earlier I had only turned off "Lock the screen with the screen saver" (translation from swedish menues). Perhaps that would make a difference.
Everything there looks good. But it is known that the cifs-utils package can cause memory leakage. You might observe whether if after mounting a drive and accessing it, you are more prone to a freeze - or disabling or removing cifs-utils temporarily in order to test for freezing or crashing.
Now today the PC I have at home has freezed again! The last days I have streamed 3 movies thru cifs-utils from my Windows 10 network shares, and streamed some TV-series from net streaming services. I know that Linux is big on network servers, so I couldn't imaginate that Zorin should have problems with using network services. Is there any alternative to cifs-utils that I can try instead? Is not Samba also using cifs-utils? The whole point with to use a PC as media player is to stream movies from own internal resources and net streaming services. I do not want to install Windows 10 again, but cannot Zorin solve these memory problems I might be forced to do so. Neither the power manager or the screen saver funcions seems working so good and logical either. Perhaps I shall restart the PC daily instead, but I do not believe that server operators with Linux are forced to do that.
I don't know what's available myself, looking - just found minidlna, not sure if that will be something that may help? I'm trying it for my RPi to see how it works out.
This is how I has set up the network connections on Zorin OS Lite 16.3 in the terminal window:
sudo apt install cifs-utils
sudo mkdir /mnt/Videos (and some other folders I have shared on my Windows 10 pc)
sudo mount -t cifs //IP-address to my Windows 10 pc/Videos /mnt/Videos -o username=username
sudo nano /etc/cifs-credentials (add following 2 rows)
username=username
password=password
sudo chmod 600 /etc/cifs-credentials (to protect the file)
sudo nano /etc/fstab (add in the end of the file to avoid login questions)
//IP-address to my Windows 10 pc/Videos /mnt/Videos cifs credentials=/etc/cifs-credentials 0 0
Make shortcuts to the mnt folders on the desktop
I don't know what DNLA sharing is, but this is how I have done it.
First thing; have you monitored your RAM in real time to determine if there is any memory leakage?
That cifs-utilsmay cause that is a suggestion worth checking, but not intended to be a call to action. We need to check and determine if that is accurate and applicable.
Stacer can be found in the Software Store, you can install it from there for easy workflow.
Please note, if you look at your processes tab, you will see Stacer using 50% of 1-core, this is normal. Stacer has to use some CPU, in order to analyze everything. When you fully quite Stacer, your CPU usage returns to normal.
Stacer also comes with other features too, like a system cleaner. Although, I would recommend Bleachbit instead for a system cleaner, but its nice to have additional features. Plus, I really love the UI of Stacer, thats one of the reasons why I included my old screenshot.
Now I have Stacer installed, and I will check it regularly to see if any process is demanding more and more memory. When the computer has frozen, it is too late to see anything. Thanks for your tips!
No worries, some devices have DLNA sharing, just a different media streaming setup. I haven't even tried it out yet but, seems to be more supported on a wider device range? I have a Samba share with media and such but, Roku TV doesn't 'see' it
Heres more on DLNA though, if you're interested: DLNA - Wikipedia
When I hade restarted my PC yesterday, I checked the Stacer program directly and of the memory was about 1,5 GB used. The memory using was slowly increasing, and today morning it was 2,8 GB used. I could not see any particular service sticking out, it was a little here and there over all, but biggest of them all was Stacer and Google Chrome. I have now uninstalled them both, the built-in activity manager can show the same information as Stacer can do. Today I have seen 3 movies from my Windows 10 PC, and the memory use did not change at all. Therefore I do not believe that cifs-utils is the problem. When I removed temporary internet files (web history) everything seems to work better. I have read that Linux do not need any antivirus program, but can it not be scrap files that affect the hardware, even if they do not affect the Zorin program? That could explain my problems. Is there any folder with temporary files in Zorin that I shall emptying regularly?
I have Firefox always open with 5 serious streaming websites in 5 different tabs, and there seems to be an unwanted downloading of scrap files that slowly are sinking my pc. I have only accepted nessecary cookies. I also have 4 cifs-utils connections always open to my Windows 10 shares that are protected by AVG AntiVirus. Now I have installed Ubuntu Cleaner, and I shall run it regularly, and of course I shall remove the temporary internet files at the same time. I am sure about that those unwantet scrap files are a problem, even if they not are virus(?), because my pc seems to work fine now! If there not exists any program that can protect the Zorin OS from this to happen, then it is just to continue to do it manually. Thanks all for your help!
