Help with Freezing Issues

General Help
1

I'm new to Linux and made the switch about a month ago. I set up Zorin 18 as my only os and updated to 18.1 when released. I've had this issue from the start and I've tried all the fixes I could find in this forum and elsewhere.

The system freezes regularly without any clear trigger. It usually happens at least once a day. It happened twice yesterday when I first tried to write this post. Things will freeze up but my mouse is still responsive. I have to hard reset with the power button to fix it.

I've disabled secure boot and fast boot. I've disabled sleep functions. I switched to Xorg. I disabled hardware acceleration in Firefox. Everything is up to date.

I'm not savvy enough yet to figure out how to diagnose this issue and would appreciate any help this community can provide.

Here are my specs:
Dell Latitude 7480
Intel Core i5-7300U x 4
Intel HD Graphics 620
8gb RAM
512gb SSD

Kernel 6.17.0-23
Firmware 1.41.3

I like Zorin aside from this issue, and would like to fix it, but would a different distro be more appropriate?

2

Hello and welcome,
Does this happen when you try to access to your files or just with Firefox ?

3

Do you have a Dualboot with Windows? If yes, is fast startup disabled there at power settings?

Do you have enabled fractional scaling? If yes, turn it off for testing.

4

There doesn't seem to be a consistent trigger. Sometimes it happens in Firefox, sometimes when I'm accessing files and settings without Firefox running.

5

No dualboot

6

Oh, sorry, I overread that.

7

could you try to remove something non essential with this command and give me the output

sudo apt remove folder-color
8

You can test if it helps to add
i915.enable_dc=0 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line on /etc/default/grub.
I read that it helped also for Dell 7480.

Another grub parameter which you could try instead of the one above is
i915.enable_psr=0.

To edit the file you need sudo rights.
Run in terminal

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

then move with the arrows down to the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

and add the term as shown in the link.
Press ctrl+o to save, press enter to confirm and ctrl+x to exit the editor.
Then run

sudo update-grub

and reboot.
If it doesn't help repeat all steps and remove the added term, then update grub again.

Adding such kernel parameter will result in slightly higher power consumption, but unfortunately, this often seems to be the only way to fix the freezes on these Dell laptops.

1 Like
9

Results:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Package 'folder-color' is not installed, so not removed
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libwoff1 zorin-os-feedback
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

10

I think you can try what @Forpli found, it's a good way

11

I will try this. Thank you

2 Likes
12

I had the same problem with my Zorin OS for a long time, you can use Zorin's builtin extension (or download Resource Monitor - GNOME Shell Extensions) to show cpu/memory usage when it's freezing. If the cause are not them I believe it might be because of dumping logs to disk when an app crashes and so much write to disk was making my desktop unusable. (That was the case for me)

Disable Apport:

sudo systemctl stop apport.service
sudo systemctl disable apport.service
sudo sed -i 's/enabled=1/enabled=0/' /etc/default/apport

Disable systemd crash dumps:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/coredump.conf.d
printf '[Coredump]\nStorage=none\nProcessSizeMax=0\n' | sudo tee /etc/systemd/coredump.conf.d/disable.conf
sudo systemctl daemon-reexec

and restart your pc.

13

Welcome to the Forum!

Is this a Typo or do You really have the 6.16 Kernel installed?

14

Sorry, weird typo. 6.17.0-23-generic

15

It may be this. I did the previously suggested fix and was hopeful but I just experienced another freeze. First only Firefox froze up and I could still access other windows. Force Quit window came up but clicking it didn't work so I tried to open terminal, but it wouldn't open. Then the whole system froze up.
I will try this.

16

Did you try what @Forpli sent you ? I'm sure it's the best option

18

I did and still experienced the freeze that I described above as well as a second one immediately after that reboot. I did just change the grub parameter to the second suggestion though.

19

witch one you tried ?

i915.enable_dc=0

or

i915.enable_psr=0
20

I tried i915.enable_dc=0 first. I've now changed it to i915.enable_psr=0

21

Hola amigo Doze si se trata de congelamiento dentro del navegador es normal en especial en zorin si ocure con todas las paginas pruebalas aver si sigue congelandose a mi me pasa pero no queda congelada del todo si le doy click responder para decir en un foro algo tengo que refrescar la pagina si o si pero no es congelamiento total que no pueda moverme por navegador o escritorio en si sea en windows o en ZOrin tambien pasa . quiza la forma de como esta construido Zorin FORO si solo pasa ahi a mi pero al resto me va bien ..