I do have Msi Alpha 17 c7v and I have switched from windows into linux almost 1.5 half year ago.
This setup has amd ryzen 9 7945HX processor, 64 GB of ram and nvidia geforce 4060. I also have 4 monitors connected to it. 1 is via usb-c, 2nd is via hdmi and 2 others are connected via splitter, so nvidia is handling them quite well. The laptop screen seems to be handled by amd gpu.
I had zorin 17.3 (it had x11 window) and few days ago i have been updating it and I guess the kernel was also updated, after it when I tried to do anything the screen on the laptop got "frozen" - I couldn't see the mouse moving, nothing. The laptop itself was responsive on other screens. When I tried to logout,reboot or even turn off the machine whole system simply crashed and the only way to get it off was holding power button for a few seconds. Now I merged into Zorin 18 (also had x11) and the same thing happened already 2 times and today it switched automatically from x11 into wayland.
I am checking the logs but I am not seeing anything regarding the crashing incident. How can I troubleshoot it? I have yet to check whether this problem is related to software or hardware. I will conduct more tests with Windows tho.
Thank you.
Hi and welcome.
So to be clear, when you 'merged' do you mean you used the Zorin Upgrader tool?
Personally I prefer a fresh installation and use Ventoy as the USB creation tool.
My apologies, I haven't cleared it.
I was using around 1.5 year zorin 17.3 without any issue and it happened few days ago (I was on X11) with some update I guess (but not sure).
2 days ago I made a fresh installation of Zorin 18 (not any upgrades nor anything). Ventoy + Zorin iso.
How did You set it up? When Your BIOS is in UEFI Mode, You should choose the GPT Option in Ventoy Settings. If I remember correct by default Ventoy uses MBR.
What Nvidia Driver do You use? Did You checked if it behaves different without the Splitter?
I haven't had any problem installing Zorin with ventoy.
Like you said my bios is in uefi mode with secure boot disabled. The installation itself is not a problem for me.
Um I do not remember which nvidia driver I used on Zorin 17.3, but on Zorin 18 it was the default (Nvidia-driver-580-server) which is provided after installation.
About the splitter - I haven't tested it yet, gonna check it on original ram which was provided with the laptop itself (this one is ok).
Furthermore I did some tests on my machine so sorry for late response. Seems like the RAM was faulty with around ~1000 errors when I did all of the passes 4/4 with memtest86. I also booted Windows without anything (only laptop + power supply and ethernet cable) to do some cinebench and furmark tests. Besides more temperature it seems that the graphic cards are fine.
I also have noticed one more thing on faulty RAMs - Zorin 18 was switching from X11 to Wayland cuz it couldn't load the X'es properly.
Is that the Case? I don't have a Nvidia Card, so I can't test it. Theoretically it should work better when the Explicit Sync Integration from Gnome 46.1 is included but I don't know if Ubuntu has included it or not.
I only heard about the Discussion to do that because it is not directly a Security- or Bugfix. But You could argue that it behaves like one, hahaha! And there was the Question if it lands in Ubuntu 24 or not. But I never actually heard or read the Desicion if done or not.
Hmmm...
I have gone back to previous version of Zorin 17.3 (restored it from backup before I had any troubles regarding this version) and it seems the graphic crashing problem came back (I have 2 new RAMs which were tested and are fine - everything went with success rate - 0 errors). The RAM problem seems to be an addition to this whole mess.
From what I have observed so far is that if I put for example floorp web browser (the process is using nvidia graphic card) in the screen of the laptop (here amd gpu is handling this screen) the whole screen is simply "frozen" / "inactive". Once this happens in the task manager I am able to see tat GPU1 (which is amd gpu) is not doing any usage. The temperature is changing but nothing more.
Today I have discovered that if I change the refresh rate from 240Hz to 120Hz for the laptop screen, then amd gpu wakes up and forks just fine (other screens and nvidia gpu as well as whole zorin is working just fine)
So my question is what is happening and how to deal with it?
I did that, but unfortunately it does not help. Both hardware acceleration and no hardware acceleration. I am now on 120hz, but it still is crashing. Once I tried to lower to 90hz , but after applying the settings my whole system just crashed. Any ideas what to do next?